Muyiwa and River
songs springs again like fresh river water,
Takes Over hmvapollo London with River Bands.
Classical American-
Nigerian gospel artiste Muyiwa Adebayo Olanrewaju famously known with his
gospel band River songs. Muyiwa and
river songs have over the years been reckon with as a gospel music blend with unique traditional flavour that drive home the
messages and sensational thrill fill
songs that does not only entertain their lovers and loyal fans but also
accord them to praises and worships that are unlimited. The river songs band leader Muyiwa cum flag bearer of the band in an Exclusive
timeout share the experiences that gave
birth to River Songs and their ‘all around the world concert’ that will be
hitting hmvapollo in London live.
Have been trying to
get you for years now
Lanre: he’s been
trying to get me but doesn’t contact me, he’s too business with D Banj, Don
jazzy and many of them .
Now lets get to do things Muyiwa and the river
songs how would you explain it to people?
Lanre: Well for a lot
of people who doesn’t know the river songs, we are just a collective gurus, i
can’t really say we are a group because each person in rivers songs like me Muyiwa Adebayo olarewaju
and the river songs comprises of artistes with their own right musicians and sensationalism , we have people like Femi Temoore, Femi is easily one of the top three guitarist in his country, his last
album “evening stand” was Jazz stand out
of the mount, we’ve got people like
Steven wonder too all sorts in the group. When we all come together we became the river songs. So river songs is a collective of
professional musicians but as i will say fate brought us all together.
River songs how did
you guys came up with the name, because
when one first heard river songs one
will surely be like, where did that come from ?
Lanre: The name came from the bit of the bible
which explain the experiences of a
prophet who was in a river and the water
arouse to his ankle, his kneels and he’s able to swim so for us when we started river songs we try to like ,
the idea was that we create music that will create experience because music is something that start in the
spirit gently and before you know it you start swimming in it and it all
started in 2003 a friend of mine Eddy
martins who work in the name of Quincy Jones you see him work with the like of
Jennifer Lopez, Chris brown and the likes. We grew up together we studied music
together , we went to the same church
and we are like we want to give our gift praise to the lord so we call our friends together ,
we have the drummer who works with a big band, the guitarist who works with the west life, the keyboard who works with
kally marnow, we just call everyone together
recorded an album and push out that’s how everything started.
You are mentioning
name like Jennifer Lopez, Chris brown and co, have went through your works and see
people you’ve worked for , produced with we have Chris brown and likes, this
names kept coming and I said to myself . this is mainstream and haven’t
actually find out that you’ve worked on music for a while which could mean that
you have aspiration of doing popular music but why change the plans?
Lanre: i didn’t
really decided that i was actually on
the struggling, i was in the church and
i was the church music leader i love God
and still do and i just want to do pop
music that’s my thing but it doesn’t work. One main reason it doesn’t work when
you tell it to people who understand Jesus, when my mother, my mother have two
children two girls but my mother wanted to have a male but my dad was done so
my mother didn’t tell my dad that she’s stop taking protection then she’s praying then she sees a vision
where a hand is giving her a boy, she
close to grab the boy and the hand move back and tell her that she has to give
him back the forgiving tools and she was like yeah! She get the boy, conceived and i arrived and so she remembers and the interesting was
that the journey started when i was in my court, we have the ‘ iso mo loroko’ (
do you just say that)lol! When they were
about giving me my name every one gets in,
friends the neighbour young and
old God knows i have a whole and then my
mother she could not just bare it so she ran outside and then the voice came again
. the one she heard when she was getting the boy telling her that all this name
you are about to give to this child is not his because he His mine, He his OLUWAMUYIWA,
which means it is the lord that brought him so she went to my dad told him that
this is just what i just heard and my dad. My dad was a Muslim, Kareem( Kayode Olanrewaju) and he became a Christian through my mum, and
generally if one became a Christian
through that he became serious about everything
and when my mum told him he was like is that what you heard, then that’s
what we are going to do and he was like you am sorry your name is out so that
how i got the name and when i spell it its like pretty long.
Yes talking about the
name the way you call and carry the name
, when BET first started transmitting or
Broadcasting here as they call it , one
of the first couple of things they were showing
was you. Your face was all over on BET for some couple of month talking about
yourself and what you do, Is there a particular thing about the name because
the way you call each letters and syllable
of the name, is their a feeling
you get from calling the name ?
Lanre: Yes
their is, you know their is a story , a whole story behind it with that
few seconds of mentioning my name because part of my journey is associated with
it because the primary school i went
to that time a banana will be
leave on my table and i will be call a monkey, their was sometimes i wanted
to change my name to Steven or Jeffery and i think like when I go to church how
am I going to tell my uncles they will just
like bull me and tell me to find a place to sit. But there was one day i
woke up and i was like things are not like how we see it in the media, like the
lie that things in Africa or Nigeria is
bad, i was like God didn’t make a mistake to made me Olanrewaju and when I woke up more to myself my thought was like i will be Muyiwa Olarewaju
Adebayo Jide Okunola if you don’t like it cal me Jeff and if you don’t like it
just move out of the country and what was intrigue for me is the fact that it’s
a generation of young people who are like i don’t mind being because apparently
till then even now what you would here when people say Nigeria is like Oh!
Nigeria that folks. I go to some places and some people would told me you are
not like the normal Nigerian and i ask
what is it about people in Nigeria is it that they have two heads or what, so
it part of my quest to represent as it were am going for the opportunity, my hope is
I never mess up the brand
Nigeria.
You are probably one
of the hard working guy in the business and not going to say music business
alone because you wear many hat, you are a producer, a writer, a radio and TV
personality , you are specialist you have people that work for you, you work
for yourself also work for people, Is this your first Album?
Lanre: yes ( this is your first studio
album since 2002 so basically in the
space of ten years you’ve done five studio album and you’ve also done a lot of
work for people ) now tell me how do you motivate yourself to doing all this things?
Lanre: Motivation
comes from within and motivation for me. first thing is understanding the reason of my being and the reason of my
being if greater than i am, and when you know or realize that what you are
doing is not for you and secondly things
is been in your base because i do lot but it does not seems like i do even
i feel like i do more only if i had enough
administrative support so i don’t feel like Oh! My Goodness the weight
of the work is too much ,the truth of
the matter is sometimes when my life is and sometimes am travelling God knows and i
just don’t know where am going i just
stop asking questions and go to the airport have my ticket then travel and things happen when am going or coming because all this speck volume
of the person one have to do with. The question about motivation, one is
that it’s all about understanding the reason for your being so
also understanding or finding yourself
in the place you ought to be and have
been terrible fortunate for me to fell into music , fell into radio fell into
Tv and am just like if the falling is
Ok then i think i keep falling so for me motivation comes all
around.
Now been a performer
you had the opportunity to
perform at churches, big massive places
and getting people doing Muyiwa and the
river songs just like you said, i was listening to some
of your songs and doing something else i just had my ear
piece listening to another music and i think it was just like as you said it ,
i just find it that all of a sudden one
leg stars moving faster and the body i
got into the grove and i was like let me
see you performing at a concert which i saw
and you know you even said it may be it was at a church you said to them
if they are not dancing then there are not a Christian and from that instance
people started jumping up, dancing and singing along with you. The concert is
one among the sold out concert in the prestigious indigo concert among concerts in
the world now, this is your fifth album you stepping it up again
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