Nigerian singer brings her unique sound to new audiences
By Uzy Igweatu
You’d think Ayo has it all figured it out, with her first album, Joyful, having reached double platinum status in France, platinum status in Poland, and gold status in Switzerland, Italy, and Greece. But little do you know. The Nigerian-Romanian, German-born, reggae/soul/folk singer has faced her share of roadblocks, both personal and professional. But she’s quick to admit that she’s a stronger person because of them. Currently on a sold-out 34-city world tour for her second album, Gravity at Last, Ayo is ready to share her music with those who’ve not yet had the chance to experience it. AfriPOP! had the opportunity to meet up with Ayo while she was on the U.S. leg of her tour. Just like her music suggests, she proved to be undeniably authentic, unmistakably passionate about life, and definitely not afraid to speak her mind.
AfriPOP!: You’ve talked before about your background – your parents, your upbringing, and your various life experiences. How have these experiences shaped the kind of music that you do?
Ayo: I believe that the very soul you’ve been surrounded by as a child – my dad’s soul and my mom’s soul – created my soul, all the influences, everything that they gave me, everything I used to listen to. Even things I didn’t like influenced me in a natural way. My dad is a Nigerian man. He would listen a lot to Afrobeat, and he would listen to soul music, but also to funk and rock music. And always the good stuff. This musical background and the way he would bring me up and teach me is what created this sound, a natural sound. I’m not trying to do this or do that. I just do whatever I love. It just comes always from the same place—my soul and my heart-without thinking too much.
AP: It’s great that you were surrounded by that early on. I can’t help but think how rare it is. When you think of Nigerian parents, they always emphasize school and the traditional careers, medicine, law -
Ayo: … And engineering. My father is an engineer.
AP: Exactly. Mine too. So, what did your father initially think about your career choice?
Ayo: In the very beginning, my father was like, “Oh, you have to go to school, you have to study.” But he did not know that I was singing. So, when he heard me singing, he said if I don’t want to go to school anymore, I don’t have to. By then, I was 18 already and decided to leave school. He believed that God had something else for me and that I should follow that. He was always supportive of my music. When I wouldn’t believe in myself, he would believe in me.
AP: What about your siblings? Did they follow similar paths?
Ayo: No! [laughs]. They are very different.
AP: Really? And what about your son? With two parents as musicians [Father is Reggae artist Patrice], are you starting to see music in him also?
Ayo: Definitely. He thinks he is a musician [laughs]. He plays drums. He loves the drums. I guess it’s normal since that’s the way he lives. He travels and goes on tour with us. For him, it’s so normal.
AP: Speaking of traveling, I would definitely say that you have a unique world view that a lot of people don’t have. Would you say that having grown up and lived in so many countries makes it easier for you to be accepted as an artist in these different places?
Ayo: Well, I don’t really know if it’s easier to be accepted. When do people really accept you, anyway? I think as a musician, it is a question that you shouldn’t even ask yourself. Being the musician that I am, being the human being that I am, I don’t like pleasing people. I like pleasing myself. So, I am not looking for acceptance. I do probably look for love. I believe that every artist, in some way, wants to be loved to compensate. That’s why a lot of singer/songwriters have difficult backgrounds, and probably love being on the stage and sharing their stories, because they’re looking for love somehow. There is a big lack of people who are honest, certainly when it comes to art. You will find a lot of people who try to please. They try to fit into something that has been created by the record labels. I believe it’s better to not try to look for acceptance. If you look for it, you’ll ultimately try to do what everyone else wants.
Ayo: I think it was my big luck to sign in France and not in the States. The man that I’m signed to is a music lover. He is like my musical father. He gave me freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. This, I believe, is hard to find [in the States]. And because I signed with Universal [World], it meant that wherever I went, I had to sign with Universal. But sometimes it’s unfortunate that I can’t leave the Universal family and go somewhere else. When I came here, I signed with Interscope [a subsidiary of Universal Music Group]. My experience here in the States was a real disappointment for me. I was like “Wow, this is really about business. This has nothing to do with music.” It was not motivating at all. It was strange for me. I came to realize that this is the way it is here.
