For inspirational artiste, Lanre Teriba, the Nigerian entertainment industry is not encouraging enough. Lanre, who is fondly called Atorise, in this interview with FAMUYIWA DAMIARE, enjoins stakeholders in the music industry to give God a chance and laments the focus being placed on secular artistes among other issues.
WE have not been seeing you in the limelight lately, why?
Practically, we have been working, but there is no avenue to showcase our works as a gospel artiste. And the music industry in Nigeria is not really favouring us as gospel artistes and inspirational acts.
What do you mean by there is no channel to showcase your works as a gospel artiste?
By that, I mean that the broadcasting stations in Nigeria believe more in secular music than inspirational music. With this, it is quite difficult and not encouraging. Moral-wise, it is not also educating our children.
The fact that I am saying anything about this means a lot because people are not paying attention to it. So I just want to use this avenue to pass the message across that we need airplay of our works as inspirational artistes. I want it to be seen from my own point of view that we are not doing it right.
Talking of the regulatory bodies in the music industry, what have they been up to in this regard?
That is what I can’t really answer myself, and it is one of the reasons I have to speak out on behalf of people that don’t have the opportunity to express themselves. I don’t know what the regulatory bodies are doing concerning this, but I just want to enjoin the major stakeholders in the industry to at least give God a chance. This is because we are from God and we are still going back to him, and everything we have acquired so far in this life belongs to God. We want people to do it right so that we can get it right.
How do you think the government can get involved?
That still boils down to the regulatory bodies. It is a matter of engaging all media stations mutually, talking to them to give more room for inspirational songs like the ones we are doing, most especially, typical Nigerian music. What I see is also that we are promoting more of foreign music than the ones we do ourselves. They call our own music ‘local’ but they are promoting foreign music, and all these foreign media are not promoting us neither projecting us in a way. So why should we join them to promote their own music instead of promoting ours?
As an inspirational artiste, to what extent have you been able to earn some airplay on Nigerian broadcast stations?
I have been to different broadcast stations that each time I release an album, I will do a radio tour which is always an avenue I use to introduce my works and drop my music to earn airplay. This I’ve been doing for some time but I later realised that it’s not really been working, just because most of these guys believe more in hip-hop music.
And have you come to think of it that hip-hop is not really our own kind of music? Our own kind of music is soul-percussion kind of music. Although, we are in a civilised world now, but at the same time they are not promoting our own kind of music.
Why do you think is wrong?
Can you imagine a situation whereby a TV station owner tells me that if I want airplay of my songs, I will have to feature a secular artiste? Why should I do that when I am a brand on my own?
And really, we don’t mind to spend more money to shoot a very good video, but we need certainty that we will be given the avenue to showcase it for people to see it. As long as we are sure about that, we will do our best possible to meet up to standard. As long as we do it right, we will definitely get it right.
But you featured Oritsefemi in one of your albums, what was the motive?
I featured Oritsefemi in one of my albums, and I did that because I wanted to reach the youths. And when that was done, it is not that I was trying to go secular but I just wanted to reach out to the youths at large.
How did you handle the criticism that trailed this act of yours?
It is bound to happen for people to criticise an artiste. Even as an individual, if people don’t talk about you, you are not relevant. Also, that was done to break the entertainment industry market-hub, and thankfully that was quite inspirational enough.
How will you describe your own type of music?
I am more than just a gospel artiste like people say, I am an inspirational artiste. I love to pass message through my music a lot. But just because there is no avenue to showcase the messages across, it is a major factor contributing to the lack of reach. So our works as inspirational artistes is not really getting to people out there. One should also note that some of our broadcast stations don’t want to have anything to do with gospel.
It is not that we aren’t stable, but just because we are trying to follow the trend.
Are inspirational artistes getting enough attention from entertainment awards?
One of those things I am telling you. There is nothing stopping these people from recognising inspirational singers in the industry like the secular ones. They should provide avenues or categories for inspirational artistes like us to be recognised in the industry at large.
