Seun Takes Centre Stage At Felabration Tonight

* Decries Lack Of Investment In Artiste Development
* Blasts PMAN For Deviating From Orignal Vision
After months of touring the United States and Europe, where he played solo shows, as well as performed at major music festivals, Afrobet prince Seun Kuti will take the centre stage tonight at the ongoing Felabration. Designed to celebrate the life, times and music of late music legend Fela Anikuapo-Kuti, Seun, who will be performing alongside the Egypt 80 Band, will light up the New Africa Shrine with both his old and new recordings. Dubbed Just Like That, this year’s festival brought together notable music groups, including Third World, reggae Super Star Group from the USA; London Afrobeat Collective, Newen Afrobeat Band from Chile and popular Nigerians artistes. In this interview with CHUKS NWANNE, Seun spoke on his music tours, the challenges facing Nigerian music industry and why artistes should take the lead in the fight against piracy.

You just returned from yet another international music tour of Europe and America, how was the experience this time around?
Well, I think it’s becoming a part of me; we’ve become established to the extent that when we tour, it’s a routine. We have our set, so we play every night. Every show is great; it’s always an amazing experience for us. But the good thing is that with every tour, we try to reach a new level. I think we were able to achieve that with this tour and that’s more important.

Could you tell us the locations where you played?
We played in so many places; I can’t even remember al of them right now. But we were in the United States and Europe; I don’t think we went to any other continent.
Were they basically solo gigs or you played festivals as well?
It was a mixture of both; I played my own nights and we also performed at festivals; we play a few of the big festivals in Europe and America.

You talked about reaching new levels with music tours, how far did you go with this last one?
For me, it was really good because of the record preceding the tour; I think our record is quite good. With the next record we are going to make, we are going to look at more ways of expanding the brand. Basically, your third record is a landmark; it puts you in a stronger position because you are more experienced at that stage. The third album actually shows whether you are in it for the long term or not. After your first, the second is almost necessary and then the third is what matters and we’ve done that. Now, we are moving on to the next new thing, which is the fourth record; that brings more respect and prestige to you and the brand. Even this summer, we played three nights at the Ronnie Scott’s in London, a prestigious venue where Jimi Hendrix played his last show. I think a night before my show; Lady Gaga did a surprise performance at the venue, with Tony Bennett. So, for me, it’s all about trying to establish myself as an artiste and at the same time taking Afrobeat brand to the next level.

Because you play with your father’s Egypt 80 Band, some people still se you in the shadows of Fela. How far have you gone in developing your own brand?
Well, I have three albums already under my belt; being Fela’s son is not something I can run from. It’s who I am; it’s going to be with me forever. But I think my real fans don’t come to my shows because I’m Fela’s son; they come because they are having great time watching me perform.

How far have you gone with your fourth album?
We are still writing the songs actually and the band is still learning them. We are still at the beginning, but we are looking at recording next year.

You were stage the Nigerian release for your last album, what happened?
Well, it didn’t happen because my management and I were like, ‘most people that are going to buy the record will buy online, which is fine. I think there was just no point; I didn’t see how it was going to be beneficial to me in terms of business. Every time we print maybe 10,000 or 15,000 copies, we sell them and that’s it; it’s not like we are going to do a second and third issue. And also, that opens it up to piracy here as well; people will start making their own copies and selling. And it’s not like we have an anchor in Alaba to protect the work. So, we decided not to go ahead with the plan.
What in your opinion is responsible for poor distribution of musical works in Nigeria?
It’s just investment; nobody is investing. The people that will invest already have a way of getting things free, which is what is going on right now. Most people that we call marketers today were the pirates 10 years ago. Really, the musicians have no choice but to work with them and take the offers they give. If you refuse, they just pirate it anyway.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently gave directives to relevant agencies to step up fight against piracy in the country, what’s your take on that?
Anything that matters has to be institutionalised; the fact that there’s no real artiste protection is what empowers pirates. People talk about PMAN, but to me, PMAN is more of a political group than a music union. They are more interested in endorsing candidates during election and promoting government agenda, which is completely out of the realm of what musicians’ union should be concerned with. They should be interested in lobbying government in terms of protecting artistes’ rights, getting grants and most importantly investment.

With a clearly divided PMAN, how possible is it to achieve that?
That’s exactly what I’m saying, because things like this need a lot of support; artistes are not professional lawyers. If you look at artiste unions abroad, very few musicians are involved; professionals represent them. But in Nigeria, when you look at PMAN, it’s full of retired musicians. You want to tell me that these musicians will be able to read 150-page contract and understand every legal word in there? It’s not possible. I don’t also think there’s political will to help in that aspect; I think in the eyes of government, the marketers are even more important than the musicians, because they are traders and have more commercial impact in the economy.

In the United States for instance, the entertainment industry is a major income earner, but it seems Nigeria is still grappling on how to make the industry lucrative?
In Africa, music is something that is controlled; they rather have artistes relying on profitability than longevity. So, the artistes that are willing to do as the politicians demand, tends to be successful; others just fly by. So, there’s no need to give artistes good welfare, good pension and all that, so that we can get our publishing from radio and TV houses. For them, it’s better that every artiste lives for the day, because artistes that live for the day are more manageable. In that aspect, they have something to gain from the way the music industry is today. However, we as artistes can demand better and be more vocal in what we need in terms of organisation and development. There’s no investment in artiste development in Nigeria; every artiste that develop does so individually. There’s no grant, no government establishment where musicianship is encouraged.

Some of your colleagues are clamouring that piracy should be made a criminal offence, what’s your take?
Corruption is a criminal offence in Nigeria and it’s in the books; what has it stopped? It’s the will that matters, not what’s written in the book. First of all, the people did not write the constitution; it’s a gift from the military government. Our constitution is open to any type of interpretation, so, if the will is there, I’m sure they can find something in that constitution to arrest the pirates.
But sometimes, the penalty for piracy is very meager and encourages pirates to remain in business?
The penalty is not something that they cannot afford, yes, just the way corruption is N250,000 per charge; sometimes its N2000, depending on the type of corruption.

How come music CDs from Nigeria are usually hawked in most African countries, yet artistes doesn’t get any income from that source?
It’s from Lagos that the CDs go abroad; if you trace it, it’s from the marketer you signed agreement with. For me, I don’t have such agreements; I don’t even travel across Africa these days. But the last time I traveled, I saw my CDs everywhere and I was wondering who was making money from my works. At the same time, as artistes, we do not stand for our people enough; it’s something that people should do and refuse to buy pirated CDs. But why would people do that? The artistes themselves, they don’t care. So, in a way, it’s a vicious cycle. But our fans also need to help in ensuring that the pirates do not rob their artistes of their livelihood; that’s another effective way that this can be combated. However, we have to show our people that we are worth that sacrifice.

Now that you have a daughter, you should be reducing your tours?
Funny enough, since I had my daughter, that was when I started having six months touring. Before I had her, I never had long tours like that; it used to be maximum two or three months and I’m back. Now that I had her, I was like, ‘what’s this success that’s separating me from my daughter.’ But it’s fine; at least she gets to join me sometimes because she’s in Europe.