Roger Lucey
Musician and composer, South Africa

The singer’s voice has always been the strongest. Not through bombast or verbosity like the politician. Or through brute strength or bullying like the law enforcer. The singer’s voice goes straight to the heart of the listener and it is that simple strength that so terrifies the politician and the law enforcer. And yet when the singer’s voice is silenced, the void is quickly filled by the mindless hum mass produced by multinational jingle makers keeping the peace on behalf of the State. History is awash with those silenced voices remembered only by the informed few.

For the past decade Freemuse has crashed into this fearful terrain and spoken out for those whose lives have been ambushed and whose voices have been choked by power and tyranny. Not content to heckle from the sidelines, Freemuse has lobbied and probed, even enlisting the voices of the politically powerful in their efforts to take to fight to those who wish to oppress the voice of the singer. For more than a decade, I lived with the pain and shattered self confidence that came from trying to raise my voice against the Apartheid State. Their covert action against me left me in a half world, illusive as truth, as I carried the shreds of my past, and tried to make sense of my future. Through the work of Freemuse I have managed to navigate through that tortured history and find a positive future. I have rediscovered my voice, my life and my passion.

MUSIC WILL NOT BE SILENCED.

Roger Lucey