Music producer and label owner, Wole Oni has spanned over two decades in the industry. He came into limelight after producing hit gospel song, Igwe, by Midnight Crew. The award winning music merchant has continued to endear himself to people within and outside the gospel music family. In this interview with MERCY MICHAEL, Wole, who is the producer and one of the judges of a new gospel talent hunt show, More Than Song, speaks on the gains of being a music producer, his outfit, fame and other sundry issues.
AS a gospel music producer with several awards, do you also produce secular music?
As a producer, what I do is music. I’m not restricted to a particular genre or religion, though I do eighty percent gospel. The word gospel doesn’t necessarily have to be church music. It’s just positive message and inspirational music. I do anything good music, Afro, Jazz, Highlife so on. It doesn’t have to be gospel.
Is there a particular reason why you produce more of gospel music?
I guess I’m able to connect well with gospel people. Not because they are too righteous but for the fact that the content itself is Godly. For me, I grew up in the church and I also like things that will inspire people to praise God. In that environment, I’m able to help them interpret the music better than what they would have had and also bring in the secular mindset to make it contemporary, more marketable and more commercial.
Midnight Crew’s Igwe was big. Tell us what that singular success has brought your way?
To be frank and sincere, that particular album has yielded me a whole lot of goodies both nationally and internationally. Sometime ago, I was somewhere in the US where the song was being used for a wedding and someone just said that’s the guy that produced the song and the whole place just went on a frenzy. Even in Dublin, Ireland and other parts of the world, the song is huge and has made a lot of people to that it is nice. Even the other religions have come to me to ask if I can do something like this for them because of the success of Igwe. Also, the song is even played in the club. It’s not restricted to Sunday morning or church. It’s a huge success. I think it’s one of the great things that have come my way.
When you were putting the beats together for Midnight Crew’s Igwe, did you see the glory coming?
Honestly, I didn’t see it coming. The thing is, anything I do, I put my best into it whether you are Michael Jackson or you are nobody. I do my best to bring the best out of you. They had done the song before and I thought that if I put my touch to it, by God’s grace, it will turn to gold and it did turn to gold.
Are there other acts that you’ve produced that people probably don’t know about?
I produced Afurunginaya by Praiz. I have done jobs for artistes like Jodie, Kenny Kori of Infinity, Kween, Oyeka Onwenu and a whole lot. The list is endless.
What inspires your beats?
I will say God first because before I do anything I pray. I also have an open mind to whatever I’m doing. I don’t pick from anything I’ve done before. I let the song itself play me the beat. I listen to the song and interpret it the way I’m listening to it. I give it a different feel when I’m listening to it.
As a multi-instrumentalist, are you sometimes tempted to delve into singing?
One of my major reasons for being a music producer after I was done with school was because I wanted to help lives, help put people who have the gift, who have the potential to develop it, structure it to something that can yield them positive returns in future and not because I wanted to wanted to be in the limelight. A time might come when I will do my own album. Maybe it will even be a general commercial music, but for now my aim is to help develop upcoming artistes from nothing to something.
For how long now have you been a music producer?
I have been producing music for 27 years now.
What would you say has been your staying power?
First of all, it’s God and secondly it’s passion. Music is my life. When I’m doing music, it is as if there is no problem anywhere in the world. For me, music gives me comfort. I’m so comfortable doing music. It comes to me at easy. It’s just flows. That is the way it is for me.
What were the challenges you faced when you were starting off?
At that point in time in Nigeria, there was the issue of acceptability. People did not have credibility for music especially if you were not a Sunny Ade or Ebenezer Obey. People were not well informed the term ‘music producer’. That was the issue I had. People saying, how can you be a musician? They don’t have money. They don’t have a life. They kind of tagged them in a particular way. But thank God at the end I was able to show something. You know nobody agrees until they see result. So the result was able to convince my folks to say oh this is good! Even till date my brothers are proud to say that we have a brother who is into music.
One of the artistes on your record label, Instinct Records is Marvelous. Is it the same Marvelous that was on Project Fame?
Yes.
How would you rate his performance in the talent hunt competition?
I was so proud of him, seeing his performance. I know the world is yet to hear him basically. When we are done with the production, what will come out will amaze the world. He is a fantastic singer who has a good knowledge of music, who is vast.
With over two decades in the music trade, what is your perception of Nigerian music?
I feel it is improving. It’s gathering momentum to get to that level that it’s meant to be. I feel that if more funds and resources are put into it, it will really go very far. If you look at other developed industries, what helped them is the input of the government in terms of resources. In terms of the human resources, we are there. We have loads of talents. We are like the best in Africa I must say. That’s the truth. I’ve been to other places and I hear their musicians. Take South Africa for instance, their musicians are not that fantastic but they have good structures in place. Despite the issue of lack of structure and the stress everybody is going through, we still do good music in Nigeria. That is a plus!
How would you rate the growth rate of the gospel genre of Nigerian music?
It boils down to the same issue of finance, management and structure. Of course the church is the first platform for them to have something to work with. Once that is not coming forth, what will they do? We just keep trying.
Except for Marvelous who is known, none of the artistes on your label has hit limelight. Why is that?
For me I don’t believe in anything rushed. We take our time, to get the songs, because what we are looking out for is international music. We are not limited to Africa or Nigeria. We are particular about global music that will go round the world, make meaning to people and also impact lives. We are taking our time to get the songs and also trying to get the best of recordings. The world will soon listen and hear that this is a different thing.
I read somewhere that Instinct Records is affiliated to Universal Records. What is the nature of the affiliation?
It’s actually for distribution. We are about to conclude the deal. One of the major challenges which we have been facing in Nigeria is that our distribution network is very poor. We have people who record, do a product and don’t have any way to sell it. Even those who can sell their products don’t make much. You find out that it’s just a waste of time and energy. We have been considering exporting our goods to other parts of the world, to sell CD’s for at least minimum of a thousand naira. If you sell like 10,000 copies or even 1m you know what that will translate into. So that is what we are trying to work out with Universal Records. We want to be able to promote our music and also export it abroad.
