You carved a niche for yourself as a gospel minister in 2014 with that popular hit, Eledumare. How has the journey been since that breakthough?
It has been awesome. The Holy Ghost has been my source of inspiration. I never knew God would work this way in my life. The turnaround has been beyond my imagination. My greatest prayer is to go from strength to strength in the delivery of God’s mandate.
What have you been doing lately?
I’ve been working, preaching, building bridges and breaking down unnecessary barriers. I have a mandate from God and I am giving all my best to accomplish all His assignments. I was inspired by the Holy Spirit to start a couple of things, although, not all are directly linked to music; some are channeled towards nation building and self-empowerment. I started a clothing line business in 2015, which is fast growing to becoming one of the most productive arms of business for me. Also in 2016, I started a community give-back project, The Timi Phoenix Dairy Initiative, a project inspired by my cleric, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, in line with his vision entitled: Africa is to be built by Africans. The aim of the initiative is to revive libraries by stocking them with both old and refurbished textbooks within Lagos State.
However, the project is not limited to education. We have delivered medical services to communities, and we have empowered and supported youths like myself who have the intention of reaching out to people, but don’t know how to go about it. My music ministry is not left out of all this. I recorded new songs for my new project that kicked off in 2018. Aside all those programmes, I shot two videos of my songs entitled: Shout Halle and Oluwatimileyin from the Triumph album, which was released in 2017. So, it has been work all the way and I thank God for the grace and inspirations.
A number of individual claimed to have discovered their passion for gospel music through divine intervention. Is your case different?
For me, music is a ministry or rather, a calling. Music brings me fulfilment in His vineyard. I was called into this ministry and I am grateful for the honour as one of the vessels of God.
At what point did you go into gospel music professionally?
I started music in 2011, but professionally, it was in 2014 and the experience has been awesome. The truth is that I didn’t just venture into gospel music; God chose my path. I have always had the desire of becoming someone that can make a difference in the lives of others. Using music to achieve that was an opportunity for me to have a purposeful living. Like you know, the only thing that makes a difference in the life of anyone is the word of God, that’s the gospel and its fact.
Are you satisfied with the prevailing situation in the gospel music industry?
There has been a remarkable improvement, compared to what it used to be. So, much has changed since 2015. In a previous interview I had with Tribune, I remember I said I was going to review a lot of notions because of the change that I foresaw.
While we are at a good level at the moment, there is still room for improvement.
So, what is your assessment of the industry?
The gospel music is not an industry; it’s a Ministry. Music can be said to be an industry in the general term, but for gospel music, I have my reservation identifying it as an industry. However, to answer your question, we are making progress. Now, we have emerging independent labels, standard production houses. An example is Carel Film; we have more gospel artistes taking the frontline to headline their concerts and create even more platforms for the fast-rising gospel musicians, just to mention a few. We can’t ignore the fact that gospel music is also contributing to the growth of the church. In the last three years, gospel music has had a larger number of musicians than it used to have.
What is reservation about collaboration involving gospel singer with secular artistes to produce songs?
Let us focus on the intention or the motive behind it. If it is for fame, I am not for it. But if it is for the furtherance of the gospel, I’m in full support. When God instructed Peter to visit or identify with the Gentiles, it was for the purpose of furthering the gospel; it was to ensure that he could minister the gospel to them and gain them to the kingdom of Christ. Besides, God saw that Peter’s going to the house will not just be to bring one convert, but many more. For those always using this scripture, I’m sure they should have a clear understanding of the facts and conditions to collaborate with a secular artiste. A secular artist must be the kind of person that is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; he must be willing to stand boldly for the spread of the gospel; both in the open and in secret, because once you collaborate with him, you point the church to him.
People have also criticised the tendency by gospel ministers to infuse secular music and slangs into gospel songs, even during ministration in church. What is your stand on the issue?
When you say secular slang, I wonder if there is a language called secular language. We communicate in Nigerian Languages; English and Pidgin. So, every word or slang has a meaning! If you say gospel artistes do make use of vulgar languages from secular songs, I’m not in support of such practice. There are different genres of music and sounds and the purpose. I wrote an article in 2016; it covered the full scope of evolving sounds in the gospel music ministry. It defined the purpose of the sound in the ministry for this time. The article talks about the sound or genres that are outside the regular praise and worship songs in church, which the world says are monotonous. I also mentioned that the evolution of the gospel sound is to expand the body of Christ; they are tools for evangelism.
The essence of communication is to understand and access information. It is essential for me to understand the language to fast-pass a message to you as my audience, because understanding that the purpose or the importance of communicating this information to you is of high importance to me until you receive it. It is about exploring all possible measure/language to communicating this to you without losing its original massage-is key. So, let’s just see it as other translations of the massage through sound or genre.
But it’s wrong to sing a secular song word-for- word to suit the sound of the church.
Don’t you feel threatened among the popular gospel ministers?
Threatened? No! Rather, I’m always inspired by them. In fact, I love being around them. I learn a lot being in the company of the A-list artistes; they are my gang!
Who are your role models?
Sinach, Frank Edwards, Travis Greene, Joe Praise, Tim Godfrey, Deacon Buchi, and many others.
How many albums or songs do you have to your credit?
Two albums and 35 released tracks.
What has been your greatest challenge in the industry?
Finance; the gospel is not as cheap as it looks. For it to get to the ends of the earth, it requires a lot of money.
There are insinuations that music ministers hardly preach the gospel through their songs and, where they do, their lives don’t portray them as a true Christians. So, how can one identify a true gospel minister?
By their fruits, you shall know them. It is not all about singing Jesus I love you; it is by living as the light, so that the people around you will love the Jesus you love, because of your way of living. A true worshipper or music minister is like a beautiful fragrance that is very concentrated; it always speaks for itself even in its silence.
Did you have the vision that you would become a music minister while in school?
Yes, that was where it all started.
What are your regrets for dumping your academic certificate as a quantity Surveyor for music?
I didn’t dump my certificate. There is really nothing bad in having multiple streams of income. My profession, Quantity Surveying, is actually more about fieldwork. I really do not have to work in an office from 8am to 5pm. But, I practise when the opportunity arises, and trust me, I’m good.
Where would you like to see yourself in the next five years?
I would love to run ministry of a global standard. For instance, I will love to go around the world, breaking records, all for the gospel.
You must have encountered certain temptations in your career. Which one would you consider as the most challenging and how did you handle or overcome it?
Money! This is basically common with young people like me, but I have always disciplined myself to stay among the fold. Also, keeping the right company has helped me a lot. Trust me; the right company can save you from wasting a lot of years. At some point in my career, I thought I had put in enough and it was time to start earning money. In my pursuit of exploring this earning money of a thing, I almost gave up on ministry, thinking it’s not a worthy course. I mean where to get the money to carry on since I’m working so hard to put resources into it all these years and I couldn’t really get returns enough to pay my bills. I was not too happy with my decision of investing more even though I couldn’t help but invest more in my music. I would have messed things up if I had no other sources of income and support.
However, in all of this, I learned that desperate expectations of premature harvest might cost no harvest at all. I later realised that building up your ministry or career requires consistency, persistence and perseverance. So, when you have other sources of income, you shake off the pressures of strangling with your ministry or depending on royalty and honourarium to survive at a very early stage out of desperation. The royalty and honorarium will come, but the success of your ministry should outgrow it; not wholly dependent on it.
Any words to your fans?
It is that anybody can make a difference in life, but it’s up to you to decide if you will be the one making the difference or be the one judging those making it. There is a place for everyone in Christ Jesus; let the world see Jesus in all that you do.
and then