Muyiwa Olarewaju
Muyiwa OlarewajuPlease remember to LIKE our Facebook Page - Trumpet Media Group and FOLLOW us on Twitter - @trumpetmedia
By Yomi Adegoke
Assistant Entertainment Editor
Lead Singer of the UK's most successful Gospel group, Station Director for the coveted 'Premier Gospel Radio' and Presenter of the widely watched 'Turning Point' - it would appear Muyiwa Olarewaju has done it all. From appearances at the BBC Gospel Proms and BET's Celebration Of Gospel, Yomi Adegoke picks the brain of the darling of the Gospel world on what we can expect from him next.
When did you realise Gospel music was your calling?
I think it was probably around the year 2002 because up until then, I'd been working with Sony Music, looking after artists like Bob Dylan, Aerosmith, The Fugees, Maxwell and I was doing my own music on the side as well because I have a music degree. My plan was to do pop music but a series of events made it clear that this [Gospel music] was where I was supposed to be. The final straw was when a friend of mine, Eddie Martin, who also works under the name Kwasi Jones and whose producer had written for people like Neyo, Fantasia, Chris Brown, was in church with me one day. He said: 'Man, we should record a Gospel record and call all our friends!' And that’s what we did. We got together, did a record and called all our friends who were playing for Kylie Minogue and Westlife and all that, and that’s how it started.
Nollywood and Gospel is an interesting fusion; how did it come about?
If I tell you where the idea came from you will laugh yourself silly. The idea first popped in my head when I saw a clip of a Nollywood movie where a man had died. His ghost had left his body and was trying to cross the road, but the ghost was checking to see if there were any cars coming, so he didn’t get knocked over! I laughed so much. I said it's only in Nollywood a ghost will be checking for cars before it crosses the road! I thought it would be great to have a mixture of Gospel music, the spiritual side, and have some fun elements. I thought what better fun to have than bits of Nollywood which can be serious or comedic. When we were at the O2 the first time, we had Eddie Kadi and he went down a storm. The people loved the comedy! So I thought: right; next time we're going to have a Nollywood element, which of course has not been without its problems. People have been like: 'What are you doing with Nollywood? Are you Gospel or what?' My desire is always to create a show that people will come to and say 'Yep. It's been worth every cent'. Because if they pay for tickets, I want to give them something more than what they get on the CD. They could just pop the CD in and listen to music, but when they come to a show we want to inspire them spiritually and give them entertainment that is worth every single penny they paid.
What is it like working with such a large group of people?
It's real easy with the Riversongz guys and I'll tell you why. All the people in the group are either professional musicians, session singers or big Gospel artists themselves. We have the guy who is Managing Director for Emeli Sande, plays for Aswad and is Managing Director for Gloria Gaynor. We have guys who play for all sorts of artists in this country. On vocals, we got guys who've toured with Stevie Wonder and work with Pixie Lott, Leona Lewis - people like that. So these guys are all at the top of their game which means when we have to do our work, it's easier. The biggest problem in the group is probably me, because my communication isn't very good. When you see me on stage, you probably won't believe me but when I'm sitting down I just curl up into a ball quietly in a corner and they'll be like: 'You need to communicate! You're not communicating with us!'. But it's really easy to manoeuvre the group because once we set a goal everyone just gets on with it until show day and when we come together - Boom! We do our thing. Then everyone is like: 'See you later, I've got a tour to do!'. There have been times we've finished a show in Wales, and one person will be like: 'Okay I'm off to Japan with Stevie', another will be off to Sweden, and everyone just disperses to different countries immediately.
You are so far the only international artists to appear on BET's Celebration of Gospel in 2009. How would you say the gospel scene differs here from the US?
It differs a great deal, the same way the music industry here differs to the music industry in the States. One, the sound is different. All you have to do is turn on the radio to Urban Praise in Chicago and turn it to Premier Gospel in the UK and you'd hear the difference. We have the likes of Guvna B and CL6, so our sound is a bit more eclectic than Americas. In terms of the market, it's different too because America is monster sized in comparison to the UK. In terms of history, it's different because their history of black Gospel goes much further back than ours here. We've recently celebrated 50 years since Martin Luther King's 'I have a Dream' speech. Their history of black Gospel music goes back even further than that and that was still years before UK gospel had woken up! The instruments are different in terms of the industry. In America, business is very well sorted regarding record companies, promotion companies, marketing companies but here in the UK, it's different. So for people like Muyiwa and Riversongz, we record an album and get distribution from a company that doesn't really understand Gospel because there is no distribution company for Gospel. We're doing events and we have to promote ourselves whereas in America there is a label to do it, there is a promotions company to do it. It's a lot harder over here but the rewards are there if you are able to do the work.
You have recently ventured into broadcasting, presenting Turning Point. Did you ever expect your career to take such a direction?
I wish I could say 'Yeah, I had it planned. I saw it coming'. It was an absolute surprise, just like with the radio. OHTV had a 'Muyiwa day' recently and someone tweeted me saying 'In your story, a lot of things just happen to you!' and I said yes, because it just happened Premier Radio were looking for a new presenter and it just happened that my interview on Premier was heard by the right person who just happened to try me for a job. And it just happened that because of that I got a gig on radio doing Airlines and it just happened that because of that I ended up doing the TV show, Turning Point, which the producers say is watched by 70 million people. It's a lot of coincidences on my journey but I don't mind stumbling as I've been stumbling into good things.
What can we expect in the future from you and Riversongz?
You can expect our first ever Christmas album which will hopefully be ready by the end of October. You're going to get a great Riversongz album with some great African flavour. Carols like you've never heard them before. We're having a Christmas concert and in 2014 we're going to be recording and releasing an African all-stars album with some of the biggest names from South Africa, Gambia, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria. An album full of some of the biggest names in Africa.
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