Lets get to meet you…Please introduce yourself.
My name is Simisola Ogunleye, but everybody calls me SIMI.
How did you start singing?
I started singing when I was pretty young. Professionally, I started in 2006, I put out an album. It was a Gospel album.
So what’s your kind of music now?
Now, I do Afropop music, a blend of basically Afrosounds, sometimes I tend towards Highlife sometimes I do Afrobeat. But there has always been a consistency of the way I sing but my music is Afropop.
But why did you stop Gospel?
I didn’t start with music as a job or work but as an Art in the Ministry.
Have you had people wonder why a church girl changed to singing worldly songs?
I haven’t really gotten many comments like that. Maybe because people feel I actually genuinely love music that its not just about the buzz, all showbiz people that have known me from way back know I love music. There was really no transition like that, I just choose the kind of music I feel like singing at any time. So there was no transition from been a church girl to anything. It was seamless. There was a time it was only gospel that I have done.
There was a time you actually recorded on your laptop and you uploaded the music. What happened then?
Yeah! At that time I wasn’t signed. And I just needed to do something. I had a lot of stuff in my head and my mind and I had to put it out. When I am writing, I like to write and record it at the same time, so I can hear what it sounds like. So writing for me is also to enable me take it off my mind. Atimes I get inspired by foreign songs and I just take the instrumentals, change the lyrics, the stories everything and I then create my own beat from there.
So, a lot goes into it. So you do a lot…
Do you ever consider going into production soon?
Yes. Right now, I am actually like a professional studio engineer, like I mix and master. I wouldn’t say I had started production professionally. I still have a long way to go. I don’t like to put myself out there until I am sure that I can stand the test of time.
Tell us about Extreme music. How have you found working with them?
I put out this cover in about 2 to 3 years ago and my boss heard the song and he asked for me. He didn’t sign me on when I met him. After a while I started working with my producer Oscar and we connected. The way it works is sometinmes when you’ve been around some people, some how, some things will connect, when you keep working at it.
How do you see your success story?
I am happy. I am really, really happy, because there is a lot of people doing music now. There is a lot of voices I have heard that are really great. I am happy that they have found me worthy and decided to put me out there, being able to find a platform that is willing to put you out there, to make sure people hear your music deserves to be commended. I can’t take this for granted. I am happy. Extreme music is good.
What are you working on?
I am working on my new single. I have finished it. Its ready. We are just fine tuning it and getting the video ready. It will be ready in the next few months.
What do we expect?
Its going to be nothing that people have heard before from me. People wouldn’t really expect it when they hear it, which is why I am excited about it. I don’t want people to hear my music in beats all the time. I want to shape things up. Hopefully it will be out in the next 2 months. Lagbara Olorun.
Would there be a remix to Jamb Question?
People ask me that a lot. I already did. That is already like a remix. Although we haven’t put the audio out, with his voice on it. I don’t know what else can happen, but this is going to happen.
How did you come up with the JAMB Question song?
I am sure that you have experienced it before now. (Laughs) sometimes you’ll see some guys, they will say hi, I like you can I get your number. They will just ask very random question, and I think it is funny. I think it was a funny story to put and stamp on music. I am the kind of person that when I have an idea, I try to put it into a song and see if it will stick and it stuck. And I am like Ok.
Why did you make it a story line for your song?
Because I have gotten a lot of JAMB questions before The Funnier the better.
How was growing up for you?
I was born in Lagos here. I grew up in Surulere, Ojuelegba precisely. I am the only girl and the last born. I have 3 other brothers. So, I was sort of a tom boy because I learnt how to ride the bike, I use to wear shorts I use to like baggie jeans, and my dad spoilt us rotten. My parents separated when I was 9. So I kind of had to grow up fast as well because you are torn between been in one place with one of your parents and then in another place with the other.
It was also a bit sad. My parent were separated, but I used to see other parents together and I used to wish that they were mine and it was my story. I was really young I grew up mostly with my mum. She’s just like the most major woman that I know. And she was always supporting me. You know singing for a woman is not the most popular thing to do. I studied Mass Communication in Covenant University. So, she could just not reconcile studying Mass Communications and me ending up a singer. She will say in Yoruba pelu gbogbo owo ti mo ti spend, you know. But somehow, she has been my strongest supporter. So whenever, I tell her this is what I want to do she just always support me.
At what point did you tell your mum you were going to do music?
I think she just always knew. I was always singing. But I don’t have an entertainment background. I didn’t have parents that are into music. I didn’t have siblings. I didn’t use to even listen to music in school. I wrote my 1st song when I was 10 years old. So she always knew I would go into music full time. When I was in 200 level, she called me one day and said don’t drop out of school, finish your schooling, because she knows that I actually really, really love to sing. So, she always knew. I didn’t have to say mummy this is what I want to do. She knew. But she just didn’t know in what capacity, or how much I would want to in music.
Did you continue singing when you were in school or you stopped for a while?
When I was in school I didn’t sing, to enable complete my course like my mum requested. I have only been in one choir. That was when I was in a teenage church. I have never really been a choir person. When I was in school I was not in the choir. We used to have this thing they call Variety Night. So, every once in a while, we just go to sing. I can count the number of times I sang in school. I think I sang 4 or 5 times altogether, because I was not just a choir person. School also helped my popularity in a way because there were people who carried my name outside the campus and were telling others, there is this girl in my school who sings well and from there my image grew.
When you were schooling, doing Mass Comm. Was that feeling there inside of you that you will still go into music?
Noo. I had wanted to study Mass Communication. I don’t regret it because I know all the things I learnt there I will always put to use. I knew I was going to do music, but I never wanted to study Music, because I am not a very political person. All these classical stuff I don’t have the grace for it. I did Mass Communication because of Radio. I was attracted to be an OAP not for TV or print but Radio.
Can you tell us about your songs?
I have done quite a lot of songs. I did a lot when nobody really knew SIMI then. When I was doing Gospel, people knew one of my songs ARA ILE it was pretty. At that time, that was the biggest song that I had. Then I used to drop covers online. It was only the online market that it was getting to at that time. I really started mainstream last year when TIFF came out. It was the pay back song for me in the mainstream.
How do you see music today?
Music is evolving. Everything that is worthwhile should evolve. People often ask me what I think of the industry. I think we have a long way to go but I knew we’ve come a long way from where we were. The international industry now is rushing now to get somebody, because they can see the boom coming. I can’t wait to be a part of that.
What role does content play in your music? This is because people often criticized the young acts these day that their music is only about beats and no content?
Yeah! I am a song writer, so content is everything for me. No matter the kind of grove I am getting on my songs I have to be saying something. You have to hear the song and know that you are not just listening to the beats. You are also listening to what I am going to say. So content is everything for me.
Why did you choose SIMI as your stage name?
Because everybody used to call me SIMI, my mum, my dad, everybody. My name is Simisola. But most people call me SIMI. So I felt since nobody is using that name right now, why not use SIMI as my name.
CityPeople
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