Our wives loves Swagger
-Artquake
They might not have won Grammies but the name Artquake is always a force to reckon with in the entertainment industry. Adex and Ice-k of the electrifying group in a chat with Spaiz Media's Editor, Towobola Damilola explained their sojourn into the highly competitive world of music and other interesting issues.
You celebrated a decade on stage; did you expect you were going to grow so quickly when you started?
We just did what we knew how to do best within the decade. We equally had our ups and downs. The major thing that kept us going was the passion and the believe we had in what we were doing. As per growth, we have been very progressive. I would simply say we have never had a better yesterday, everything we have been doing have gotten better by the year.
Tell us how the journey started and what has been keeping you guys together?
We started in school while doing our national diploma in kwara state polytechnic in 1995. When we discovered that we both had individual talent that was significantly unique so we decided to come together to form a group then known as adx and icek, we subsequently performed at many of our schools shows, we quickly became the favourite of most organisers, we became local champions because any show adx and icek did rock in those days.
we moved to the polytechnic of Ibadan for our HND in 1998 and in 1999 we decided to go professional by recording our first single titled” abule lawa” the track which brought our attention to the CEO of corporate picture who signed us with a mouth watering record deal which enabled the release of our first album titled “never ending” which had tracks like shamagbadun, abule lawa and anycolor just to mention a few,
few years later we were signed to another record label know as littlefish which enabled the release of our 2nd album titled “shoe get size” in 2004 which tracks like everybody are u ready konkojabele and u chop my money in 2006. we left the record label to start up our own production outfit and record label called AQ multimedia and since then we have been in charge of all our works up till now
as a group what has been keeping us together is tolerance, respect for each other and the fact that we are just two of us because English men say two is company three is crowd
How have you been coping with your star status?
We have been used to stardom right from when we started as local champion in kwara poly so it’s been quite easy to deal with because we do not allow it get into our head, our stardom does not control us, and we control it.
Who actually is Artquake and what is the significance of your stage name?
Artquake means the exploitation of creative innovation we go extra mile to do creative things, the significance of this name is that anytime we perform on stage we create a huge and heavy presence.
With your marital status, now beaming "married”, hope it won't weight you down in terms of the swags?
We are both married and as far as we are concerned it does not change anything, in fact this is the time we concentrate the more on our career because we are not distracted by any female friend or fans knowing we are married.
We also have the swags intact the swags cannot change in fact it will even get better because our wives loves swagger ” no be small” and we always love to impress them, we no marry bush girls u know.
Let's talk about music, many are of the view that you are presently short of concept. What is your response to this?
I just think they are beefing our success because if anyone will stand up to say we are short of concepts, I wonder how we have been able to stay up this long in the industry, and many soldiers have fallen in battle. we started with so many people I won’t want to mention any names but if you cast your mind back from 1999 till now you can’t find anyone who has stayed as relevant and consistent as we have been over the years.
What is your driving force as far as music is concerned?
The drive is the passion we have for music and the fact that we make a lot of people happy; we put smiles on the faces of people. This makes us want to do more and more and more.
It seems new guys on the bloc are giving you old guys a run in the music industry?
(Amused)....new guys? We don’t see anyone as new or old we see all of them as colleagues because so many have meet us in this industry and also left while we are still here, though it’s not by our power its by the grace of god so they are not giving us a run because if they were “we for don run comot” instead most of them are looking up to us… so the truth is we are not affected in way with new influx of people into the industry all we would continually say is ‘welcome’
How would you rate the music industry in Nigeria and Africa in general?
Nigeria music industry is about the first to reckon within the whole of Africa considering the achievements of the Nigerian artiste within the last 10 years all eyes is on Nigeria no doubt even the entire world will begin to feel the impact now because “Naija music” is the future of music in the entire world we are taking over gradually.
What’s your take on piracy?
Until the federal government of Nigeria see the entertainment industry as an industry we would not see changes. They need to constitute laws that would positively affects musician and protect them over piracy. We really need the support of the federal government and join hands with them.
To whom do you owe your rise in the industry?
To God almighty and our diehard fans all over the world
How many artiste do you have presently on your record label?
We have one artiste called Young Nate. You will be hearing from him pretty soon.
Many have criticized contemporary artiste like you for having poor lyrical content, singing only about sex, booze, internet fraud and other less noble things. How would you react to this?
The lyrics we spill are what people see and do every day. That is why we sell more than the non contemporary artistes, you can’t argue that. However, Artquake don’t just sing about sex girls. we sing reality songs etc.
What’s your best delicacy?
Local dished will do that, Amala, pounded yam all with Egusi and vegetable.
What inspirational word do you have for aspiring music stars and the youths in general?
Believe in yourself and make sure you truly have talent before going into music, also try to sound like yourself don’t try to sound like Artquake be original.
