Museke had a chat with Nigerian singer (and one-time banker), Obiwon about his music and Nigerian music as a whole. Below is the interview transcript. Intelligence just oozes from his answers :-)

Museke: How are you?
Obiwon: Great!!

Museke: Is Obiwon your real name? Can you tell us about your background and family?
Obiwon: My real name is Obiora Nwokolobia-Agu. I actually bear the stage name Obiora a.k.a Obiwon now. I guess u can decode the Obiwon thingy arose from the similarity between my real first name and my childhood sci-fi hero. I grew up in a middle class Christian family in Enugu, Eastern Nigeria. I’m the 3rd out of 4 kids- 2 boys and 2 girls. I did all my schooling in the east graduating from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2001. I then migrated to Lagos the music capital in 2002, worked a nine-to five till 2006, same year I dropped my debut album. Before then I had a stint as part of the Thorobreds of the StreetHop fame and had released a solo EP in 2005.

Museke: How did you get interested in music?
Obiwon: Well I had a lot of it in the house, as well as genetically. My father used to be a folk classical music composer, my maternal grandfather was a choir master, my maternal granduncle was the village dance champ and my paternal grandmother was the voice of the village during festivals.
However I wasn’t encouraged to go into music, my parents desired that I should be a white-collar professional. My elder brother happened to be an ardent follower and collector of pop and r’n’b, as well as the new movement of the early 80’s HipHop and I seemed to pick a natural interest as young as I was then (6). Later I started messing with my Dad’s record player and collections as well and eventually started writing and performing to my mates and peers.

Museke: What was your first big break?
Obiwon: My first big break was my debut album Overture (2006) powered by the single Onyinye. Songs from the album such as Get ‘Em Off Me and Streetz Of Lagos were getting some initial buzz, but I guess the raw emotions from Onyinye and its delivery caught a lot of attention. The video from Onyinye dropped late that year and gave it mass acceptance especially into 2007. Going on stage and on the road wasn’t a big deal because I had horned so much skills covering r’n’b songs and performing in school shows in the east, etc, I was sort of a local champ then. I guess the opportunity to perform the hit and my stage skills all added up. Before Overture I had released an EP called Get ‘Em Up in 2005, which gained some critical acclaim and I was part of the HipHop collective Thorobreds. If you ask me, I’d say I’m still waiting for the so called “big break” because it has actually been a gradual build up for me plus I still have my eyes set on “somewhere” (laughs).

Museke: How was the transition from leaving the corporate world and taking up music full-time?
Obiwon: The acceptance of Onyinye spurred that transition, which I had planned on ever since I took on the bank job fully in 2003. The EP wasn’t strong enough to give me that courage, so when the album got accepted, I went ahead. The job itself was very crucial in all this because at that time my salary bore my project costs. I am still an independent artiste.
I’m glad I didn’t lose the steam and passion for the music. It was grueling in those days not really because I worked two endeavours, but mostly because my circumstances weren’t fully allowing me to do what I really wanted to with my life. So when I got a little acceptance, I took off.

Museke: Should we expect a few songs about money from you soon as per your financial background?
Obiwon: Lol. I’ve always been passionate on plenty issues except for money. This probably is not a good thing. If I was very conscious of finance, I probably wouldn’t have left when I did. The job itself was basically for the salary, even though my employers found me good at it. My songs talk about love, life and God and within the life issues, yes I might talk about how to make it out here.

Museke: How was it being part of the Thoroughbreds?
Obiwon: Well at that point I was exploring the HipHop in me to the fullest so it was fun getting together to do beat boxes, freestyles and battles. However soulful melodies kept coming to me and the vocalist/crooner in me was simply bigger than my other musical skills. This obviously isn’t the Thorobreds sound so my solo venture was necessary to establish my true soul and sound. The acceptance of the album confirmed to me where I should actually be and what I should be doing. I’m still as experimental as ever though, constantly searching for sounds.

Museke: Which African musicians did you listen to growing up?
Obiwon: Mostly Nigerian musicians..Fela, Onyeka Onwenu, Celestine Ukwu, Oliver de Coque, Osita Osadebe, Christy Essien Igbokwe, Sunny Okosuns and then from South Africa Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Brenda Fassie.

