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00:00joining us today in this exciting episode of guardian music is the afrobeat royalty himself
00:16made kuti thank you so much for joining thank you for having me happy to be here yeah i mean it's
00:23first of all congratulations on your new album thank you chapter one where does happiness come
00:28from yeah that's a poignant question thank you what struck your mind when you decided to title
00:35it as such well the album is about 13 tracks long and we have songs that i've been performing for
00:42about four years you're a regular at the shrine so you know we've been playing these tracks for some
00:46time and when you know you put a project together you have to find a kind of general theme that's
00:53yeah that carries the message of every track and i thought a lot of every a lot of the tracks were
00:58about self-discovery self-awareness progress development all those kinds of uh intrinsically
01:04like personal issues so i thought at the end of the day when we live when we have existential crisis
01:11all the things that surround that theme is like a search for something that is worthy and it's usually
01:20like happiness so where does happiness come from and the only track i think i featured a person on
01:26my dad yeah the chorus at the end was like where does happiness come from so i thought that would be
01:31cool and chapter one because the first album was called called forward yeah it was like the opening
01:37yeah i mean looking on forward like most of the songs there yeah it shows that you're thinking along
01:42those lines yeah exactly exactly how long have you been making this project so well the project
01:48what's what happened was due to industry related things we didn't release it as early as we should
01:55have which was about two years ago yeah and now i have a backlog of so many songs like i have enough
02:00songs for another album yeah so we it didn't take long to put the songs together it took about a year or
02:07two but it took four years to get everything in place to be able to release it in a way that would have
02:12satisfied me because first of all as a maestro who controls and composition production yeah i can tell
02:20that it took a while yeah i want to go back to when you begun you know hunting for your journey and music
02:29from schooling yes so school i went to i did the regular academic uh curriculum from about
02:37knowledge free to secondary school yeah and when i left i graduated from a school called kelly in
02:44nigeria it doesn't exist anymore it's been bought by i think some turkish people yeah but now it's i
02:50then i went to london for seven years and the most i did two things that were incredibly valuable
02:57so i was learning classical piano intensively for like three years yeah i didn't touch any other
03:01instruments and i did a atcl diploma exam which gave me enough credits in addition to my a levels
03:08to go to where i really wanted to go which was trinity yeah the school that fella went to i did
03:13four years there i did my bachelor's in composition so each year was a different sort of grading system
03:21for composition so for the first year we did small ensemble so like woodwind four quartet strings yeah
03:28piano and voice then for the second year we did medium ensemble so like a medium-sized orchestra
03:33then the third year was large orchestra then the fourth year which i really liked was they said do
03:38whatever you want to do and see you you know then we'll grade we'll grade your dissertation based on
03:42that so that was the trinity it pushed me to be very experimental introduced me to composers and music
03:48i'd never heard of before and it really took me out of my comfort zone some of the teachers were
03:54different you know they were they were special people so and the thing about trinity is that everybody
04:00that teaches is a professional in that field yeah so you can go actually if you get piano teacher you
04:07can watch their performances and their recitals themselves the composer we went to one of our
04:11composers teachers uh pieces like the premiere of one of his orchestrations and things like that so
04:17yeah trinity was special so someone who plays diverse range of instruments which is your favorite i don't
04:23have one i don't have one i use them for different purposes like for a track i titled wait and see
04:32the piano solo at the end that's me playing it because i think it's really pretty yeah you know
04:36and for like a track like uh oh yeah which is about the you know lucky massacre the tenor saxo
04:44at the end i play that because i feel like it should be more you know intense and aggressive so it
04:49depends on the situation really i mean there's this thing you did at the show where you held a note
04:53on the sax yeah circular breathing yeah my dad actually taught me how to do that when i was really
05:00young he taught me with a straw so what you do is people think i'm holding my breath i'm not holding
05:05my breath for uh 20 minutes or however long i do it you it's called circular breathing you store air in
05:13your cheeks then you blow for like a split second with the air in your cheeks and as the air in your
05:20cheeks is pushing the air out you quickly refill your lungs yeah and then restore the air in your
05:26cheeks so it has to be very like smooth and that's and then you do that so you're breathing maybe give or
05:31take once every 10 seconds or so maybe because you held that note for that i held it for a while yeah
05:37popsy has a world record he did he did it for 50 51 51 minutes here wow yeah it was incredible that's
