#tbaze

You released your debut single “Carry You” in 2017, how do you feel your style has changed over the years?

Since 2017 a lot of things have changed, but the foundation is still the same. 2017 when I released “Carry You”, Afrobeats was widely accepted and I was not expecting the reception that “Carry You” received. Straight away after releasing “Carry You”, it opened me up to a lot of different platforms including the BBC.

Afterwards I was trying to beat that and have better songs. It also helped me to go to learn more especially now that I being open to a wide range of people and listeners. It was not at a crazy level, but it was at a level I was not expecting so it forced me to learn so much about the music aspect. I wanted to learn more, enjoy my music, and just do what I feel comfortable with. From 2017 till now, things have increased massively. I feel I now know my direction in terms of who I want to be as an artist.

You are an independent artist, how has that been for you. What struggles have you encountered?

Being an independent artist is not easy, that’s why when I see an independent artist, I really respect them. You are the person who has to think about what song to promote next, how to promote it, what is the strategy, plus how am I going to afford the studio and also pay someone to mix my masters. Everyone wants to be paid, the producer for the beat, the director for the video. So, in terms of finances it is a lot pressure. You are not just focused on one thing, you are focused on different things, it’s not really that easy.

When creating music, who or what inspires you?

What really inspires me when creating music… I think some things are unconscious. For example, my experience, what I’ve experienced growing up, my background. It is a combination of different things so it’s either my background or my culture. My experience being a young African boy that came to the UK and now the difference in culture or even my experience from relationships, not just with a female but relationships with friends etc.

My experience in general inspires me when I am making music and most especially what is happening around. If I see something happening around and it’s something that touches me or an experience, I’m going through I want to talk about it in some sort of musical form. Music gives me a way to express myself. Some of the things I might not be saying directly in person, I can say in music.

During the lockdown you released the visuals to your single “Dreams are valid”, How was lockdown for you and as an artist do you think lockdown made you more or less creative?

Before the lockdown I didn’t have a studio in the office, so I had to be in a position where I was still able to create. It is sad that lockdown happened and a lot of people were affected, lives were lost, people were affected financially and health wise, it’s been crazy but for me it was an opportunity to sit at home, have a plan and look more inwards and see what I have been doing, what can I change. It gave me more time to think about where I want to be.

“Dreams Are Valid” is a statement for me, I wanted to pass that message across to the world and it was also a message for me to say “Believe In Yourself”. It was a thing whereby I was thinking I need to do things in a way of acceptance but then the lockdown made me actually soak the information in, even though the song was recorded way before the lockdown.

I took it in and was like, you keep doing what you’re doing. Believe in yourself it does not matter if nobody else likes it as long as you feel like you are doing the right stuff and you’re doing what is good for you and your journey.

I was able to write so many different songs, build my studio and towards the end of lockdown, I was like I have enough content to put together a body of work. I thought ok cool, I am going to record these songs, get them mixed and mastered and put them out. Hopefully this will be blessed which is where the name of the album comes from as well. Lockdown definitely made me more creative and gave me an opportunity to write and plan things more properly.

Which leads me onto my next question, you are currently working on releasing an EP titled Àlùbáríkà (Blessings), can you tell us the creative process behind the EP and what we can expect from the EP?

The EP is amazing, I am releasing a song from the EP titled Monkey, with the visuals. (since this interview, TBaze has released “Monkey”) this is part of the songs I wrote during the lockdown.

The creative process behind Àlùbáríka, being at home during the lockdown, I was able to put my thoughts and things together. Some of the lyrics I had written before the lockdown but it was a thing of just listening to the beats and just talking about what I want to. Vibing to what I want to, making what I would like to create. My producers KBeatz, JoJo F and Oy Productions sent me beats and I would listen to them and then I wrote and recorded everything and once they were finished, I sent them to be mix and mastered. This body of work is a thing where once someone listens to the songs from A-Z they will feel blessed because it touches on so many different things.

Àlùbáríka touches on different aspects of my life and experiences but not just my experiences but of the society that I am around. One song talks about you being blessed, everything I do being blessed and me being a blessing to my environment. Another song talks about a girl that I like, you know spending time together and that type of vibe. Another song talks about things going on with the BLM. I am a believer of BLM but we should not only focus on what is happening in the western world, with BLM we need to look at things that are happening in different black countries in the world, not just America and the UK, so I included that in my EP as well. I talked about what is happening in Africa, Nigeria my own country, different parts of the world really.

It’s called Blessing because the whole EP, when I finish listening to it I felt blessed. Àlùbáríka, means blessings in Yoruba and every day when I wake up, I pray for blessings and when I was younger every time we wake up in the morning, my parents would also pray but more so my dad always would say unfailingly about 5 times Àlùbáríka, in his prayer (without fail). He’s always saying it and even to date when I told him "Dad I want to go into this direction", he said “ok, I pray you can have Àlùbáríka, in everything you do”. I thought this is my first body of work and I’ve actually poured my heart, passion, my everything into this EP and I have recorded it at a time when I am myself and this is the direction that I want to go. It then bought back that memory of, if I was to go to dad with this EP and tell him this is what I want to do, he would say "I hope it is going be blessed, God will put Àlùbáríka, into your work" and that is all I wish for.