Museke: Which foreign musicians did you listen to growing up?
Obiwon: Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, Kool & The Gang, Dynasty, R.Kelly, Boyz II Men, Nas, Brian McKnight, Mariah Carey, Notorious B.I.G, Jay Z to mention a few.

Museke: Which African musicians do you idolize or admire (presently)?
Obiwon: I admire virtually all Nigerian musicians making it big in our harsh business environment. But if I must mention I’d say Youssuf N’dour, Timaya, Tuface, 9ice, Asa, Freshly Ground have such unique styles. If you would allow me include him, then I’d say definitely Akon! Samini, Tic Tac and Jozi performed live in Nigeria this year and I loved their hip sounds. I must also admit that I haven’t been so exposed to many African musicians outside Nigeria.

Museke: How long did it take you to finally record your first album? How it do?
Obiwon: I took about 8 months. It was fairly okay commercially but did quite well critically. It earned two vocal awards (Nigerian Music Awards and HipHop World Awards) and 14 other nominations especially in r’n’b, vocal and choreography categories.

Museke: What should we expect from your upcoming album (Obi mu o)?
Obiwon: Obi Mu O is the first single from my upcoming sophomore album entitled The Rebirth, scheduled for a mid 2009 release. My writing, I discovered, is strongest when personal so expect about 10 songs, each expressing what I feel or have experienced personally. The songs draw from a whole new range of emotions stemming from experiences going into music full time, my journey so far in my quest to know more about life, love and faith and where I’m ultimately headed to. I know the industry a little better so I’ll be working with a collage of producers.

Museke: Which musicians would you love to collaborate with?
Obiwon: It’s a very personal album so collaborations have been limited to two. With time details will be made public.

Museke: Your Joli song made some waves as a crunk song. Is this a new trend in Nigerian music?
Obiwon: Joli was from Overture Plus, a 2007 EP/maxi single. It wasn’t pure crunk but my experiment of a Naija based interpretation of r’n’b crunk.
Crunk came up a bit but didn’t really grow into a trend. I guess as Africans if we can’t really gyrate to it then it mightn’t stick. The reggaeton was really popular in Nigeria last year but right now it’s a collage of styles mostly based on HipHop grooves mixed with local rhythms and flavours. I call this Naija pop. Naija pop itself is still hard to define, some hits have elements of soukous, some have ragga/raggaeton, HipHop, r’n’b, but they all have this undeniable Nigerian flavour.

Museke: What kind of music do you do?
Obiwon: By my own definition, African Soul/R’n’B.

Museke: Tell us about Jdimusic. Who is Yuchi? (the lady featured on Obi mu o)
Obiwon: Jdimusic is the name of my independent imprint/label. I’m the only artiste on it for now but I believe it will grow. It’s been able to function in songwriting and production capacity for other projects and artistes e.g. Nene Johnson and it should be able to do more soon. Yuchi is a newcomer whom I met at an artistic rendezvous. I wanted to record the song as a duet song a few months later and I remembered her voice which seemed to fit the part. Hopefully she would be able to venture out on a musical career in the near future.

Museke: You recorded a song called Streets of Lagos. Is that where you are based? Is Lagos the music hub of Nigeria?
Obiwon: Yes I’m based in Lagos and it is the music hub of Nigeria. The distribution market is based here, as well as major labels, top media houses and a vibrant events/entertainment scene. Fortunately other regions are now beginning to develop their own tastes, stars and music scenery.

Museke: There are a lot of popular songs in Nigeria that are socially conscious and controversial. Why is this the case?
Obiwon: Well like everywhere else, controversy sells. Street acceptance is usually crucial to hits and the streets have a lot of social themes on their mind. The economy, government, making money, living large, crime, sex, etc.

