Thierry Kiranga was born in Katana, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on the shores of Lake Kivu, and raised across the border in Bujumbura, Burundi, before civil war forced him to Italy. His new single, “Hard Times,” follows March’s “Ciao” and arrived July 17 on Roble Records.

He learned to sing and to play guitar, drums and percussion under two Burundian mentors, Jean Christophe Matata and Canjo Amissi. Music ran in the family before that: his mother founded and still directs the Santa Cecilia choir, and his father sang tenor with the SOSAT choir and played violin on some of Italy’s earliest television broadcasts. Kiranga later studied Afro-Cuban jazz at Milan’s CPM conservatory, specialising in drums and percussion, and released his debut album, Asante, in the summer of 2023.

“Hard Times” was recorded at Roble Factory Studio in Alghero, Sardinia, produced and mixed by Antonio Leardi and mastered by Simone Squillario. Choral harmonies sit over rhythms drawn from Kiranga’s Afro-Caribbean and European influences.The lyrics call out a broken promise: a world that claims to offer safety and prosperity while treating anyone different as a threat. Kiranga’s answer is to look to older generations for guidance, the same instinct that sent him to Matata and Amissi as a teenager and that he grew up watching in his own parents.

On stage, Kiranga performs with an eight-piece band, The Backyard Embassy, drawing bass, guitar, keys, percussion, horns and backing vocals from players based across Italy, France, the US and Bulgaria.

Stream “Hard Times” HERE