Kenyan-Australian rapper Komanda X is taking a familiar idea, the need to push a little harder, and turning it into a chant with his latest release, More Energy.

The rapper, who has been building his career in Australia since 2021, says the track was deliberately made without tying it to one particular setting.

Rather than prescribing how listeners should use it, he wants the phrase at its centre to fit whatever moment requires an extra push.

That could mean a final set at the gym, a football match or simply getting through a difficult day.

“It’s a chant, not a command,” Komanda X says of the track.

That distinction is central to the song’s concept. Instead of relying heavily on a conventional narrative, More Energy is built around repetition and momentum, giving it the feel of something designed to be shouted back rather than quietly consumed.

For him, it also marks a departure from the direction of his earlier work. He describes it as his first release built around a chant-like format, reflecting an ongoing process of figuring out what kind of artist he wants to be.

The journey has taken him from Kenya to Australia, where he has been developing his sound while maintaining a connection to the country he comes from. That dual identity has also shaped his ambitions beyond his own music.

Komanda X says he wants to strengthen creative links between Kenya and Australia, particularly by working with artists and other creatives from both countries.

Among the Kenyan-Australian acts he admires is singer Elsy Wameyo, whose own career has straddled the two countries.

The cross-continental approach could become a bigger feature of his work as he looks towards future collaborations.

For now, More Energy gives listeners a glimpse of the direction he is exploring: music built less around a traditional storyline and more around a feeling that can be carried into different situations.

After several years of experimenting, Komanda X says he is becoming clearer about his artistic identity. His ambition is to eventually introduce his work to a much wider audience, but the immediate task is more basic — finding a sound that feels distinctly his own.

And if the answer is, as his new chant insists, a little more energy, he appears ready to put it to the test.