To Be A Singer, Writer,Player And Producer In A Blink!

Music in a Blink

No way. I am not selling any such service. But, it was the heart of a tweet I got from a friend from a faraway land recently. It impressed upon me how lightly, people all over the world today, have taken the art of making music. Somebody just wakes up, in mid-course and decides he or she wants to write, sing and produce music; and tries picking your brain how to achieve it. And of course, because of the prevalent can- do philosophy presently driving the world, I am supposed to encourage, rather delude, them into thinking they can!
While I want to encourage visions, I won't join any one to forecast that Rome can be built in a day. Usually, music is a bug that catches one while still impressionable, while you can believe that standing on earth, you can just stretch your arm and touch the sky. A time when the power of reason has not began to work on your psyche. Now, if you don't start to play music at that time, you never will.
I don't mean to discourage any, but the music madness is such that catches you early so that it can disorient you permanently if you don't have very good and strong parental control. It's not a vocation you go into when you have acquired 'sense',  as it were. So that in your foolishness you can make believe that you rule the world.
But, so called beat makers assist many people to gate-crash into the music industry. They lead them to believe that songwriting and music making is about just doing karaoke on somebody else's music ( the beat ) until you get something unique that entitles you to claim ownership of the music. Songs are not used to make music anymore, rather, synthesized music is being used to 'fabricate'  songs.
And that's how you have formulated beats driving a trend just for the purpose of supposedly making people dance. And music has been taken up by people who feel nothing for it. Even when they show flagrant incoherence in the resulting 'songs' from such strategy, nobody critiques the travesty, but rather it is passed off as a trend of a generation!
So, we have people who believe they can just wake up one day and want to be singer, songwriter and producer in a blink of an eye without caring a hoot about the basic rudiments of music. This lowers the art of music making to such as carpentry or butchery. The practice is really rife here and I fear for the future of music in Africa. First, it started with many musicians rarely learning to play instruments. Now, people are making recording without taking time to write songs properly. They just walk into the studio, buy a beat, mime and patch-record a number of fad phrases, copy and paste them as many times over; and there you have your 'songs'!
Even the foreign singers are not doing greatly either. Today, I decided to check out my songs on the online stores that were supposed to be selling them. I seized the opportunity to listen to  a number of 'big names' featured on their lists and Lord, was I disappointed ? Their production was nowhere near mine. Their songs, the melodies, the singing - nothing exceptional. My songs are Bach and Beethoven compared to their best. But who am I to ask them to play my song  for the paltry 99 cents a song. Oh, poor African singer/writer, if they did they'd make me rich! And they wouldn't have that, would they?
They say they sing love songs, they don't know squat about love songs. I am cooking three awesome love songs in the studio for next release. And when it's done, by God, they're gonna know what love songs is really all about. They're gonna have to go revive the greats like Kenny Rogers and Bob Dylan, J D Souther and Lionel Ritchie! Them are the ones, not these ones!

A Need To Keep Music Alive Today

 Composing Music Today

I think music  is in serious need to be kept alive. Everywhere, from Nigeria to UK, to Canada, the USA, Europe and possibly anywhere else, music creation is waning. Did it become easier to make music just so that composers would stop trying to make outstanding works?
Let the art of music making return. Music is what we are selling, let us write them well.
I feel like a lot of composers are not giving enough time to works creation anymore. Some are so engrossed in exploiting the limelight they take it for granted that the audience will listen to anything they bring out, and so stop really applying themselves to composing.
From experience, I know that there are the musicians who suffer a trade-off in one area for getting better in another. Like some musicians work hard at their instruments and find it hard to write their own songs or lyrics to their melodies. It goes the other way round, too.
Whatever it may take, effort should be made to work at compositions before they are turned out. One way out is recognizing one's limitation and solving it rather than let the audience go without. You can always outsource that service you cannot do yourself that will make you a complete package.
Listen to some of my released songs here.



   

More Behind the Scene Revelations

Children of the Father

I wrote ' Children of the Father ' on Wednesday 6th January, 1988. The idea for the song came to me on Sunday 3rd January, 1988 at the close of the Sunday morning worship service at Christ Chapel, the church founded by Revd. Chris Tunde Joda. As I became a practicing Christian in his ministry, that makes him my spiritual father, as we say here. At that time the church congregated on the premises of Yewande Memorial Nursery and Primary School at James Robertson Street, Surulere, Lagos.

The church service had ended and everybody was going home. I was part of the throng trekking up to Onilegogoro Bus Stop on Alhaji Masha Road. From there I would get transportation to Block D9, Eric Moore Towers, where I shared an uncle’s official quarters. As we moved along, I sensed heaven present with us and I thought:

‘God, these are your children. We are your children, Lord’. As the people slapped their footwear on the well-tarred James Robertson Street it gave a rhythm to me. I got the melody of the song

          We are your children, Lord

          Children of the Father

          We are your children, Lord

          Children of the Promise.

