Benon Mugumbya: How I started working with Vamposs

Benon Mugumbya and Vamposs, real name Elvis Kirya, met at Namasagali College, the Kamuli-based school that produced a number of people who shaped Uganda’s entertainment industry.

In high school, Benon had worked on music projects with Juliana Kanyomozi and he was impressed when she teamed up with Iry Namubiru, who had also gone to Namasagali, to release an album.

When S.6 vacation came, Benon hit up Vamposs, who also goes by Vampino, to join efforts on releasing music together, he said in an interview.

In vacation, Vamposs worked at a takeaway on Kampala Road while Benon was working at an internet cafe. The savings from their work were channeled into music production. Their first song, titled Keep on Dreaming, was produced by Arthur KD, a hot producer then.

Who is Benon Mugumbya?

A renowned music producer and record label co-founder, Benon Mugumbya grew up in Ntinda along Semawata Road where he was raised by a single mom, having been born after the passing of his dad. He's the last born

He went to Budo Junior School, Ndejje S.S. for O-Level and Namasagali College for A-Level.

While he started singing while in school, it’s in S.6 vacation that he teamed up with Vampos was working at a takeaway on Kampala Road to start singing.

Mugumbya was also working with an internet cafe and they used their earnings to pay for production.

The first song titled Keep on Dreaming was produced by Arthur KD who was a hot producer at the time.

Working at a cafe, gave Benon access to the internet that he used to learn music software, and started making beats

He would later meet Eddy Mpagi as he was starting Good Enough Studios and he offered him a job.

Eddy was one-half of the singing group Ngoni and he was the first to tell Benon that he could become a good producer

At Good Enough, he continued to learn production while still working on music with Vampos and they recorded some songs there.

After a year at Good Enough, Benon was offered a job at Fenon Records, owned by his idol Steve Jean. His first assignment at Fenon was producing radio adverts.

He was later fired from Fenon after he failed to balance production and singing. At the time they had started getting gigs that saw them fly out of the country.

In 2008, while on a trip in the U.S., he bought music equipment and came back ready to a studio, which would turn into Swangz Avenue. Its first home at Muswangali (where the name Swangz came from) on Salaam Road.

He would soon realize that he wasn't good in the business side of music and that’s how Julius Kyazze teamed up with him. They had been friends.