Museke: What is your take on the live-band versus miming debate?
Obiwon: My early experiences on stage were with a live band. The freedom and sheer raw musical expression from live music is so uplifting. There’s nothing like your audience feeling your raw voice and passions. Live music? It doesn’t get any better, really.
However you have to understand some basics in arrangement and production in order to bring out the best sounds out of a live performance, if not it might just be noisy. This is one reason why a lot of artistes shy away from live bands. Our industry here is not yet specialized enough to have people dedicated to ensuring quality production on live. Another reason could be artistes who are not confident enough with their live vocals and the third reason would be the number of promoters who can actually afford to pay enough for the artiste to play with a band.
However I expect that an artiste performing over a soundtrack should be able to perform with the instrumentation and background vocals only, but this is no longer the case. It’s so bad now that artistes perform with the full vocal version for most of the time, even internationally. It’s better to cultivate and use the professional values every now and then because for instance, no one is ever going to allow you mime at the Grammys and other international shows/events. The audience here for now is still carried away on hearing their favourite songs, but a time will come when some serious differentiation will occur.

Museke: What challenges do you face in the music industry?
Obiwon: Well as an independent artiste its usually production costs, promotion and of course piracy.

Museke: What is your take on piracy and paying DJs to promote your music?
Well it seems payola and piracy are here to stay and obtain everywhere else as well, but definitely not to the levels we have here. The issue is how they can be reduced to minimal levels so that African artistes can make more from their intellectual property. The greatest inhibition to solving this in Nigeria is the fact that the industry is not regulated at all, not even forums to address the issues.
My personal experience here says Djs never really remember a song they are paid to play after they feel they’ve done justice to the pay, or usually drop it to get more money, so it doesn’t work for me. My music gets more mileage when the media and public fall in love naturally with it. Of course the major labels have the strength to sustain payola.

Museke: Nigerian music has been very successful, with many artistes winning continental and international awards. Do you think Nigerian artistes enjoy some advantages that musicians from other countries don’t? Is the Nigerian music industry just better?
Obiwon: Nigerian music is at a place of explosion and competition. The industry seemed to wake up once again after the return of democracy and the competition on ground is bringing out some great music right now. From the much I know, Nigerian artistes are actually more disadvantaged. Our distribution relies on a “former” piracy market which still harbours pirates, so piracy thrives. In Nigeria if you don’t have a smash hit, you can’t make any money off music since cds sell at a pittance in the name of beating piracy. The Nigerian musician’s reward is mostly based on the shows and endorsements, so you see everyone jostling to be among the top 10 or 20 artistes in the country. This has driven the quality of the music and videos up. All these notwithstanding, you must agree that the creative potential of the greatest gathering of black people (140million) with 250 identified ethnic groups must be enormous. We just started scratching the surface.

Museke: How can Nigerian music expand and sell even further?
Obiwon: The industry should organize itself, major labels, stakeholders and artistes should form a quorum with some serious agenda and strike first at the Government, get their attention and commitment and then strike at the media and market. Then they will listen. Of course when its all organized, foreign investment will run in. Check the population numbers again.

Museke: Is there any strong connection between the Nigerian music industry and Nollywood? Are musicians approached to be part of soundtracks for these movies?
Obiwon: Nollywood tries hard to cut its costs to the barest minimal so they usually don’t approach any known musician for soundtracks deals. I’m sure you hear a serious disconnection between the quality of music you hear from the music industry and the kind of soundtracks you hear on Nollywood movies. In the past a few musicians actually featured in one or two movies but now, actors and actresses are actually trying out their hands in music. This connection might not happen until Nollywood finds a way to place quality over quantity and then probably stimulate the kind of competition we have here. In Nollywood the marketers largely control content so that might be stifling creativity there. However piracy and pricing problems are huge and are the biggest instigators of quality compromises.

Museke: What kind of legacy do you want to leave? What are your plans for your music and beyond?
Obiwon: I pray to become Nigeria’s international ambassador of music. I also pray to change lives with my music, influence and finally nurture many great talents waiting to be discovered.

Museke: Do you have any present engagements and works other than music?
Obiwon: My financial background still leaves me interested in the stock market.

Museke: What are your hobbies and pastimes?
Obiwon: Dancing, spending time alone, browsing the net for info, participating in church activities.

Museke: Do you have a website?
Obiwon: Yes. www.obisweb.net, but you can easily catch me on Facebook on the page Obiora a.k.a Obiwon or personal profile Obiwon Obiora or at www.myspace.com/obiwonspace

Museke: Give us your Parthian shot (last words)
Obiwon: Thank you so much for all the love and support and there’s so much more yet to be tapped from me

All photos from Obiwon's Myspace