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Encourage them to explore their love of music with Rak-Su
Primary Times interviews Rak-Su to discuss their rise to fame and pursuing your dreams
Made up of Ashley Fongho, Jamaal Shurland, Mustafa Rahimtulla and Myles Stephenson, Rak-Su are the beloved UK boy band who rose to fame when they won the fourteenth series of The X Factor in 2017. Primary Times has teamed up with them to explore how children can be encouraged to embrace their love of music.
Despite their natural talent, the boys never envisaged their lives changing as much as they have. “We went onto the show to give ourselves a shot at being musicians full time, we hoped that the exposure would get us some more fans and in turn get us some more live gigs, but never imagined it would take us this far!”
“It’s been an amazing journey and we’ve got what we wanted, the chance to wake up in the morning and focus on music as not only a passion but a job as well. We’ve travelled to places we never dreamt of, including playing shows in front of 20-30 thousand people daily and all with our best mates!”
Their career, however, has not come without setbacks. “Rejections are always going to happen”, they explain, “but a lot of it is just based on opinion.”
When asked if they have any tips on how to deal with rejection, they advised to never let it reshape your self-image.
“Learn from the mistakes and be honest with yourself on what you can improve on. You believed in yourself for a reason, a few rejections or opinions should never be powerful enough to break that. We had loads of rejections and found our stage on X-Factor, we never thought a group with this much rapping and dancing would win a programme like that. It just shows you anything is possible!”
Taking their inspiration as children from the likes of Usher and Craig David, Rak-Su believe that musical aspirations should be encouraged from a young age. “Music is a medium of emotional release and expression. I think it’s vital that everyone has that through an art form, regardless of what it is. Sometimes music can also say things in such a way that you can’t vocalise yourself.”
For the parents of our young, aspiring musicians, Rak-Su believe it’s important to ensure children believe in themselves and understand that hard work pays off, no matter what you’re aspiring to do. “Be patient and give it time but know eventually more and more people will appreciate you”.
When asked what one piece of advice they would give to young, aspiring musicians, the boys kept it simple. “Just do it! That idea you had, pursue it, even if it doesn’t come off you’ll never know unless you try, you’ve got nothing to lose”