Evergreen Melodies From RNB Queen

Ever since Aramide broke out in 2015 with the folk- RNB fusion, Iwo Nikan, the young musician has not stopped belting out music that sets her apart. The award- winning chanteuse, born Aramide Sarumoh, has joined the section of evergreen voices in Nigerian music annals, crafting a legacy as one of the cornerstones of the Nigerian music scene.

Following her 2021 comeback album, Bittersweet, the mother- of- one snoozed from the mainstream airwaves, taking the time- out to re- invent her sound and also develop her talent- discovery event, Acoustics and Covers With Aramide.

Aramide, who’s also been behind the female- focused concert initiative, Songversations With Aramide, tells The Guardian Music, that her love for stagecraft has continued to inspire her towards developing the scene for the Nigerian music industry.

Now, with a new extended playlist ( EP) dubbed, Hear Me Out, the 39year- old songbird unfurls out a new artistic experience to her sonics, bending her RNB mastery to fit more universal pop- leaning programming. With songs like Pretty Girl Bop, the millennial singer bravely explores youthful cadences and tempos championing confidence for all femme- folk in her lyricism.

Aramide unpacks her comeback, detailing her experiences behind the hiatus; her creative processes; life as a show organiser; as well as her vision to remain evergreen in the Nigerian music scene, among others.

What essentially are you trying to say that you’re asking us to Hear You Out?

SO, what I’m Im trying to say in the project, Hear Me Out, with my music is about the break. I don’t know if you’re familiar with my music. I haven’t released a project in almost three or four years. And so this is me saying, hey guys, I know that I haven’t said anything new. Well, so this is an opportunity to actually Hear Me Out on what I’ve been doing here. Hear why I have been away, like I just want to speak my truth out. I just want to talk to people in the best way that I know how to understand and that’s through music. That’s what Hear Me Out is all about.

What really happened that you went off scene for a few years?

Basically, when you listen to the project, this new one you’ll understand why. One of the things is, I was trying to evolve as an artist, I was trying to look for a new sound that people could relate to in these times that we are in. For me, that was like the major thing I’ve been wor working on. It’s just that I just feel like I was not at a the place where I felt like this is good enough to be in a project or anything. You know, because if it’s just by recording and just putting out music, I don’t think any artist hash an issue, but I wanted to make sure that when you hear from me, you’re hearing something completely different. And something that will not make you be like, Okay, this is Aramide, like something that does not sound like i’mdoes not sound like i’m lost, and something and so met that my fans and people that love my music can be very proud of. I think that everyone will be excited about this project when they hear it.

What prompted you to reconsider your sound?

Okay, you know, everybody reacts to feedback differently. You can put out music and you will know that it’s okay. You can tell when people are not really vibing to this or even you yourself, you can tell that maybe it’s time to switch it u up. By the time I put up Bitter Sweet. I knew that I was already at a place where I felt it was time to switch it up. It was time to do something different. As an artist, the only thing that is constant is change. And we have to constantly evolve with And we have to constantly evolve the times that we find ourselves and the times that we are in. So, for me, it was just a matter matt of evolving. I don’t want to come up with something thi that tha seems that people have heard before or something that makes me feel like oh I have not evolved and all that. Soundwise, I have evolved. Vocal wise, I have evolved and then I think, writing music in general. I have evolved in a lot of things that have happened to me, and I put them down in my music. So, yeah, I think you just can tell, tell like every human being has instincts you can tell, maybe apart from getting feedback and all of that.

Walk us through the creative process you explored on this project. How did you feel when you found your new sound?

Okay, in my quest for looking for a new sound and evolving, I didn’t really know the kind of sound I wanted to do at the time. t I just knew that would be whatever I was going to do. I always have it at the back of my mind that anything I do must stand out; it must be evergreen. It must be on record that 10 years from now, people can still vibe to it. Like people still feel my record. So, for me, it’s not just about what’s trending. It’s about what will stick and how long will this take for? For me, it’s always about longevity. For instance, a song like Pretty Girl, which wasn’t even the initial title. We had a lot of titles before we eventually landed on that title. We wanted to create a song that was like a braggy type of song for girls, that, you know, there is nobody like you. You don’t have to fit into a particular box or even if you fit into a particular box, you can do whatever you want. So, that’s how Pretty Girl Bop actually came up. We were like, let’s just create a song that the ladies are going to love, a song that makes them feel empowered, a song that makes them feel happy. A song that every time they listen to, they feel like, I’m that girl, you know. So, for me that was the idea behind that song and it’s like see you wear make up, you don’t wear makeup, you can still go to the club. You wear wigs or not, you can still be unapologetically yourself, you know. For me, that’s the song. It’s just an empowering song, and I hope that’ s how people see it because if I were to listen to your record like that, that’s how I would feel.

Oh, that’s amazing. You have been working on Acoustics and Covers With Aramide. Tell us more about it.

Acoustic and Covers with Aramide came out when I was still in that figuring out stage, where I still wanted to perform and I still wanted to do music. I still wanted to put my name out there and be relevant. So, basically what we do is that it’s a platform where established artists, upcoming artists can come and perform. The music covers anything that makes you happy, or anything that works, as long as you’re good. But the catch there is that you cannot come and perform the track. You have to perform it with either a band, maybe one instrument, maybe keyboard, drums or a guitar, You know, it’s just an opportunity for artists here to do their music or acoustic or to slow it down. You don’t even have to sleep at night depending on whatever you intend to do with one single instrument or multiple instruments. So most of the time, I can tell you that we’ve had a lot of artists. We’ve had over 100 artists perform on our stage. And one thing is that most of those artists, some of them are the type of artists that you don’t expect to see perform their music in a certain type of way, but oh come on, then they understand the rules and all of that. They follow it and it’s just how we set up the show. And since this is our second year since I started, it has been like that and you know, the plan is to grow it to be bigger, and better and all of that so I will say that. A lot of my music was even inspired by some of the sounds I heard from the show. And you know, just being in a space where there are a lot of artists you know, you can see that people have dreams, they’re fighting for their dreams. I know when I first came to Lagos there was a place called Bogobiri, in Lagos. Those were like the places I first got my first opportunities to perform and you know, I don’t think that this exists anymore. So it was in a bid to try and recreate that stuff that I was like, okay, let’s let me try and do this and see what happens. And then initially it was just trial and then it kept going. I kept getting encouragement from different people and different artists and we are here now and we’re still doing

So, which would you prefer: performing music or creating it?

I think I like every part of it, because at the end of the day, whatever music that you produce, or your rights, or your record, the end game is to perform it to people. Yeah, it’s not just for you to learn. You know, I love the entire process of creating, taking it down to the stage for people to talk. I mean to perform it on stage because you want people to feel the same emotions that you are feeling. And the thing about performing music is that you have different opportunities to convey the emotions in different ways.

Read the remining part of this interview on www.guardian.ng