How Jemima Osunde turned me down – Ric Hassani

Thunder Fire You singer, Eric Ahiazu aka Ric Hassani has opened up on his relationship with popular actress Jemima Osunde, the journey from releasing Dreams 10 years ago, the challenges along the line, and the process that gave rise to The Prince I Became. In this chat with OLUWATOMISIN AMOKEOJA. He also reveals how he met Hollywood star, David Oyelowo and their relationship.

 

You tweeted at least twice about your desire to do a song with Zlatan, what’s the progress after he recently reacted to your latest tweet about it? Have you been able to get in touch with him?

Of course, I’m working on a song. Let’s see how it goes. We are definitely working on something.

Did you make any other move aside from tweeting to get across to him?

No, actually. I just wanted to make a song with him like, “how is it going to sound?” And then he responded to the tweet. I was like “okay, grab this opportunity”. I’ve been working on the song. So I want to have the song ready before I contact him again. So yes! That’s just the plan. I’m working on the song, hopefully it will happen soon.

Was there really anything that informed your desire to work with him?

No. I was just thinking. “How will it sound?” You know, just me doing a song with Zlatan. Nothing particular, it was just out of a random thought.

You are known to give kudos to your backup singers; at what point did you start working with them?

I have been working with them for almost three years, when people were able to pay me to perform, with a live band, because it’s two different kinds of pay. Paying me to perform alone is lesser but if you want me to do live band, it’s a lot more money.

I was looking for backup singers but most of the backup singers around were mostly females. And for my backups on my songs, they are done by me when I’m recording in the studio. So I knew I needed male backups because I wanted them to sound like me. So I started looking for guys, I conducted auditions. I went through a lot of people. That’s how I found them; three of them.

I have been paying attention while you were making music upstairs, I see you listen to music from your colleagues in between. Do you have a ritual or typical procedure you observe to make music?

Honestly, when I’m making music, I like to watch a very good movie. I can just record something off that. So that’s my ritual. I must watch a very nice movie. Just any kind of nice movie.

Talking about movies, can you give us a peek into how making the soundtrack for David Oyelowo’s ‘The Water Man’ happened?

Okay, I was just on my own on Instagram, and he liked a couple of my pictures. And I was just like, “wow!” So I sent him a direct message (DM) immediately. And I said, “oh, I’m such a huge fan. Thank you so much for following me and liking my pictures”. And he responded almost immediately. So we just became friends from then on. I will then send him messages, he won’t reply on time. So he sent me a message, saying that he’s hardly on social media, that I should just take his email so that he responds to email more. So he gave me his email address. And we just started chatting back and forth. That happened for maybe about a year. And then one day he sent a message saying he had this movie coming out, and he listened to some of my music that he would like to use some of them for his movie. I was like, “men, no problem”. And yeah, that was how it happened.

Is there anything to look forward to between you and Jemima Osunde?

I didn’t even know her before our viral tweet. We just met online. She was basically shooting her shots at me. So I was like, “okay” and people were just retweeting.

Have you met her in person?

No. I entered her DM because we gist a lot and I wanted to assist her with a vacation abroad because she complained about Lagos stress. I have a friend who owns a travel agency who could facilitate it. But she turned down the request explaining that she wanted to at least see me first. We have been gisting online since then. We have been in touch since the viral tweet but she knew me before then while I didn’t know her. She strikes me as an incredible person and her fans love her. She’s also a very good friend to my friend, Adesua Etomi. Adesua is an incredible human being. She cannot have stupid friends.

Any plans to meet her?

Yeah,  of course. But no real plans yet. I would really like to meet her but it will happen when the time is right.

Looking back, you released ‘Dreams’ featuring Samklef in 2011, what has changed in the last 10 years?

Yeah, I mean, I think it’s just growth, I won’t really say change. Growth changes most of the time. And to grow, you have to change into something or evolve into something. So I wouldn’t really say I was trying to change, I was just trying to grow. It just so happens that growth involves change. Yes, I was just improving.

During the time ‘Thunder Fire You’ started attracting diverse reactions, you tweeted “stop playing me it has to stop”, what informed that?

Because I feel like Nigerians play with me a lot and I mean, like they just don’t really rate me like that. And I’m actually ‘badder’ than most of these people. To be honest,  like I say that with all humility.

I mean, like a lot of my first shows were outside the country. I shut down shows outside the country and then come back here, and it’s just like, I’m not as rated. I do shows that some A-list artistes here can’t even do in some countries that they have never been to, cannot go to and if they go, people don’t show up. But I’m out there doing those shows.

For example, if I’m going to Honduras, I’m not even performing for Nigerians, I’m performing for the Hondurans, same for the Italians in Italy, Portugal for the Portuguese, there is hardly any Nigerian in my audience. I just came back from Houston, Texas. In between my set, I said, “Caucasians in the house make some noise, Hondurans in the house make some noise”. When I said “Nigerians in the house make noise”, only five people out of an audience of about 3000. It’s only five people. And after the show, they came backstage and said they actually flew in from Arizona, or somewhere else to attend the show in Houston, Texas. They always play with me in this country.

But this year, a lot of my goal, even with my whole team, is to try to see how we can make our brand more Nigerian and that’s why I am doing songs like ‘Thunder Fire You’ just to warm up to the Nigerian audience a lot more. So, that aside, in other countries they don’t play with me at all.