05:45an entire episode of like so on this project you produce some songs digitally yes no no everything
05:53was first recorded acoustically okay at a legacy plus studios my our studio in alakbole then we i then i
06:02shifted a bit of rest because you know i write all the music myself yeah so i shifted a bit of
06:06responsibility with this album so i worked with core producers to enhance like say the drum patterns
06:13for the acoustic drums to replace them with electronic drums so it'd be the same pattern but you know a
06:19stronger kick a nicer snare on tracks like pray and uh yeah so we worked with and then i wanted them to
06:27also add pads and synths for effects and things like that yeah also you also let me imagine a typical
06:34maddie christy session yeah played all the instruments first yeah you work with the producer yeah no i'll
06:41write the music okay compose and write all the lyrics then i'll give my band the parts then we'll go to the
06:47studio and record everything live to metronome then i meet a producer and tell them what i want and then
06:54we go back and forth with what because i already produced it so it's sort of a co-producer we go back and
06:59forth based on what i want and then mix and master that's all so how do you draw inspiration from your
07:07music normally normally i tend to make sure that everything i write reflects my reality at that time
07:17you know so oh yeah was written during the just post answers uh my voice was written just after the
07:24elections uh i won't run away was no more wars and i won't run away was written after i just discovered
07:31something about myself that's you know i decided to work on like my temper and things like that and
07:39so yeah it really it reflects something that is at that moment and i capture that moment in time
07:46and then i write about it yeah so you've worked with Femi Kuti you've performed with you know
07:53Sharon Kuti, Femi Kuti yeah uh are we looking at you working with other dynamic crop of artists
08:00i've been featured by some artists i've been featured by uh PJ Motu which was amazing
08:08i think the five-time grammy winner and uh we did Morgan heritage i've done something with them then
08:15some nigerian artists Rontan uh Kidda uh caveman and a few others Lekon so i'm i'm very happy to work
08:24with people if they ask me to do so i'm not as uh driven to you know reach out to because like i said
08:33my music is so personal i don't want to force people to think the way i think and by the time we finish
08:39recording a track for example i'm really happy with the final result so if i were to work with other
08:45people's we remixes and i'm thinking about that for this album let's go back to chapter one yeah
08:52so what was your most difficult track to produce to record and produce
08:59i think they're all very different but the one that the trickiest was probably i won't run away
09:03because it's so long you know the arrangement is very complex the horns develop a lot uh i play
09:11throughout the sax and i have like a small brick in the middle for lyrics so probably that that was
09:16probably the most demanding i think yeah the this this the straightforward track was probably like
09:24after the tears flow because you know it's a straightforward horn line and then everybody
09:28comes and takes their solos it depends but i won't run away probably the most demanding one
09:33okay so you mentioned earlier that you've recorded a lot of songs serving another project
09:38yeah so how um or what else do you do when you're not making music when i'm not making music i spend a
09:47lot of time with family because our compound is quite big everybody has their own space their own building
09:54and once in a while we'll meet together and have you know dinner and talk then i play games a lot
10:00not as much as i used to and i watch anime okay what kind of games do you like playing uh usually
10:06adventure games like uh ghost of tsushima is what i'm on right now ghost of tsushima yeah and uh
10:13i just got god of war god of war was just gotten for me the new one and not new but like it was
10:182023 or 2022 2024 release and then i played fifa a lot yeah yeah i mean you mentioned that to me once
10:26and yeah yeah i'm possibly plays fifa as well really yeah surprisingly so and he's very good
10:31wow people wouldn't expect that yeah i know i win i know i win but it's stressful it's not an easy
10:41victory he beats people that i beat for example yeah okay you're a family man yeah foremostly married man
10:51yeah and as an afrobeat artist it's it's a distinct experience yeah put it that way how would you how
11:00do you feel and what can you say about you know its effects on your career it's you know how it's
11:08because i'm very certain that it has a lot of positive attributes on your career yeah tell us a bit
11:13more about married life and making music now well i'm very at this i think i'm a very easy going person
11:23so i don't i generally don't endeavor in things that are unnecessarily complicated for example i don't
11:31i'm not an outgoing person so you'll never find me you'll probably never find me in the middle of
11:36like trouble outside or things like that so i spend i'm the eldest also of my siblings the next
11:43one after me is about 12 years younger than me so i have a lot of responsibility that has to say a
11:48good example you know i have to be a good brother of my day and so i just i think at least with the
11:55way i was raised to be very you know accountable for my actions which is why when i was writing those
