Encomium
Popular saxophonist Yemi Sax has, no doubt, made a mark in his genre of music. The happily married father of one is preparing to make impact on the international scene as well, he recently signed a new artist to his newly formed record label, Yemi Sax Entertainment. ENCOMIUM Weekly had an interview with him about his music, record label and sundry issues…
What is new about Yemi Sax?
Let me start from last year, I got married, my son came, I had to go on holiday, faced family life. Though, I had some shows in the US, I dropped a couple of singles as well. I am preparing for my fifth album which will be released before the end of the year. Anything can happen, I can decide to pick up another instrumental, I am a multi talented artiste.
Ladies seems not to be interested in your genre of music, why?
We have a couple of female saxophonists in Nigeria. It is just that ladies don’t have the type of push that men have. If a man wants to do something, he puts all his attention to it without distraction, when it comes to ladies, a lot of things are attached to it, their relationship, sometimes when they are doing well and they get married, they tend to relax a little bit, by the time they want to come back, the game has already changed, so, it is not really their fault. We still have a couple of good female saxophonists in Nigeria that are yet to be known.
Do you see yourself grooming female saxophonists?
I have not really taught any lady how to play the saxophone. I think I will love to.
A lot of people seem to be attracted to a particular genre of music than others, Nigerian love hip pop, because of that, hip pop artiste make it than others?
I think it is just a matter of strategy, any kind of music can sell in Nigeria, it all depends on how you package it, how you put it out to people also matters. If you are doing RnB, you have to put a little bit of African touch into it, if not, you will lose it. You cannot give your audience the same thing an international artiste is giving, they will rather patronize the International artiste but, if they hear that African touch, they will relate with you. A lot of people made their way to success by releasing slow songs. It is not all about the club songs alone it is good for artistes to be versatile.
How was it working with Wizkid?
We have been on it for a while now, but we were both busy, thank God it came to pass eventually. I really enjoyed working with him.
Who will you describe as the best artiste you have worked with?
When it comes to entertainment part of it, it is D’Banj, I did the saxophone of Fall in Love, it was fun working with that man in the studio. It was fun working with Wizkid also. I have a lot of them.
Generally, it seems we don’t have enough sax artistes in Nigeria?
There are a couple of good saxophonists out there I think they are afraid of facing it, even when I started, I got a lot of criticism. People believe that saxophonist cannot make it in Nigeria. I thank God that I have proved them wrong. I don’t believe you have to be a singer before you can make it in the industry.
– DOLAPO AMODENI