It was a pattern of play I had not done before then, so I mulled over the song idea for the next three days until Wednesday the 6^th when I tried again to play it. But I still could not. So I recorded it just as a chorus and thought to lazily leave it like that as a chorus. Still, every time I came across the song script over the years I always felt it was a song that could be more but which has taunted my skill level. I played and enjoyed my songs, but I just couldn’t play this one because I always tied myself in knots with it. For no other reason than to see if my producer could work it out, I put the song among others I had planned to record. And strangely as it happened, he took an instant liking to it among so many I had thought he would prefer. But he did not know the song was incomplete. So we played out the chorus and made adjustment. The present second verse was supposed to be just an inflection varying from the main chorus; and that was all to it, I thought. However, as we progressed, Chris demanded for not just two more verses, but verses with different melodies as well as parallel response verses on the same beat!

Now challenged, I went into the Mike Booth pen in hand. And I did what I had been unable to complete since 1988. Thanks to the issues of living I easily found a few pointed words to say to God, and they were rendered in the most impromptu and heartfelt melodies I ever made.

We re-ordered the verses and Chris rendered the verse 2 himself because it was the highest pitched and my voice had not quite woken up and we had to pack out of the studio that night!

Here are the lyrics to Children of the Father.

Children of the Father ( Lyrics )

Author and Composer : Richard Okwudili-Chukwu ( a.k.a StormWind )

Hmmmhmmhmmmm

Hmmmhmmhmmmm

Hooohoohooooooo

Huuuhuhuhuuuuu

We are your children, Lord                                    shubidu

We are your children, Lord                                     wou wou wou

We are your children, Lord                                     shubidu

Children of the Father

We are your children, Lord                                    shubidu

We are your children, Lord                                     wou wou wou

We are your children, Lord                                     shubidu

Children of the Father

Have mercy, oh Lord                                              Almighty God

Have mercy, oh Lord                                              Consuming Fire

Have mercy, oh Lord                                              Prince of Peace

Have mercy on us                                                    Judge of all the earth

Have mercy, oh Lord                                               Everlasting Father

Have mercy, oh Lord                                               Lord of Lords

Have mercy, oh Lord                                               King of kings

We are your children                                             Oh Lion of Judah

Have mercy                                                                 Have mercy

Have mercy                                                                 Have mercy

Have mercy, Lord                                                      Have mercy

We are your children, Lord                                    shubidu

We are your children, Lord                                     wou wou wou

We are your children, Lord                                     shubidu

Children of the Father

We are your children, Lord                                    shubidu

We are your children, Lord                                     wou wou wou

We are your children, Lord                                     shubidu

Children of the Father

We are your children                                               We're your children, Lord

We are your children                                                You're our Maker

We are your children                                                 You're our today and t'morrow                                                

Children of the Promise                                           

we are your children                                                   You're everything we.....hope to be 

We are your children                                                      No other

We are your children, Lord                                    shubidu

We are your children, Lord                                     wou wou wou

We are your children, Lord                                     shubidu

Children of the Father

We are your children, Lord                                    shubidu

We are your children, Lord                                     wou wou wou

Look down from heaven

Look down Lord and see

We're looking to do good

Help us Lord

Help us Lord

We can do nothing without you

You're the reason we can face this day

Oh Lord

We're your own

Your own image

We are your children, Lord                                    shubidu

We are your children, Lord                                     wou wou wou

We are your children, Lord                                     shubidu

Children of the Father

We are your children, Lord                                    shubidu

We are your children, Lord                                    

We are your children, Lord                                    

My Songs Are Stories

Here, StormWind tells about the idea or story behind his songs.

‘My songs are stories one way or another. That's how I write. I am not one of those abstract 'dancing on the ceiling' types of songwriters. I’ll say something about my mode of writing another time. 

For the sake of anyone who might want to use my songs for something more, like motion pictures, television programs, advertisement, video games etc. and want to know about what generated the song idea here is how it all happened.

Give It Out

I was an idealistic youth, no different from most 21 year-olds who ever lived. With notions of how to change the world, as if others before us aren’t doing anything right. That was the point I was at when I wrote and composed ‘Give It Out’ on the 10^th of April, 1984. I do not recall any specific story now, but since it dates around Easter period, it may have been triggered by an Easter experience.

In retrospect, it is one of my easiest and likeable songs. And since I was somewhat sermonizing, it was very easy to find adequate things to say. I still believe in redistribution. However, through the years, I have discovered that most of the people who ‘have’ do not necessarily get it on a platter of gold. They ‘have’ by making effort. And that is one thing we can all do. We can all make effort in service, effort in production, effort to be better, effort to make a difference etc. That is one thing we can all do regardless of our present standing in life.

But of course, there are those whose efforts are constantly frustrated by their peculiar environment/society. And should a person take a fall for what his world throws at him?

Well, I think those who have gotten over should never stop giving a helping hand. The human spirit, also, never stops attempting to overcome; which is good. But people should stop adopting under-handed strategies to make success. I leave it to our individual consciences to define what ‘under-handedness’ means to each one of us.