12:01songs about being reflective about myself was i saw some things i didn't like about myself and i was
12:06very you know intentional about working on them i have no qualms with family the issue tends to come
12:11with the fact that my music is not commercial so i have a lot of work to do with trying to relate it
12:18to people and see that you know there's a lot of artistry beyond you know what exists in mainstream
12:27markets how do you how do you feel as you know the face of afrobeat younger audiences now how do you
12:34feel when you're performing music these days at the shrine outside the shrine where because you've performed
12:40that several yeah outside shine i mean i i'm very we we've done a few international gigs we've done a lot
12:46of you know gigs around lagos and nigeria i think that i just make sure i'm at the top of my game all
12:52the time before for example my dad is a professional musician and he's very uh
13:00heart is very strict with his craft so i i saw a lot of that when i was younger so
13:06before being playful with the music or very expressive and all those things i make sure that
13:12i am first and foremost a professional so no matter how tired i am if i'm sick if something
13:19annoyed me earlier in the day the moment i'm on stage you know i have a job to do and to do it to
13:24the satisfaction of the audience and the band so yeah i just no matter what show it is big audience
13:30small audience it's the same energy any hacks warm-up rituals that you use for i do pray before i get on
13:36stage not like uh christian yeah more like i give thanks and i ask that the the ancestors protect me
13:46from bad equipment the experiences i've had in lagos there's some things that you can't control you know
13:52what's one crazy one you ever had we were at moist beach before the government took it down
13:59was our second or third gig there and the moment we got on stage the kick for the drum tour wow then
14:05as i was performing because the stage wasn't level because some people that did it didn't do it properly
14:09it wasn't the moist beach uh team it was like the stage management so my sax fell down
14:18and as soon as i tried to blow it it wasn't working so luckily i'm in multi-instrumentally so i changed
14:24my auto sax to my title sax and tried to keep on with that one then as soon as i started
14:28singing or just feedback it was 30 minutes of chaos with the crowd going like yeah marito
14:39no they could tell that something was wrong but i mean it doesn't matter the moment that happens
14:43on stage people blame you as the artist it's hard for them to you know disassociate the experience
14:48they're having from who they are seeing because it's you they see so now i i've taken precautionary
14:53measures to make sure that that does happen but even still it's really difficult to prevent it from
14:59happening okay so yeah i mean um just to touch on afrobeat itself yeah it's a genre that has spread
15:06beyond just the hold of nigerians other europeans even americans are practicing and playing the genre how do
15:14you feel about that itself i think it's beautiful i think that it would be great and i think that's what's
15:20happening afrobeats is going to average is really young as a genre of music i think it's only about 69
15:30so yeah it's only about 50 years old yeah and because of that we're seeing a boom in the industry
15:38with it but we're also going to see if it follows the pattern of every other genre of professional
15:43musicians and people that master their craft is that they're going to start pushing it into different
15:48fields and afrobeats are going to have several sub-genres of different you know people's
15:53stylistic preferences and things like that so i'm looking forward to seeing where it goes i think my
15:58dad already pushed the envelope you know a lot with the idea of what afrobeat can be and i'm trying to
16:05do that myself so just break it down a bit for us yeah so how would you want to like evolve the sound
16:12so afrobeats as we know it's a mixture of west african rhythm traditional rhythms but also a lot of
16:19jazz influences high life influences and personal uh uh tasteful influences by a fella himself so the way
16:29he writes the instrumentation he usually has two guitars two bass later in the years a massive horn section
16:35you know so it's divided by horn section rhythm section and then vocals and then a very uh it
16:43changes a lot but usually a musically developing structure so what my dad did he took all of that
16:49and then he started to modernize it with uh a lot of modern sounds so like sounds of the late 90s
16:56when i say sounds i mean like synthesizers and things like that and then he his music was a bit faster
17:02so he sped it up because if you know if you see him on stage he's a very energetic person
17:07and also he started to explore his own personal taste like with his sax the moment my dad plays
17:15his instrument you almost know immediately it's him because of his tone and the scales that he runs
17:21what i do now is i like to make because of i think because of four years of composition in trinity
17:28i really like music that develops to a degree and i like to make sure that i'm not being elitist
17:36when i write in that i you know there's some composers i write as long as they're happy they
17:41don't care what the audience thinks i actually try to please you know listeners as well as myself when
17:46i'm writing so i take a lot of the elements that exist for uh conservative afrobeat like fella
17:55but then i like to push the envelope with sounds as well so like you can't hide i'm using an electric
