Brymo: Replica of Afrobeat maestro, Fela Anikulapo

When it comes to power lyrics and melodious RNB songs with distinctive theme, the brand, Olawale Ashimi, better known as Brymo, comes to the mind. With several struggles in the entertainment industry, Brymo still pulls through, making him one of the most relevant musicians in the country to reckon with. Brymo is a singer, songwriter and producer with five studio albums namely Brymstone, The son of a Kapenta, Merchants, Dealers & Slaves (MD&S), Tabula Rasa and Klitoris which got people talking. Signed with Tate Music group, an international distribution company, Brymo in this chat with MUTIAT ALLI, spoke about the most motive behind the ‘Klitoris’ album title among others.

Enjoy…

Let’s talk about your faceless video’ Something good is happening’?

It’s the concept, I believe does justice to the story in the video more than if I was performing; I will just be going, you know, so sometimes the concept is what sets the video apart and I thought it was more important for people to see other people smiling, other people in good mood even though things are difficult, even though tomatoes is scarce and the politicians are still lying and robbing us blind but people can still be happy, you can still aspire, you can still dream. So, I thought that the theme for the video was for once I wanted to ignore all of the things that are not working in the country and to pay attention to the things that are working and everyday people who go about their businesses. I encourage them to smile while they do that. I thought it was more necessary for people to see all of that.

Your being absent in the video was it deliberate?

Yes, it was deliberate for two reasons because I was too lazy to start performing in the video. I’ve not done that in a while so I just felt like; but more importantly, I just felt the concept was better without me being there.

Your album d ‘Klitoris ‘got people talking, why the name?

Because first it’s a word, I’m allowed to use it and more importantly it’s very sensitive, I have quite a lot of explanation for this but I’m going to stick to the part where I said I wanted to name my album “the key” at one point in time but while I was doing my research, I now also found out something else that now became sort of related to that title. The ancient Greek people believe that the clitoris is the key to a woman’s sexuality; so for me it was an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, to first of all be able to call my album what I want to call it but of course being creative with it and more importantly I know it was going to be controversial, they will be like why will you do that? Some people think that I’m some kind of prophet but the difference is you have to constantly balance as you live life. Most of the things that we do to have fun in life they are considered sinful or illegal, it’s either the government place a ban on it or religion say no to it, but that’s where the fun comes in. For me, the title of the album is between creativity and artistry and equally an opportunity for me do something different.

Since the release of the album, what has changed?

Since the release of the album, I think that I have got the attention of the Nigerian music listeners. I’ve gotten the attention of the industry elite, I’ve gotten the attention of everybody who is into Nigerian music. They are now turning around to say ‘I think we should listen to Brymo’ and that’s beautiful knowing that three years ago we’ve been trying this system, we’ve been working over and over but anytime we get result, we get to intensify our effort. So, it feels like success story.

There are few of your songs where you try to talk about the polity in the country; do you see yourself as the voice of the people in the frame of the new Fela?

I’m a huge Fela student but I don’t see myself as the voice of the people because people are very difficult to fight for. So what I do is I brainstorm. I think, I research about what’s going on then I come up with a solution and I apply it to myself because I’m in my 30’s and it’s difficult to tell older men that this is how or the way to go about a situation, they won’t want to listen to you. Older people are always thinking they know more than you, so you must wait for your time, when you are old enough to change the rules. So for now, all I can do is when I see an idea that I think is good, I use it on myself. When it works, I spread it to people on social media during interviews and tell them ‘this is what I do and it works, if we all do it, it will be stronger, it will be more successful’ and that’s what I’ve been about since 2013 and in the process if my voice happens to become the voice of the people, I don’t mind.

So if it was during the military regimes, would you have done more than this?

I would have spoken my mind and who says that time is not still coming? So, it’s up to me to always speak my mind. If in the process somebody is hurt or somebody feels that ego have been touched but as a musician I will always lend the voice.

With five studio albums, will you say ‘Klitoris’ surpasses all your previous works?

Yes, I will say that in terms of relativity. When you listen to MD & S, it is very selective of its audience, it’s for people who don’t stand on the fence, who are on this of the track, who are insisting that something is wrong, no business with joke, with satire and sarcasm. It’s really serious and then with Tabula Rasa, it became more satirical. I was using figure of speech but I don’t know if it’s satire but basically a playful attitude to convey your message as really serious. With the new album, ‘Klitoris,’ the approach was to make a pop album. The story in the song is clear. When you listen to Alajo Somolu, it’s actually talking about being smart, being awake and knowing what to do for yourself to survive; obviously same thing with Something Good is happening. A lot of songs are quite direct. It’s like a proper pop album being made in Nigeria. So pop can be meaningful, it can be anything. It is pop because of how it is produced, and the choice of the lyrics. To an extent, ‘Klitoris’ has a much commercial appeal than my previous album.