When are you expecting to drop the EP?

No date at the moment, I am really keen to drop it soon. Everything is ready and I want to shoot one or two videos first so maybe around September.

It was recently announced that Afrobeats will officially have its own chart in the UK, as an artist what impact are you hoping this would have on the industry more specifically within the UK?

I really think having an Afrobeats Chart in the UK is amazing. I said before I think the UK has played a huge huge part in the promotion of Afrobeats from the start. It was the UK that even coined the word Afrobeats, so I really think it is good we have a chart. It’s a progress and a statement for Afrobeats. The impact I am hoping it would have is being able to be more recognised not just for the main stream artists. For example, I have seen Mista Silva there and different names you would not usually see on those sorts of things so it’s amazing to see it and I think it is off to a good start from what I can see.

There are names you would not usually hear of and it gives the UK Afrobeats artists an opportunity to be known, seen and credited for their work, because I think a lot of UK Afrobeats artists are doing amazingly well but not getting the credit.

For me I think it’s a good opportunity and rather trying to get Afrobeats into the UK chart and begging to be in another chart, we should have our own chart. I was proud to say yes this is ours. It will be impactful and motivate a lot of artists to work harder and smarter, so that we can be in the charts. I am also hoping it would make UK artists want to work closer together.

If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?

What I would like to change and this is because of what I stand for and believe in as an artist and the direction that I am trying to go towards, but I want to see more collaborations across the industries and not just within this industry. Its already happening, for example, we have Davido making songs with Meek Mill, Wizkid and Drake. It's great for the industry but it needs to not just be at the top, it needs to happen at mid/lower levels. Not just with artistes but also with fashion designers, events, DJs, producers. Can producers amongst themselves collaborate?

Can we just get along and unite to see the progress.

More talking about what matters, a lot of artists feel they can only talk about balling in the clubs, buying lots of bottles, women (which is sometimes disrespectful) or talking about how rich they are otherwise they feel they can’t blow. I would like to see a change in that, yes, I do those things but that is not the only part of my life. So many different things are happening, we can talk about issues in society, we need to have diversity and be realistic.

I know music is meant to uplift people but we should be talking about real issues as well. For example, I like Dancehall/Reggae and I listen to Vybz Kartel and everyone knows he is the king of dancehall but he still talks about society issues when he needs to. I feel that is what makes a musician. You want to be the voice of the party but not the voice of the community, but to me, you have to be an artist that I can trust and believe in. That is the way that I see it and I want to see more of that.

So, collaboration, more vibes, elevation and growth within the industry. When I say collaboration, I want to add that in Afrobeats especially, people are too egocentric and its bad but what changed my mentality is when I was approached by Alkilados, a Spanish Grammy group nominated, who are massive in South America. They got in contact with me because they liked one of my songs (Stay With Me) and they wanted to do a remix. When I spoke to my friend in Nigeria, who is a music consultant, he said that would not happen in Nigeria or Afrobeats and I said I know but why? He explained because you have nothing to leverage, your name is not big yet and you’re not paying them, why would they reach out to you, these guys are big. I said these guys did and his response was that is them, that is Oyinbos for you, they have no sentiment. I said, that is wrong and all they care about is making a good song. Because of my mind set then, it took me about 8 months before I could trust them because I was paranoid.

What is the best advice you’ve been given?

The best advice I’ve been given was at a performance I went to and someone said “There is a difference between the music world and real life” and when the person said that to me, I thought it was useful not just for an artist but also for listeners. A lot of people listen to music and they get influenced by what they listen to and they do not realise that is not the reality of things, the reality is so different.  That was good advice in terms of me being able to know that if I get a no, it's just the music life and doesn’t mean that the person is not a good person in real life or it just means they are not ready yet to take whatever it is I am giving to them. It helps my mental wellbeing; they are just not feeling it and I can continue living my life and doing my life. It keeps me motivated, it's not real life, in real life I can go back to the drawing board and get things together and they might like it but another way of looking at it is that not everyone will like what I am doing and I should not try and seek validation and that is what the song “Dreams are valid” is about. When I put that advice into my own perspective it worked out.

Another advice which is a massive one for me is “Believe in yourself”.

What is next for Tbaze?

Greatness and elevation are what is next. My EP is coming out. There is a lot in store, a lot of my music didn’t make it on the EP and I have songs that have not been written yet. My vision is clearer, and people should expect good music, good vibes, progress and elevation from me plus a lot of collaborations as well. I have laid a good foundation and it is time to build more and widen my audience.

Just for fun, finish off the sentence….

Without music, I would be… a troubled person either to myself or society.

My favourite artist(s) is… Fela Kuti

My favourite Afrobeats song is… Monkey - my own song!

The first record I bought was… 2Face - Grass to Grace album

Support Afrobeats because… It's a lifestyle, it's the life!!!

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