It’s ten days to
Christmas guys, and I honestly can’t wait! To be back home with my family,
digging into some amazing food, juicy gossip and banging music is definitely
going to bring me such joy this Christmas. So I thought what is the best way to
share some of my Christmas joy with my readers? Well, you guys are in for a
treat! What are you waiting for? Go unwrap your Christmas present!
A couple of months back I
was watching Gidi Up and the characters attended a friends open mic performance.
As soon as their friend started preforming, I was transfixed. I loved the
sound, the lyrics, and the cherry on the top was the fact this young man was playing
a guitar! I quietly enjoyed his music, playing the few minutes of his
performance over and over again. Flash-forward to a few months later, I see on
YouTube that Ndani partnered with him to release a video for Valentine's Day using the song that I placed on repeat.
At this point I was too excited! I told all my friends about this gem,
Bemyoda.
I proceeded to check out
where he had more of his music and found his Soundcloud page, click here. I fell
in love with his music and I knew I had to reach out to him. Luckily for me and
you, I have had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Bemyoda. With all my interviews, I usually construct a piece from it. However this time around, I felt that the interview would be better left in its original form. Check out Bemyoda's interview, I hope you enjoy it! Merrry Christmas!
1. Where in Nigeria are you from?
“I’m from Benue State, my dad is.
My mum is from Kogi State.”
2.
How did you grow up? What was life like?
“I’d
say it was pretty simple. I remember playing with my siblings a lot, but I
generally was a reserved kid. I was the typical bookworm. My dad started to
take my elder sister and I to the state library when I was about 7 or 8, and we
read as much as we could handle. By the time I got into secondary school, books
had a firm hold on me. My family moved a bit because of my dad’s
job. We lived in Enugu and Owerri, but most of my growing up years I spent in
Makurdi.”
3.
Where did you go to school and University? What did
you study?
“I studied Civil
Engineering at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State. And
yes, I feel like a contradiction.”
4.
What inspired you to become a musician?
‘‘I don’t
think that I ever had this super amazing dream to be a singer. I think it was
more like a journey to realisation. I wrote my first song when I was about
fourteen, and then I got into one choir or group or the other from then on. I
actually never seriously saw myself singing by myself outside of a group. Maybe
because I was too timid to even entertain such a thought. I think I came to the
realisation that I could do it by myself after my friend/group member died. At
that point I had to decide whether to give it all up or to go ahead by myself.”
5.
How do you describe your style of music? Do you write
and or produce your songs?
“There’s
a lot of Folk influence in my work. I like the simplicity of Folk. There’s also some Jazz and Soul
influence as well. I’ve written all the songs I’ve put out so far.
The first song I tried a collaboration on was ‘No No,’ one of the songs
on my EP, Sketch. I wrote the first verse and then co-wrote the second with my
friend Adebola Rayo. Overall, I thought it turned out good.
I have good enough
ideas of how I want most of my work to sound, but I won’t call myself a
producer. I worked very closely with Atta Lennell on most of the songs on Sketch. He’s one producer who gets me,
and I’m usually not worried about whether or not he’ll
interpret my music the right way.”
6.
Why the name ‘Bemyoda?’ Is that your actual name?
“My name’s Bem Iordaah. Iordaah’s
pronounced yoda. I just took that and joined it up with my
first name. So, Bemyoda is both
my name and surname together.”
7.
How long have you been in the Industry? How did your journey begin?
"I don’t know that I’m in the industry like that yet. But
I’ve been singing unofficially for at
least 10 years now. After years of having my father sing with and teach us kids
songs during devotion I got into a group called All for Him as a teenager. It was a Christian youth group based in
Makurdi. It was there I actually started to do any real singing. Then I got
into a trio called Project X with
Peter Adole and Terver Akindigh. After that I got into a choir in university
called The Living Vessels, and I’ve been in a couple choirs since
then. The last group I was in was the one with my late friend Daniel Newking.
We didn’t have a name
yet at the time he died. He’s the one I wrote the tribute song ‘Always’ for.”
8.
Have you received any formal vocal training?
“No I haven’t. I will, but I haven’t yet.”
9.
Considering that quite a few Nigerians seem to cling to Afrobeats, how
are you finding the ability to push your music in Nigeria?
“The easiest answer to that question is only one.
It’s tough here. I’ve had well-meaning people advise me
to conform, but I don’t think I can. I’d rather not sing than have to force myself to be what I’m not. I’ve also had people advise me to focus
on the larger world market where my work will be better
appreciated, and I’d say that’s what I’m working towards. I don’t mean that there are no people in Nigeria who appreciate what I do, but
it’s such a small
niche audience. We’re
working still anyways.”
10. How was it working with Ndani TV? I see you have an Ndani Session
with them and your song featured on Gidi Up.
“It was mostly fun, in fact, besides the long
hours, it was all fun. Plenty of laughter, plenty of takes…we had to shoot the same scenes over
and over and over until the crew was satisfied. Those few minutes that made it
on the show took many hours to create. The whole experience made me respect filmmakers
more though. Their work requires a high level of attention to detail and a lot
of dedication.”
(Listen from 20 minutes in)
11. What would you say is the craziest
thing that has ever happened to you?
“Craziest bad thing or craziest good? I’ve jumped out of a plane before. I don’t know if that qualifies as a thing
that ‘happend’ to me. I took my sane self there, paid, and
only thought about what I was doing when the plane took off.”
12. Do you have a special someone in
your life right now?
Bemyoda
cheekily declined to answer. Don’t worry guys, I’ll get the truth out of him
soon enough.
13. You are young and have achieved a
quite a lot, what’s next for you? New album, new video, concert?
“There’s so much to do. I really don’t think I’ve
done any thing yet. I’ve
spent the past year working on my album and I recorded most of it in the past
few months. That’s
the biggest project I’m working on right now. I’m also working at putting out a few videos early next year.”
14. Where can people get hold of your
music apart from Soundcloud? Can they see you perform?
“It’s mostly on
Soundcloud and my website right now. At the moment I’m more in Lagos than anywhere else.” (I'll keep you guys updated on any future shows)
15. If you had the chance to do a
feature with a Nigerian Artist, who would it be and why?
“I’d love to work
with Brymo, and Asa, and Seal and Sade. Brymo because I like his sound and
emotion, Asa because she’s just special, and Seal and Sade because they are simply classic.”
16. Are you an independent artiste, or
are you signed to a label. If so which one? If not, why not?
“I’m not signed to a label, not yet. I’ve been approached a couple times by
Nigerian labels, but it didn’t seem like the right fit. It’s good that people want to partner with you so you all can all make
money, but there are
also values that you
stand by that you want the people you work with to at least respect and not try
to change just for the sake of business.”
17. What is your favourite song on your
EP and why?
“‘Always.’ It’s a tribute song
to my friend Daniel Newking as I said earlier. We were a duo and were planning
to start recording songs when he had an accident and passed away. We only got
to perform once together. But he was such an amazing friend and singer.”
18. What is your message for any
Nigerian artist trying to make it in the Industry?
“I think that everyone trying to do something, anything, needs to believe
that their work can and will make a difference. There are a lot of naysayers, and sometimes
even we ourselves can be doubtful, but there must be something, somewhere
inside, a depth of faith that isn’t easily displaced. I think.”
I am in love with Bemyoda, aren’t you?
He’s so honest and open. If you want to get more frequent updates, click on the links below!
Website: http://www.bemyoda.com
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bemyoda
Instagram: http://instagram.com/bemyoda
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bemyoda
