'A good songwriter is the closest thing to God,' emerging act talks music, purpose

Hail from Delta state, Nigeria, Omagz has had his fair share of challenges coming up as a budding musician.

Lack of support from parents to take music as a career path is no stranger to many young Nigerians.

But Omagz has resolved not to let this dream of his die.

Speaking with Pulse Music, he talks about his sojourn in the music landscape thus far.

Though he would have loved to study Sound engineering in school, his folks weren’t in support, so he ended up studying architecture at the  tertiary level of education. He however, still got on learning audio engineering along the way, informally that is.

Omagz says he still plans to practice architecture in the future because to him, it’s not wise to rely on just music alone, making reference to a Jay-Z who diversified, having his hands deep in other businesses outside the music.

Currently for Omagz, it’s all about the art of music. Putting out an album called “Young Magazine” in 2016, Omagz says he wasn’t satisfied with that project but had to put it out to make way for more creative ideas and put out new music.

“I felt I could do better in terms of the musicality of the project as a whole, it’s very raw, it’s baseline of okay,” he said about the “Young Magazine” album.

Omagz sees himself as a jack of all trades with the music, doing a little bit of everything. He would rather not focus on what his style or sound is because it’s forever going to change he says.

“I don’t want to get stuck on one particular sound for too long maybe because I feel I can do so many different things I want to explore so many different sounds and see what becomes of it,” Omagz says, pointing back to why the "Young Magazine" album is special to him, explaining that it housed different sounds which represents how he likes to make music.

On what music does for him, Omagz says ‘’It’s a release, it’s an unction, I don’t have a choice you don’t really choose music it chooses you.”

The multi-gifted artist describes the progression of his music journey as random but positive, adding that what he can say for sure is that his fan base has grown largely from his 2016 project “Young Magazine” to dropping two hot singles 'Osho free' and 'What you like' in 2017, and people seem to like the direction he is taking with his recent two songs out.

For Omagz, he wants his music to keep moving ahead of him and doesn’t want to be in the spotlight, sort of like how a Frank Ocean has been perceived to be, he explains.

Music influences going for Omagz include foreign cats like Dr Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Travis Scott and Kanye West. As for Nigerian musicians, Omagz explains that he doesn’t like one artist more than the other, that it’s bigger than the music, bigger than the culture, because he grew up with Nigerian artists and will forever be influenced by Nigerian music.

He did however mention a few Nigerian acts he admires which include 9ice, Tomi Thomas, Naeto C and 2Baba. He talked about 9ice’s “Gongo Aso” album as very original and special to him, and wishes for 9ice to replicate the feat.

Omagz says he has unconsciously taken 9ice’s approach of originality and infused it into his own songs.  He also talked about vibes and substance in music as being separate but there should be a balance.

“The balance between vibes and substance is where you have perfection, that’s where someone like a Kendrick Lamar has thrived, he’s done what no one else seems to be able to catch.”

In terms of his grand plan, Omagz speaks more on why he is doing music, explaining it as his purpose, a God-given gift, a spiritual thing.

“I have been given a gift by God, there are things I can do that other people can’t. I see the look on someone’s face when they hear a song and they are like ‘you did this?’ because in their head it’s something they can’t do and it makes you as an artist feel a special kind of way.”

"I learnt this year that , a good songwriter, someone that can sit down and create is the closest thing to God. You have a thought in your head and you bring it to physicality and you see that thought you have change someone’s life and mood, that is very powerful, and I feel God has given me that gift for His use at the end of the day. ”

Omagz in choosing artists he collaborates with, says the artist must be part of the song and this he does after he has a general concept for a project. And of course he listens to the artist’s music well ahead before to know who will suit a particular song idea.

He also credits collaborations between this new set of emerging artists as reason why they are beginning to have a presence in the Nigerian music front. Omagz also attributes internet penetration as a force that’s helping the new artists reach international markets and predicts they will be blowing up in the foreign markets first before they do home.

Omagz has performed at youth-centred events such as the 90's baby Soundoff and the Lemon Curd 2.0, where his performance has had a fairly good reception.

On what’s next for Omagz in 2017, he plans to release more singles, start a live show of his own, and also drop an album. Basically for him, he wants people to think deep on another level when they listen to his music.

Find Omagz’s music on Soundcloud and other leading digital music platforms.