Every Valentine’s Day for the past four years, the Nigerian creative community, WeTalkSound, has released a compilation project that tells stories of love, named “LOFN” after a Norse goddess who aids troubled lovers.
LOFN: A Collection of Love Stories, was released when the community was made up of majorly Ibadan artists, the city where it was founded. A mostly alternative project, the first edition of LOFN had the rawness and authenticity of an underground project.
LOFN2 had contributions from MilesFromMars, Vader The Wildcard, MoBelive, Mide Micheal, 50 creatives, poets and other members of the community. The proceeds from LOFN2 album sales went to two orphanages.
In LOFN3, rappers turned to emotive singers, and we heard Meji’s infamous “I’m like Enugu I got no beaches” line, The Inglorious MOB’s piano ballad about insecurities, and Dwin The Stoic‘s captivating baritone on Juju.
LOFN4 had an expectation to meet, and it did, with each artist bringing their best. LOFN 4 blends afropop with afrofusion, and leans heavily into R&B in a similar serenade to nineties and noughties music.
We talked to some of the voices behind LOFN4, in a two-part series about their contributions to WeTalkSound’s LOFN 4: A Collection of Love Stories.
Anyone who followed Naya Akanji’s projects last year will tell you that her collaborative EP with producer Lemar Abdul, titled Vivid Emotions, was one of the best underground projects from last year.
I grew up listening to tons of pop and I’m a sucker for electronic sounds. My all-time favourite producer is Flume, my sound evolves a little bit every single day.
Naya Akanji
Talking about how Busy came to be, TiwaDara mentioned facing creative blocks after making the chorus and finishing up the song amidst tight schedules.
It was getting close to the submission deadline and we hadn’t finished the song, as Naya was busy at the time, in fact, I was considering not going forward with the submission. I eventually told Naya to send a recording of the chorus and pre-chorus, then I recorded the verse I already had. I recorded a lot of background harmonies which really raised the song’s emotions. Naya was excited about the harmonies that she recorded hers and sent them. And that is how we made Busy amidst our busy schedules.
TiwaDara
On creating Love You Now Deziire says “I got inspired while playing the guitar, came up with a progression, then I wrote the song, before sending it to a friend who made a few changes.”
The third track on LOFN4 adds more elements of afro-fusion, a genre both Nu Baby and KvY are quite familiar with. Like Am was produced by OD, who believed Kvy was the missing piece of its puzzle.
I hope that in time, I’m able to show the breadth of artistry I’m bringing to the table.
Nu Baby
I’m cut differently and I’m coming for everything, making the music, is the easiest part of the job for an artist.
Kvy
A.D.A.M teamed up with Kidda X, who saw his Bolt Challenge video in 2019 and reached out to collaborate.
The beat for “Number” was actually the first beat he played for me that day, and I decided to write to it. But I was not satisfied with the final work, I thought I hadn’t done enough. Thankfully, Kidda was patient enough to let me re-record over a couple of months, till we finally did a version we were satisfied with sometime in October.
A.D.A.M
Kemena is a rare gem, his sophomore project; Bond, peaked at number 24 on Apple Music’s Top 100 World Albums chart. About being influenced by Jon Bellion and Disney, Kemena says “They’ve perfected the art of giving people a happy nostalgia. I wanted to do that, you can hear it when you listen to my records. You have to break into a smile. I know, because I chuckle myself when I’m making the records.”
For “Soweto,” Kemena drew inspiration from the baseline of Afrobeat legend, Fela’s performance of Human Rights,
“The baseline really jumped at me” he says, “I hummed that bass line all day and couldn’t get it out of my head. I sent a voice note humming the bassline over WhatsApp to TheMusicNerd and we built the entire song over that baseline. I hadn’t written anything yet, we just played what we had built for hours and hours. Then we went to another friend’s place, Wade, who layered evil guitars over the beat, that’s when I was satisfied.”
Kemena
3rvhmz, thePDSTRN (Bramz the PEDESTRIAN) is a Leo sun Gemini ascendant Virgo moon, 3rvhmz is a strong believer in zodiacs, vibrations and energies, and a hopeless romantic for the arts. Toxic is a Trapsoul ballad based on the experience of a close friend, and it was produced by Ulti Vasto.
3rvhmz names Kid Cudi, Goldlink and J.Cole as some of his influences. Being an artist for him is
Trying out a whole bunch of stuff sonically. Experimenting with various forms of music and genres, I can be listening to Yonkers by Tyler The Creator and the next minute Orere Elejigbo and Danger by The Lijadu Sisters. I like to explore the technicalities of different sounds: hip hop, house, funk, afrobeat. Like one time I spent hours dissecting [Tyler the Creator’s] EARTHQUAKE. I get lost in it.
3rvhmz, thePDSTRN on what being an artist means to him.
Viveeyan’s Love Me Loud is so special, her vocal range hits many chords and heartstrings. For Viveeyan, when it comes to creating, she asks herself “Does it make sense if I read it out loud without the music? Is there a truth there that someone can connect with?”
An artist is as good as what they feed themselves creatively. I try to listen to a lot of music and read the lyrics too. Consuming knowledge outside music also helps me. You never know if it is the dialogue in a movie or a sentence from a documentary series that will ignite the bulb and get your creative juices flowing”.
Viveeyan