So that’s why I tweeted that they should stop playing with me and I see some funny comparisons on Twitter and I’m like “what?” These are people that even came to me to ask how I did it. And I showed them and now they are comparing me to them.

What can you say about the level of acceptability after ‘Thunder Fire You’ went viral?

Yes. I was really happy. It really increased my fan base

Did you see the negative reactions coming?

Honestly, no. I was like it’s just a stupid song, everybody says “thunder fire you”. But I was really happy when I saw the negative reviews because I’ve never had that before. I’ve never had, “this song is rubbish; I hate this song; this guy is rubbish”. And I feel like I needed that because before I used to have very lukewarm reactions like, “oh, it’s nice; oh, you can sing”. I needed something like “you can’t sing” and somebody else said “yes, you can sing”. I needed that kind of sharp contrast. Contrasting reactions. I was just always having very lukewarm and vague reactions like they don’t really pay real attention to me. So I was really, really happy when I got those reactions.

How were you able to make the best out of the situation?

I kept promoting the music. I guess that was how I made the best out of it. I just kept promoting the music, because I think it’s great. I think honestly, in my opinion, I feel like ‘Thunder Fire You’ is a very good song. I feel like there are only a few people that can make something out of ‘Thunder Fire You’ that will sound smooth. That sounds nice. I’m very proud of myself.

Was there any pressure to follow the footsteps of your parents?

Of course! Intense pressure because in Port Harcourt, my dad was known to an extent for being a much respected academic and my mum too being a professor. The family was just held in a kind of academic way you can think of. There was serious pressure. I remember times when I even had to run away from my uncle’s house in Lagos because when I came in to try and get into music after graduation, my uncle used to shout at me that I was supposed to go for my masters or PhD because that’s the family trend. The pressure was much but now everything has turned around.

Now, my family even respects me more than I had imagined they would because to them, what I’ve achieved is so outside of the family’s strength, which is academic, so they are all wondering how I was able to do these things. So that has now made them respect me so much. I’m the last born but if you see me and my elder ones, they respect and regard me so much.

How were you able to handle the pressure at the time?

By running away. I left Port Harcourt and came to Lagos. I was squatting from house to house for like seven years. That Samklef period. That was 10 to 11 years ago. I didn’t really start ‘blowing, until about three to four years ago.

Three out of that 10 years for seven years, I was squatting from house to house. I slept everywhere. From the studio to other places, I’ve slept everywhere. I’ve even been chased out of houses. I squatted in houses that they didn’t even know I was squatting in the house.

Did you feel like giving up at any point in time?

I feel like that all the time. I even felt like giving up last week. I’m serious. If you call my guitarist now, he will tell you that I still felt like giving up yesterday morning. It’s just so difficult sometimes.

What has kept you going?

Honestly, I really don’t know. I would say I want to give up in the morning, by evening I’m back to the studio recording something. There is really just something about your dream. Like when you sleep, you can’t stop thinking about it, like it will keep haunting you, ‘e go be like craze’. So if I say “oh, I give up” and I say let me sleep a little bit and the dream comes back and when I wake up that’s all that’s on my mind. It’s really the dream that just keeps me going, just keeps tormenting me and until I do something about it, I won’t have peace. It’s almost like hunger, you desire shawarma, even if you are offered egusi, banga soup or burger you won’t be satisfied until you have the shawarma. Even if you try to sleep to do away with the thought, the shawarma will still be on your mind. So that’s just how it really is. The dream just keeps me going.

Is there any artiste you look forward to working with at home or abroad?

I really want to work with Zlatan. I want to work with Mayorkun too. Rema as well because I really like his sound. I have always wanted to work with 2face. Whenever we see each other, the connection is always there. It will be very nice to work with him as it will be a great boost to my career. My brother, Chinenye will be so happy because he adores 2face. Internationally, I would like to work with Drake. I feel like he is someone who knows what he is doing. Also, Sam Smith and Craig David.

Which of your songs do you consider the biggest and why?

Oh, it’s definitely a song I call ‘Only You’ because it has the most views on YouTube and it has gotten me the most shows. I made more money off the song from which I got this house. Whenever I travel out, that’s the song most of my fans want to see me perform. That aside, I like how I feel whenever I listen to the song, when I sing the song it just makes me feel very nice. I like how I feel.

Is the ‘The Prince I Became’ meeting your projections in terms of reviews and acceptance?

I don’t like to think about it just yet because second albums are always very scary. Second albums are super albums, but just honestly, I don’t want to think about it.

Having worked with Chike, Johnny Drille and a host of others, how would you describe the relationship with your colleagues?

Those are my guys. Chike is here every other day. I literally held Chike’s hand into the industry. He would come to me for a lot of advice. We went to the same school, Covenant University. I felt the need to really chaperone him like ‘big brother’ him into the industry. Even in school, I think I was in my final year, when he joined the school.

Johnny Drille and I kind of came into the industry at the same time, just shortly after or a few months after the gentleman came in. He’s my very good friend. If I open my WhatsApp, you’ll see voice notes. You won’t believe that’s us having a no-holds-barred conversation on all sorts of things. Johnny Drille is a great guy. Jesus, he’s such a sweet guy. He is such an incredible guy. He is so talented. Johnny produces, masters and a couple of other things. He’s a very good and honest guy.