FAULT Magazine in conversation with Ovie
While it may only be the first week of 2021, we’re already calling Ovie to be one of the most exciting artists to break through this year. His music video for standout track ‘One More Time’ saw Ovie taking full creative control of directing, producing, editing and even colour grading responsibilities. The track caught the eyes of many, and as we stand on the eve of his musical blowup, we caught up with Ovie to discover more about his artistry and delve into his FAULTs.
You discussed the juxtaposition of the lyrics and production – in a world that’s highly digital have you struggled with your own battle of value vs clout before?
Yes, constantly I do. I feel like Ovie the artist and Ovie the director are two very different people. Ovie the director does not need clout so he has more freedom to do whatever he wants and not care about likes or any of that stuff. Ovie the artist has to be more curated so that leads to some dissonance at times. I try to find the balance and so far I think I’m doing okay.
In what ways has your Irish upbringing and Nigerian roots influenced your song-making?
In every possible way. Basically, I grew up on one sound and when I moved to Ireland I got introduced to a completely new sound and now I find myself somewhere in the middle. If you deconstruct ‘One More Time’ you’ll find elements of Afrobeat, R&B and Basshunter style EDM, that’s what happens when you move Ovie from Nigeria to Ireland halfway through his childhood.
You directed, produced, edited, colour graded and VFX entirely by yourself, have you always been interested in the visual side of music?
Not entirely by myself, I had a couple of friends helping me through the whole process from producing to modelling and I’m not sure if you noticed but I’m not a particularly sexy woman, I needed my sexy women friends to play the sexy women scenes and then I had other friends like John, Nina, Brian, Mark, Dave and Usman who helped me cross the finish line, this would literally not have been possible without them. Now that I have given credit where credit is due, back to your question. No, I haven’t always been interested, it was somewhat of a hidden talent that I discovered out of necessity and being skint.
Do you worry about having to relinquish the hands-on creative control as your acclaim grows?
Nope, not at all. I feel like the more my acclaim grows the easier it will become for me to focus all my energy on the part of the creative process where I’m most needed and delegate the aspects where I’m less needed.
With One More Time being wholly unique to Dublin Girl in style and in the message, do you think switching it up so early will help or hurt you in the long run?
I don’t feel like I switched up that much. If you really think about it, both songs are R&B melodies on an EDM/R&B/Pop/Afrobeat instrumental so they’re not fundamentally different. They both made it into the same exact playlists on Spotify and Apple Music so no I don’t think there is a big enough difference to have an inverse effect.
What’s been the most challenging aspect of your musical journey so far?
I’m a songwriter with multiple influences so I learned to write multiple different styles and genres. My influences are very diverse, so this makes it very difficult to figure out who you are as an artist. The biggest challenge I faced was figuring out the difference between a good song written by Ovie for a different artist and a good song written by Ovie for Ovie.
What’s something no journalist has ever asked you but is something you’ve always wanted to say/discuss?
No journalist has ever asked me what my middle name is. I would lie to people and tell them it’s David even though they never asked. I have this deep insecurity that someone someday is going to find out its Davis and it’s going to be mortifying, please don’t print this lol.
What’s something new you learned about yourself last year?
I learned that being productive/creative is not an option. I literally got depressed when I stopped working and spent 6 weeks figuring out what was wrong with me, then I found a Google article that said to channel your energy into something creative, I did that and it fixed all my problems within two hours.
Last year wasn’t the easiest year, what’s something you’ve done to protect your mental health this year?
Yeah, 2020 has been a comically horrible year. My coping mechanism has been to constantly remind myself that everybody is going through the same thing and that’s what really kept me going.
What is your FAULT?
One of my personal flaws is that I’m one of the most hardworking lazy people you’d ever meet in your life. I’m basically an overachieving couch potato.