I’m shocked at my level of acceptance in Nigeria —Effia Addo

United Kingdom-based Ghanaian Afrofusion artiste, Effia Afi Addo, popularly known as Effs, is an exceptional vocalist. In this interview by Aderonke Adesanya, she speaks on her mission in Nigeria and future projects. Excerpts:

Can you tell us your mission in Nigeria?

We have been receiving so much praises and love from the Nigerian fan base; just on the streaming of our song and that is to them sending us DMs, making comments on our page etc. We’ve always had a close relationship with Nigerians because when I started writing music, it was with Nigerian friends in the university that I started gathering my passion for Afro beats.

We have had such a warm reception from our Nigerian fans. I mean, no one has to tell you one million streams for an unknown artiste, who is not been backed by a major record label that is magical for us and we are here because we want to get to know them. Who are these incredible people who have listened to us even though they don’t know us, who have been playing our music, even though they don’t know the name, even though the name is not Nigerian, even though they might not resonate with it, it’s not the typical local stuff that they are used to find.

So, I want my Nigerian fans to even tell me, input into what sort of stuff you want to hear? Who do you think I should collaborate with? What do you want me to sing about? What type of pain do you want me to express? What type of happiness? I want it to be a kind of mutual symbiotic relationship and that’s where we’re here. We want to know our fans better and we want to also allow them to know us.

Musically, can you highlight your journey so far, focusing on your discography?

I’m a varied artiste. My professional discography has not come from Afro-fusion. So, I’ve written an album for an Oxfordshire musician, it was a Christian folk album that is available to stream as well and that was more based on the fact that as a musician, you advertise your songwriting talents and wherever you are hired, that’s where you go.

So, discography-wise, this is my first official debut single. It is my first official release. We’ve had underground releases back in the day where you will do something like a mixtape, you record a song, so I had a song called, No Wahala and again, that’s because I had such a strong Nigerian community influence growing up.

What inspired the music, the sound of the song?

I just felt super sexy. We were in the studio and the beat came on and we’re like, oh, like we were all just jamming. We started creating the beat from the basic R&B flow and when the beat started going, I said let me try something, went into the studio and I started this sort of thinking. And I thought oh, scrap that let’s do something else. Then one of the supporting producers goes “Keep that, record it now, record it on your phone. Keep it keep it I love it.” And that became pretty much the foundation of the song.

Any plan to produce a video for ‘I Like That’?

We certainly are and most people would wonder you are starting artiste and emerging artiste, why so much money spent on a video? There are some songs that I feel like they deserve a video. I think I just sang a few of the lyrics for you, but you need to hear the song itself with the right sort of recording equipment.

The song is blown away. The production is immense, it’s hard. As they would say, “This beat is hard.” I think the R&B vocals are unique. It’s such a purely sexy song. I just needed a video for it.

I also feel like we are in the era of visuals. That’s the truth. People want to see who the voice is and I’m not going to lie if you’re a bit of a pretty face, it does help to sell your music. So, that was also considered.

I’m so grateful we got the opportunity to do a video that allows me to express to my audience, my fans, Nigeria and Ghana, the level of African excellence we have in Africa. The video will be out in February and we’ll be back in February during Valentine’s week to promote it. We are also launching a dance challenge that is opened to both fans in Ghana and Nigeria.

For the majority of your listeners to be from Nigeria, that means you’re doing something Nigerians want. What do you think you’re doing that makes them hooked your music?

I think the song is unique. That is not your typical Afrobeat song, that’s why I’m calling it Afro fusion. But it has a very definitive Afro sound from the Amapiano drums. It was developed by Richie Mensah, who is famous in Ghana and all around the world for producing some of the biggest hits. So, it’s got a heavily influenced Afro-drum sound. So, you can’t call it anything else. Even if you wanted to call it pop. You couldn’t just ignore that African drum in it. But I think what is different is probably the Nigerian Diaspora base and the fact that Nigerians today are connected to the global world.

What are you doing to build on this momentum, in terms of collaborating with Nigerian artiste?

I’m a starting artiste, not professionally, but in this arena and environment, I’m an emerging artiste. Let’s consider me like a startup in this environment currently, but for those who know me, I’ve worked with Nigerian beat producers and I’m very much into artistic expression, blending my thoughts and mixing my thoughts and experiencing and letting my art itself be able to be expressed and that’s through collaboration.

So, even on the underground, I’ve got a catalogue of songs that if you look at it, it’s not mainly Ghana producers. I’ve worked with even producers from Colombia and Germany, but I’ve worked also with a lot of underground Nigerian producers who are not big names, but I want to support them to get their music out there because there’s some serious talent in this country.

Concerning leveraging on the momentum, my favourite Nigerian artiste is Davido. I’d like to work with him and Adekunle Gold. These are people that I’ve listened to without having somebody tell me or being advertised to me. There’s also Chike, who to me is an incredible songwriter, I mean, the opportunity to work with someone like him. I’ve got a YouTube video where I’ve done an acoustic version of some Chike songs.

As a country of art, there are so many people I would love to collaborate with but we’re talking favourites, I think Davido, Adekunle Gold, Chike and also Don Jazzy.

So, yes, these are the sorts of people I would love the opportunity to collaborate with. But again, there’s so much business and musical politics that is involved when you’re talking to heavy money and heavy labels that it doesn’t always go that way.

Does that mean you are against the submission of your fellow Ghanaian artistes that moved for the band of listening to others music from other countries?

For me, I want to have a more balanced conversation about this. So, I understand where your questions are coming from. I understand where those who have made it before me people like Reggie Rockstone are coming from. You know, you have to understand why people are driven with the opinions they have. Remember where Reggie Rockstone came from because he is one of the pioneers of Ghana Afrobeats, and Hiplife. These guys have toiled in the days where there were no songs online; there was no Instagram, WhatsApp to send your song to.

I think I can understand his concern, where he feels possibly, that Ghanaian artistes or people, who are like similar to him and his time, are not getting as much representation. But I am an artiste, and I will always stand for the art, the freedom of art and expression of art.

I am also a Ghanaian, so do I not want Ghana music to be more popular? Of course, we all do but I think the conversation about national pride, nationalism should not be siloed to the corner of artistic expression. I think there’s a bigger conversation about what is doing to promote Ghana. It’s not about us.

I don’t think we should take arts and stifle arts because Ghana is not doing as well as it could in the national rights and all promoting national its own things, I’m not, I don’t think it should start with us. I feel this conversation should have started elsewhere. We’re talking about Ghana products that need to promote small businesses in Ghana, promote hotels in Ghana, and promote local restaurants in Ghana. This to me has a wider impact and a much more beneficial impact on the economy.

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