But I truly believe that you do have people here who are just like the people I signed with – that love music and do understand the universe and are willing to fight for it. But I didn’t experience that. What I experienced were people who didn’t get me and didn’t try to understand me. A little bit of an arrogance, I would say. Everything that happened to me was a good thing, because the future is going to be different. I don’t believe that a label is going to make or break an artist …
AP: It’ll be the people.
Ayo: Yeah, because it’s going back to the essence of music, which is in here [points to her heart]. It’s analog. It’s something direct. The essence has never been on CD, not even on vinyl. That’s why everything I’ve experienced has been really good. It changed me and made me grow, and took something from me. But what it took from me is good. Because I was too naïve when I came here the first time. I thought that everybody is like the man that signed me. Now I know what is business talk and what is not. At the end of the day I am happy when I can play at a place like Highline Ballroom. That is it for me. No gold or platinum record can give me a better feeling than that. So, I’m fine. It’s good to rise and fall, and rise and fall, because it’s more real, I think. Plus, I like my freedom. I don’t want anyone to take my freedom away.
AP: What about your personal freedom? What do you do when you get to take breaks from the hectic life of a musician and performer?
Ayo: I like running a lot. I run even when I’m on tour. What I like doing most, though, is being with my son and waking up whenever we want to wake up, when we have no rhythm, when we can eat breakfast at noon. That is what I like doing the most, just chilling in the sun and being lazy. I like when everything is slow. I don’t like when things are too fast. It makes me nervous.
AP: Especially here in New York City. Everything is always so fast, right?
Ayo: I know! Sometimes, as I’m walking, I’ll stop and say “why am I walking so fast?” It’s because everyone around me is walking so fast. [Laughs]AP: [Laughs] So, let’s go back for a second to your experience in the industry. What do you make of the fact that people want to categorize you, but don’t really know exactly where to put you?
Ayo: Yeah, that was my problem at Interscope. They didn’t know where to put me in stores. And it’s funny because one day when I was in L.A., I went to Virgin Megastore with my manager. And she was pissed because my album was in the world music section. She was like “world music?! They put your record into world music?!” You almost feel offended. You look at it like maybe it’s because I’m African, and they put me into world music because that’s “where I belong.” With all those different music styles, why would you put me into world music? It’s really crazy. You have a singer/songwriter section – just put me into that section. I am a singer/songwriter. I know if I was white, I wouldn’t be in world music. I don’t like being boxed in. If you have so many different backgrounds, you don’t really need to be in a box.
AP: Would you say that there is no one category for you? If you were to pick a spot for yourself, what would it be?
Ayo: Well, there shouldn’t be spots. And if they want to have one, then they can write many, because they can write “soul/reggae/afrobeat/blues”. They can take all the genres and write them. Or they can just say “singer/songwriter with soul/reggae influence”. They can find something to describe it. Just don’t put it where it doesn’t belong. But at the end of the day, the people who listen are going to decide what it is to them.
AP: Well, category or not, your first album, Joyful, was extremely popular and well-received. Why do you think it was so successful?
Ayo: I believe there is no real explanation for it. Certain things are out of our hands and we don’t control them. You can be really great and talented and it won’t do anything, because it’s not the right time. I believe it was the right time and it was supposed to be. People were open and ready for it. It was not in my hands. I don’t think it has anything to do with me being talented, because I know a lot of talented people. It’s God. It’s a spirit that moves things.
AP: And do you feel that same way about the second album, Gravity at Last?
Ayo: Yes, a lot, because I believe that God gives me what I need, not what I want. Even with my album not being released [in the U.S.] yet and with all of my problems with Interscope, I think it’s good for me, because that allows me to keep on growing in a good way. Not like I have to be out there with everything happening so fast that I lose myself. I don’t want to become a writing machine and have the songs lose their soul. I don’t want anybody to take this away from me. It’s my yoga class. It’s my moment of peace. I feel like I need to do music. But if, one day, I am not successful anymore, I don’t want to feel like I am nothing, you know? Because I know I was somebody before all of this. So I don’t need to have [music] to be somebody. Even though I couldn’t tell you what I would do if I couldn’t do music…there are other great things out there.
