El-Phlex; is a music group consisting of two brothers. In this interview with our REPORTER, they talked about the challenges of the music industry, School of Thought their forthcoming album and more.
You have been silent for a while, what’s been happening?
We have been working hard. We are always trying to put out something good, something which will connect us to our fans. We just dropped a new single called Low Waist and hopefully, we will drop an album this year. It is an overdue album; we have gone for tours with a couple of other artistes, but finally we are ready to drop it. It will be out in the next couple of months, although, we are yet to decide on the date.
Something seems to be holding the album back, what is it?
We think it will be in our best interest to create a large fan base before releasing the album. Presently, we have shot about six videos and we don’t believe in dropping an album which won’t get the massive response that it deserves, hence we are putting our efforts together and hustling hard to get things right. We are also working with other producers, revisiting our songs in order to be more creative. We want to drop an album which our fans won’t be able to do without, something that they won’t be disappointed with when they eventually buy it.
You seem to be measuring the success rate of this album by the number of videos you have shot, is this right?
No, it shouldn’t be that way, but if you look at this industry you will realise that it requires a lot of hard work. You need to let people know who you are; it is not by dropping singles that you will catch the attention of the public. It is not enough to just drop singles because some people are in a particular state and they don’t know who you are so with the awareness they will get to know you. We are looking at also putting an international outlook into our career. For instance, Beyonce recently released a new album and she shot about 15 videos for the work and they were all released at the same time. So, we too have our own strategy. We believe if we keep doing the right things, keep doing good songs we will get known everywhere and that is what we have been doing.
What motivated the new single, Low Waist
It is a contemporary song, it is somehow like an Afrobeat sound and it is a song that relates with everybody. We met a producer sometime back and he was playing a good beat with a guitarist and it sounded lovely. That was how it all started and before you know it we created something that went with the beat. Low Waist, is a contemporary song which people are dancing to right now.
Who are the other artistes on this album?
We worked with a lot of artistes such as Sheyman, Reminisce, Skales and we are still working on some international collaboration.
You were recently in South Africa to shoot a video, are you sending a message that there are better locations there or that they are better than Nigeria?
I told you earlier that we had already shot about six videos. Those videos were shot in Nigeria. If we decide to go and shot a video in South Africa I don’t think it has anything to do with the location or environment. Trust me, it is cheaper to shoot there and there are a lot of facilities to use there. I don’t think it is a problem.
Some people will still insist that there is a problem because rather than develop your country you are investing in another, don’t you think so?
I think if we have shot five or six videos in Nigeria we have tried in our effort to promote the country’s music industry. I know several artistes who have gone to South Africa to shoot all of their videos. The reason behind our decision to go to South Africa is basically that we shot all of our existing videos in Nigeria and we have worked with some of the best hands in the industry here in Nigeria. We have shot a video with Clearance Peters, we shot with DJ Tee, we shot with Patrick Ellis, so who else is left. We just thought since the song was a contemporary one that would be listened to in all parts of Africa, we should go to South Africa to exhibit our skillful idea. The idea behind the video was created by us, we went with our costume and we just told the director what we wanted. So, it is simply a Nigerian concept shot in South Africa.
What is that guarantee which will make your fans buy this album?
There is the uniqueness factor. We have been trying so hard to climb the ladder of success in the music industry and I can tell you that everything we have done till date is on point. We are not good artistes, but good entertainers. We will entertain you with our kind of music which is Afro pop and I tell you that you will hear the message in it. Just like Amen which we dropped in 2010, it was our first official single and it had messages in it; it had content. It wasn’t just about booty, so you will always find something to like in the album.
You are aware of a recent supposed misunderstanding between P-Square, can such happen to you?
Seriously it is not possible. Anything can happen, but you need to remember that we are brothers and there is a saying that “blood is thicker than water.”
Do you know that P-Square is also made up of two brothers?
P-Square are brothers and today they are back together which was why I said blood is thicker than water earlier. There will always be issues, but because they are brothers, they will settle the rift. The same applies to us, we might have issues, but at the end of the day, it still comes back to the fact that we are siblings.
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