18:00guitar you know like a very rocky sounding guitar yeah and then i'm using rather than a drum pattern
18:06at the beginning it's just a drummer with a bass that's developing so every section there's something
18:12new the horns don't come in until later they come in and at the end there's a climax which doesn't
18:18usually happen with fella fella there will be a climax at the beginning you introduce the music
18:23then sing then reintroduce it's like an aba structure whereas sometimes i just go like
18:30from a b c d and then finish with you you know it's just a gradual build up so it's that the things i do
18:37for each track are different there's not one thing i think that is similar but as long as i'm thinking
18:43and i'm doing something differently i'm happy that's why you're the future i'll be you know that's why
18:48i'm not taking on that responsibility but i am practicing it's in that way but you you did mention
18:54that you're playing this all your life yes exactly well does that come in just last so does that
19:00mean any pressure at all pressure no which is what i've i've said a lot there's a video of my dad that
19:08i saw recently i don't know who got it or why they found it but he says
19:12maddie does not have a choice but to be a musician and then he was making reference to himself that
19:16he would just go out on the streets and he would be like ah yeah i'm not saying i'm playing sax yet
19:21you're not going to be like your father so it's possible that i didn't have a choice but i had the
19:27illusion of a choice when i was younger so the way my dad raised me was that he allowed me to decide by
19:33myself if i wanted to be a musician that being said i was on the road with him i was in the studio with
19:39him i grew up in the shrine so the likelihood of me not being a musician was very slow it was very low
19:46the only alternative was probably for me to hate music so i've hated all those experiences but i love
19:51those experiences and that's why i asked him to teach me the sax then i asked him to teach me the
19:56trumpet and i wanted piano lessons i wanted guitar lessons drum lessons and it was through him that
20:02i was inspired to be a musician and then i started to look into fella and then i was you know even more
20:08inspired so i was for them and the legacy it's just been what has inspired me to be as good a musician
20:16as i can be as opposed to pressure pressure tends to come when it's external but i don't really listen to
20:22i've been blessed to have the personality trait to not be too concerned about public opinion yeah
20:29that's that's that's solid yeah i'm very lucky in that okay so um i think just to just touch on
20:38alphabet itself again what's one common because a lot of people when they hear about the shrine yeah
20:43when they they only know it maybe once in a while it's seasonally what's one core memory a personal
20:47memory you have from the shrine personal memory from the shrine i think a recent one was really
20:54beautiful for the first time all three i mean because all of us myself uncle shewa and my dad we
21:01all sort of started our professional careers at different times my dad before all of us of course
21:07he was making music while fella was still in the game wonder wonder was released at the same time as
21:12fella's you know a professional career yeah actually started after fella passed away and egypt ate his
21:19band he used fella's band and you know created such a strong career for himself i started about
21:26five five years ago and one time i was on stage and i realized that the night i was on stage my dad was
21:32going to be on stage in the states and on she was going to be on stage somewhere in eastern europe or western
21:39europe i can't remember and it was just beautiful so i thought wouldn't it be nice if it was so my
21:45dad and i were having a show in december and ronkshon said how dare you people have a show and i'm not
21:50there in lagos and then we had this you know trilogy which was beautiful so for the first time the three
21:56of us played in that way on our own terms on this on a on the same stage you know and our sound is very
22:03different i'm the youngest so i opened ronkshon came after my dad closed the show and it was such a
22:08wonderful event everyone had a great time you were there i remember yeah you all held the note then
22:14we all held the note at the end it was and we came back together and did a finale where we all played
22:19i think water you know fellas tracks yeah it was great i mean i mean you've heard the man uh lastly yeah
22:27what is the vision for marie pt uh to say i think to set as good an example of what a professional career
22:34music can be where artistry is the you know most important element and uh being able to be as
22:43creative as possible without giving too much towards uh commercial influences because as an artist it's
22:52our job to be daring it's our job to take risks that people on perhaps 95 jobs don't get to take
22:59to be able to you know search for things that they don't have the time to search for and in return
23:05we share those you know creative works with them and hope that inspires them the way it inspires us
23:12so yeah as long as i set a good example i'm good to be to be a good creative thank you so much thank you
23:19very much thank you so much i mean you've heard it from the afrobeat royalty himself
23:23heads the kuti dynasty and one of the most prolific afrobeat musicians we have today
23:29chapter one where does happiness come from is out today and do check it out
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