Here are the lyrics: 

Give It Out

Author and Composer : Richard Okwudili-Chukwu (a.k.a StormWind)

Giving me back love 

Giving me back love                Yeeeiiiyeeeyeiiii

Giving me back love                 uuuuuuuu            

Giving me back love                  give oooout

Giving me back love                  giving back love

Giving me back love                  giving back love

Giving me back love                  giving back loooo 

Giving me back love                   oooooouuve 

Give it out                                                 shananaa

Give love away

Give it out                                                shananaa

Give from your heart                           shananaa

Give love away, give it out                shananaa

Give from your heart

We think of what we'll get

From everyone in life

Don't you think that we ought to give something away

Look around, my friend

Suffering people around

We've got so much that we can even throw away

Give it out                                                 shananaa

Give love away

Give it out                                                shananaa

Give from your heart                           shananaa

Give love away, give it out                shananaa

Give from your heart

Sometimes we think we are

Superior human beings

We should know we're all like puppets on a string

Shall we pass the test

Or shall we lose our heads

Don't count your winnings while you're still in the game

Give it out                                                 shananaa

Give love away

Give it out                                                shananaa

Give from your heart                           shananaa

Give love away, give it out                shananaa

Give from your heart

Best thing in life 

Is when we give away

Lets think of what to give to make it better place

Now I know we are here

But tomorrow we are gone

What kind of memory d' we want to leave that day?!

Ooouuuoooo               Oooohohohoooo

Give it out                                                 shananaa

Give love away

Give it out                                                shananaa

Give from your heart                           shananaa

Give love away, give it out                shananaa

Give from your heart

Give it out                                                 shananaa

Give love away

Give it out                                                shananaa

Give from your heart                           shananaa

Give love away, give it out                shananaa

Give from your heart

Aaaaaaaiiiyeeeeiiiyeiiiiye

Give it out, give it out                           shananaa

Give it out, give it ououout                                       shananaa

uuuuuuuooooooooo                                         shananaa

oooooooooooo                                           shananaa

Giving me back love                                  shananaa

Giving me back love                                    shananaa

Giving me back love                                      shananaa

Giving me back love                                       shananaa

Giving me back love                                       shananaa

Giving me back love                                        shananaa

Giving me back love                                        shananaa

Giving me back love                                       shananaa

yea

The Artist StormWind

'  My grand-father, Udegbunam Ekpenwa was a man of many notable parts, one of which was musicianship. My great-grand-father, Igbanugo was a total musician. My own father, Edmond Iriemenam, if he has it in him, has not yet owned it up. And in any case, I think it is too late for him to now do!' StormWind says, tracing the history of music in his family.

' I was born an artist. Music is just my preferred channel. I discovered this gift early enough, but the odds were stacked against me to not follow it. Still I did, and for most of my life it has been like a ghost behind my back. Bear with me my folks from the skies, but in African philosophy we believe in the reality of ghosts!'

‘I am not starry-eyed any more about music the way I used to at first. If anything at all, I want to punch it up badly for coming upon me like a possession; promising me so much but making my life a lamentation.’

‘Now, it is about duty and responsibility to God for His gift. That's why I've set out to chronicle and record my life's songs so that it'd not all be for nothing.

Again, it's because, if I don't do it.......would you believe me if I told you that I had them? Would you not say it was in my dreams? Would you put your money on me if I didn't show you first.....? ‘There you have it from the man himself.

Who Is StormWind?

I expect that people are going to want to know where StormWind sprang from. Well, Stormwind is not an over-night story. In the early days he was greatly influenced by late Bob Marley, George Benson and Bob Dylan.These three gentlemen, more than many others too, honed StormWind's singing and writing from afar. That is, through their recorded works which he came in contact with physically and on the airwaves.

Locally, as a much younger man, StormWind was avoided by the record companies because they thought his songs weren't like most of their local music. They feared for their money. He thinks it's one of the reasons he himself stayed relatively unheard of for so long. Discovering the prospect of online marketing and digital releases encouraged his present venturing.

‘And I also have my very creative and in tune producer Christopher Anthony Ekoh (a.k.a Chris Strings)'

'When am with him in the studio, I know that my songs will get a fair doing-over' he says.

StormWind Returns to Music with 2 Singles Released Online - 'Give It Out' and ' Children of the Father'

When you just have to live.....

Last September the10th, Nigeria-born musician, singer/songwriter voted yes to online business by releasing two digital singles online through www.tunecore.com on the site's 17 partner online stores, namely
 iTunes ( world-over), Amazon Mp3, Spotify, MySpace Music, MediaNet, eMusic, Zune, Rhapsody, Nokia, iHeartRadio, VerveLife, Amazon on Demand, Google Play, Simfy, Deezer, Muve Music and Rdio.

The songs are Give It Out, an up-beat, rock and rhythm dance music with a world changing message;
and 
Children of the Father - a rocking, rhythm and soul dance music affirming our Creator's fatherhood of all human beings.

Thanks to God and to the web facility these classic songs and many others that will still be released will not be still-born. They will live after all. And if you are a music re-user of whatever type, these songs are available for use.
Talk to StormWind through tunecore publishers or directly to him on 234-806-7499303.