Wurld is a singer-songwriter signed with Universal Records who has written for some of the most famous artistes in the world.
He spoke to Nation about his plans:
With a career in IT already in motion, how difficult was it to choose your current career path?
It wasn’t difficult, being in college and studying IT prepared me for so many different things. While I was in college music was a significant part of my life, and I met lots of people in the industry who helped me get there, so making the transition was relatively easy.
You write all of your music; where do you draw inspiration from and what is your favourite part of the process?
I get most of my inspiration from people, experiences, and things that I’ve learned since being a kid in Lagos to a young man in Atlanta and my favourite part is creating the music and finally performing it.
Tell me of your musical journey from moving to the US for school until releasing “Evolution.”
Everything was a learning process for me from finding my ‘sound’ which took a lot of time, experiences and learning. I could say “Evolution” was an introductory EP that was all about me finding myself and a lot of people don’t know that.
One of your earliest successes was song writing for Mario. How did this come about?
A lot of people referred me, he was in Atlanta working on his album, and I was fortunate to be called into the song writing session, and we started creating music! It was great; I consider him my friend.
Two of your most popular releases are “Contagious” and “Show You Off” tell me more about these songs.
“Show You Off” was my first introduction to the African market because of the Afro-fusion. Coming together with Shizzi and Walshy Fire was very organic. That’s what you hear about good music, people coming together in the purest form and effortlessly creating music. I worked on “Contagious” with Shizzy also, and it was pretty much the same thing.
Your videos are always unique and artistic. How did you come up with these concepts and what did you aim to deliver to everyone?
I have always wanted to create my own aesthetics in my videos, the inspiration comes from everything that I’ve learned along the way. I love art and fashion, but I’m African first, and I try to incorporate that into my music. I describe it as African contemporary because they are not as traditional as those of my peers.
With all the singles, do you plan to release another album or EP soon?
I have an EP coming out, its called “Contagious”, a seven-song EP with “Show You Off” and “Contagious” alongside five other unreleased songs. I have another EP as well that I’m working on, its called “Trouble”, it’s a seven-song EP as well, it’s about those girls that create trouble everywhere they go because of their beauty. They all have a lot of collaborations.
Universal music just signed a branch into Africa last month, and you were one of the few to be signed. How does it feel?
I’m honoured, first of all, we have similar goals to showcase African culture and its range to the world because they know very little of the kind of music we have here. We’re just getting started.
What does this mean for your fans and music now that you’re in a major record label?
I have a lot of collaborations and projects coming in so they should not worry about videos and singles (laughs). I’ve been doing exclusive private showcases as part of my African tour, we began in South Africa, we’ll be doing exclusive pop-up shop event in Lagos with a performance, in December I’ll be doing more in-depth performances and showcases around the world.
Fire collabos we should be looking forward to?
On “Contagious” there won’t be any collaborations, but on “Trouble” we’ll be doing collabos with LegenduryBeatz, Producer Julez, Wande Coal, I’m looking forward to working with some Kenyan artists as well like Sauti Sol and Naiboi alongside other international artistes.
So, what’s your favourite thing to do when you’re not writing/producing/recording?
I like to cook. I can make a mean Chicken Rice. Haha.
What is the most trouble you’ve ever gotten into? I get into a lot of trouble with women. Haha.
Is Wurld taken? I belong to the world.
What is the motto you live by in your career? Aim to give and inspire, then give and inspire some more.
Finally, how has your experience in Kenya been so far? The people are very kind and helpful, it has been great.