AP: Are there any current artists that you think do a good job of keeping their identity in this industry?
Ayo: Mos Def is definitely someone who I can say is always honest to himself. I never saw him doing some weird kind of hip-hop with some … I don’t know … Christina Aguilera feature [Laughs]. You know what I mean? I used to love Black Eyed Peas in the very beginning, when they weren’t really big. They were so good, but people really didn’t get it. They were signed on Interscope. Then they had to collaborate with Fergie and all this. And it’s still good, but this goes back to people being honest to themselves. The good thing is Will.I.Am finally reached the point of freedom, where he can do whatever he wants. But still, is it good what he does? If you reach the point where you can do whatever you want, why not go back to what you were doing? Why not keep on teaching? A lot of kids liked what they were doing. I mean, sure, they still like it, but for the wrong reasons now. There’s no message anymore. But it’s good, too. I don’t want to judge it. But that’s why I like Mos Def and Talib Kweli. I like people that can do both. They can go there, but they always come back.
Other than them, I would say the one good thing that happened this year is Jazmine Sullivan. I think she’s really going to take over a lot. She is a true singer. And she is an old soul. I think that’s something really refreshing. And I think Jill Scott is great. I think the greatest, unfortunately, got mixed up in all this craziness—Lauryn Hill. I hope she comes back. This is the perfect example of how fast you can get burned out. I think she is very talented. Kanye West is good because he is always inventing and reinventing himself. It’s kind of cool that he does his own thing. But I’m really into the old stuff.
AP: Yeah, I heard you love Donny Hathaway.
Ayo: Yes, I love Donny Hathaway. He had something that just wasn’t from planet Earth. All those singers back then, like if you listen to a young Aretha Franklin, when they sang, you could hear them fighting. It was a movement back then. There is no movement these days.
AP: Are there any artists that you’ve worked with that have really stretched your limits musically?
Ayo: I really haven’t done a lot of collaborations. I don’t like to do collaborations that are forced. When I meet somebody and feel that connection, then I do it. One thing that really inspired me was when I wasn’t signed, in France I went to a Cody Chestnutt concert and we sang together. I think he is super-talented. Recently, I met Angelique Kidjo in Australia. We spent hours and hours together, talking. She was like a mom to me. Everything she said meant so much to me. She gave me a lot of strength and support. Those are like key moments that have been influential to my music and to me. Those are moments for me that I will never forget.
AP: You’re off to the UCLA Jazz Reggae festival in a few days. Do you look forward to performing with all of the artists that will be there?
Ayo: Definitely, I look forward to it. But I’m not nervous or super-excited. I don’t know, I would be more excited if it was like Stevie Wonder. I bumped into Stevie Wonder on the day of the elections. We were at the same hotel. I was really shy. Not just because I love his music so much, but because of what I connect to him. My dad would play his music so much when I was a child. He had every record of his. But other than that, I really just look at people as people. We are all so special in our very own way. Everybody has something that I don’t have. That’s how I look at it, and that means we can always be eye-to-eye.
AP: Wow, so you met Stevie Wonder and witnessed a historic election on the same day? What was it like for you to be at the election?
Ayo: It was a really special feeling. I remember the year I was here and I had my apartment in Manhattan. Bush was president and, I don’t know, there was a weird vibe. People were not very positive. And then Obama came into the picture for the first time, and it was like a fresh wind. Then when he became president, it was so crazy. Everybody cried there, because they knew what it meant. For me, it was amazing because I can tell my son “you can be president”. It gives you so much hope. And then I met Stevie Wonder that day. I was like “wow, I will never forget this day in my entire life”. [laughs] It’s beautiful that we can say we were there when the first black president moved into the White House. It was about time for it to happen. When I think of that, I think of the song by Donny Hathaway, “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” and of how many people who are out there, who don’t have a chance because the doors are locked. It was amazing, but it happened.
Gravity at Last is currently available in Europe and will be available in the U.S. later this summer.
Ayo’s music from the Banana Republic City Sounds digital download album is available as a gift with purchase throughout June 2009. http://www.bananarepublic.com/citystories
Comments