However, behind the wide smile is a sad story of crushed dreams just as he started his music career. Sese is a singer, songwriter, voiceover artiste, vocal coach and creative producer.
He is not your everyday artiste whose music you will easily find playing on the radio, but if you are a fan of live music, trust him to evoke a rollercoaster of emotions in you once he gets behind that mic with a live band.
STARTING MUSIC
Sese grew up in a musical family, where his doctor father was also the choir director of their local church in Kireka. Most of his siblings were also singers in the church choir. This compelled him to join the church choir, but he got more knowledge about music when he joined the school choir at Mityana Modern Secondary School.
“The school choir is where I was taught how to sing in different voices and also got to distinguish them, most especially by Paul Ssaka, who was our music director. We would be brought to record songs at Firebase studios and No End Entertainment, where I had my first experiences with studios. That is where I got to learn the core dynamics of music,” Sese says.
After high school, Sese joined Makerere University Business School, but dropped out in the first semester due to financial constraints and got a job at Unilever Uganda. He later quit as he attempted to get back to university.
It was during this time when he was between job and school that he decided to give music another shot.
“I felt like life had cornered me. I had no job, no school and literally had to go back to the drawing board, and I remembered music. Luckily, my music director at church was already exposed to live band performers and I decided to be around those people, just to be in spaces where I could learn and grow musically; slowly, I got to know how everything worked,” Sese says.
In 2012, Sese joined Ivuga band as one of the singers and it was not before long that he started performing at different hangouts around Kampala and getting paid for it.
THE ACCIDENT
Life seemed to have gotten back on track; he was fully immersed into his music band and gigs were coming in. He had even enrolled back in school at Cyprus International University, studying Science in Logistics.
However, in April 2015 while coming from rehearsals in Bukoto with a friend and rushing to Swangz Avenue then located in Muyenga to record a jingle, Sese and his friend with whom he was sharing a boda boda were involved in an accident along Lugogo bypass.
“It had rained; so, we were running late. We jumped on the same boda boda and got on our way. When we reached Lugogo
bypass, there were two 10-wheelers in front of us at terrible speed. One truck overtook the other and we followed it. But there were electric wires sagging in the road and the truck hit them yet we were right behind. The wires broke and hit us. I fell in the middle of the road and my friend landed on the pavement,” Sese recollects.
“The other truck behind came and its first tyre ran over my stomach and dragged me on the road, while the second tyre ran over my pelvic area and thighs. When other boda boda men came to the rescue, they tried lifting me by the arms and legs yet it was the middle body parts which had been injured baldy. That was the most painful moment I remember; I literally felt my bones cracking.”
During the ordeal, not once did Sese lose consciousness. They were taken to the China-Uganda Friendship hospital in Naguru before being transferred to Kampala hospital. He did not spend much time there due to the severity of his injuries, and was again transferred to International Hospital Kampala (IHK).
Fortunately, tests showed his vital body organs were still in good shape and he did not require any major surgery. Still, Sese remained in hospital for six weeks.
“All that time I was just in one position. The doctors would come, turn you, dress up the wounds and put you back. I couldn’t sit or even turn by myself. Eventually, I was discharged while still bedridden, because the hospital bills were piling up. At home, I would crawl on my stomach and then slowly by slowly I regained energy and began to turn. But the healing process happened faster at home, because I would strain my body to move and exercise the muscles,” Sese says.
After five months, he had started using crutches to walk and had even resumed his studies. He, however, had to undergo surgery on his left thigh because the muscles had been separated from the bones.
THE TRAUMA
The physical injuries and pain aside, Sese experienced trauma and depression during that period.
“It was a very depressing experience. The only privilege was staring at things. I had to relearn the whole process of turning, sitting, walking. I even admired the people in wheelchairs, because for them they could at least sit in that.”
Even after recovery, Sese says, he would still experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) even by mere passing through the area he got the accident from, and for the first three years after the accident, he experienced pain around his pelvic area every anniversary of the accident, yet medical check-ups would confirm nothing to worry about.
“Sometimes I felt like anytime I could get an accident. I had fear for boda bodas but decided that the only way I was going to conquer those fears was by facing them. So, I got back to boarding boda bodas – not that I wanted to, but because I wanted to overcome that fear,” he says.
FINDING SOLACE IN MUSIC
Amidst all that, Sese decided to put all those emotions into songs, which resulted into his emotional debut album, Scars, which he released on March 1 this year.
The 10-track album has songs such as Perfect Imperfections, He Loves Me, Meditations, Don’t Judge Me, Aliwa, Dream, and Nsiima Nnyo, among others, that explore issues such as mental health, self- acceptance, PTSD and relationship with God.
“The album is a collection of thoughts I had while going through the different stages of my accident – from the moment it happened through recuperation. I decided to write about it and decided it was okay to be vulnerable, and it is okay not to be okay,” Sese says.
“It is called Scars because there are physical scars, but mental scars are the worst and for me it was terrible, because even when I could walk again, I would still go through so much trauma but people didn’t know and I felt like I was dying from the inside. However, I decided to just write down all those emotions and it helped me recover.”
Sese is now working on a new album which is happier, uplifting and groovy, in which he is going to show listeners the bubbly, fun and entertaining side of him.
Going mainstream is a dream of many singers. However, Sese is not eager for this, saying that if he is to go mainstream, he will need to get a management team that can allow him work on his own terms.
“If you get someone to invest in your career, there are some things they will need you to do for them to get their money back and if you don’t want to do those things, there is a longer route of working, investing and then do what you want. If I get someone who would let me do the music I want and still give me money, then it is okay. But there are people like us who are really sensitive about our craft. Like the album I released, that kind of music doesn’t easily bring in money in our music market, yet investors quickly want their returns,” Sese notes.
Sese has performed on renowned stages such as Jazz Safari, Blankets and Wine, Aka Dope, and Fezah concerts among others, and says he loves performing live because it is through live audiences that people get to feel a bit of his energy and happiness.
BRIEF BACKGROUND
Julius Sese was born on April 12, 1992 in Nsambya hospital to Able Sese, who was originally from Tanzania, and Cotilda Mbijjo. The father was a doctor while his mother was a nurse.
He is a single child for the mother, but has several siblings from the father. Unfortunately his mother passed on when Sese was just three years old, while the father died when Sese was in primary four.
He grew up in a very strict household in Kireka, a Kampala suburb, where everything had to be done according to rules and
any deviation called for punishment. He went to Good Daddy Primary School Kireka, Mityana Modern SS for O-level and Kyambogo College School for A-level.
He then joined MUBS for a bachelor’s degree of Arts in Economics but dropped out in first semester due to lack of tuition but later enrolled at Cyprus International University for a Science in Logistics degree.
Sese is also a mental health advocate and an activist against gender-based violence and for sexual harassment, women and reproductive health. During this year’s
“16 Days of Activism” campaign, Sese is among the artistes that recorded a joint music album of 16 songs in 16 different local languages highlighting gender-based violence.
“I am now more aware how mental health can affect your whole life, career and personality. I focused so much on my physical healing that I forgot how the whole situation was taking a toll on my mental wellbeing. That is why I have decided to add my voice and initiate conversations that our society is adamant to speak up against or isn’t paying attention to,” Sese says.
jjingoernest1@gmail.com