You sound more of a professional public speaker, will you consider doing that?

I’m very slow to talk about the future because when I was 16 and discussing with one of my friends, he suddenly said he needs to go and smoke weed. I said why he did that and that I will never do that, I’m okay. I said I will never touch it but now I do it. So that’s what I’m saying that it’s hard to know how the future will be because you don’t know where you are going to find yourself tomorrow, you don’t know who you are going to meet tomorrow but my desire is to reach people; to survive without being corrupt. So if you can show me how to do that being a public speaker and politician, then I can do it but for all I can see from here politics, public speaking, advocacy they sort of have a dark side to it. But one thing is that when I am in a situation where I need to speak with people, I will definitely do that.

From Klitoris album, which track is dear to your heart and why?

That will definitely be ‘Mirage’ and why that is first, it’s like the oldest song in the album. It should have been on Tabula Rasa since 2014 but for some reasons I did not use it. I couldn’t throw it away since it keeps staring at me and while I recorded it again, I discovered that I began to like it more. More importantly, it is most philosophical song on the album.

With Trance, it was more of an album for the international market and now Klitoris is for both market; do you see any agreement with the distribution company changing your style as an artiste in terms of what you feed into the market?

That was part of the reasons I became a solo act in the first place to be able to just do things the way I want to. With Tate Music Group (TMG), they do not decide how the music is made, all they do is just take the album and distribute from ringtones to CDs and every other thing that has to do with distribution. Whichever deal I’m signing does not interfere with my creativity and that’s what most musicians should fight for because that is better than the expensive Bentley and cruising around town.

For an artiste like you who does more of live music, do you think live music is still very much relevant in the industry or dead?

Like I said before, the music business is very individualistic; every musician thinks they are the greatest. You can interview fifty musicians and they will be like I’m the best and if they are rappers, you are dead, they can kill you if you don’t agree with them, so everybody thinks they are the best. So the problem with that is that you cannot look at it from a collective perspective, so you just have to go for the artiste who does it for you. For me, live music is not dead; I have not been on stage performing with CDs in last three years; I do live performance and the fact that I came from the mainstream and so if I can do it successfully, why can’t you do it too. One fact also is that doing live music has helped set me apart from others.

How have you been able to maintain the quality of your voice?

I think mostly from the singing, I keep singing.

No vocal exercise?

No, I don’t do vocal exercises.  Vocal exercises are fraud; if you want to sing, just king keep singing, it just gets better. There was a time when I was 16, I couldn’t sing a full verse without going off key or without losing my breath, so I just kept trying. After a while, I started singing a verse. Now I can sing a whole album on stage and give you a good performance, so it’s just practice. There are times I don’t like the sound of my voice but I still sing.

What has fatherhood changed about you?

Everything, it’s changed everything from the start. I used to think maybe, I was really way more focused on myself. First of all, I was focused on myself and that was going quite well and now I am learning to understand that I have to take care of not just one person but two people, three people. Of course, I’ve always looked out for my parents, my family members but now the number has become bigger. I have my woman and son and there are lots of people surrounding me. The change is quite amazing and I am enjoying every moment of it.

Social media is the new thing now; will you bring your family matters to social media?

I wouldn’t even bring anything to the social media except what concerns my work normally, interview if I’m having a show, some kind of events but whatever concerns me personally I will never because if you are talking about your problems online, everybody have problems, so why don’t you focus on fixing them.

There’s this simplicity about you, it’s kind of sound; is it a natural thing or a deliberate thing?

It is deliberate. I’m the most agitated person. If you are close to me, you will be like (farabale) because I have something new pop into my head every day. So, I’m always restless. Over time, you just learn to control your emotions and control how you do things. So, if you don’t stand still, you won’t see what’s going on.

With where you are now in the industry, will you say you have gotten to the peak of your career?

It’s like asking the CEO of Coca Cola that ‘do you think you guys have reached your peak? No, they just want to sell more bottles tomorrow. So, as a musician, I don’t have a thriller yet, I’ve not sold fifty million album copies yet, so why will I be talking about peak.

What will you have done if you don’t do music?

I would have been porn star (laughs). If I were not in music, I think I would have been a footballer, so I feel bad that I didn’t do that.