It’s raining new cats in Afrobeats, but the best part of these new creative feline family is their unorthodox rise across the global music scene. Defying the norm with his versatile approach to music-making, Afrobeats rising star Teepsalm is one confident example of how these ‘cats’ are raising the bar and uplifting the soundscape with daring debuts.

Born Samuel Ajao, the endearing vocalist has made his mark upon the Afrobeats scene with vibrant debuts like “Jeje”, “What You Need”, “Like This”, among others. Now, he’s set for stardom, with priority positioned towards storytelling, sonics and self expression. He chats to Guardian about his exciting adventures within Afrobeats’ playground, detailing his creative process, come-up story, as well as his vision to keep creating evergreen records.

You are building a momentum in the Afrobeat scene, take us back to the start.

I started off as a chorister in church around 2015-2016. I didn’t have a significant role in the choir because I didn’t know how to sing then. In 2016, I recorded my first song, I still have it but nobody is going to hear it.
I started putting out my songs professionally in 2020/2021.

Are you based in Nigeria?
Obviously, I am making music and my manager is based in Nigeria so the main place where we market and promote is in Nigeria so I have this mentality that if I go back home, I can blow everywhere.
Currently, I am in Birmingham,United Kingdom.
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You mean that you started your career abroad and you are connecting with the locals?
Not exactly. I started back home but professionally, I have been able to make a lot of progress since I got here.

Given that you are actively working from the diaspora, how do you connect to the concept you want your music to be about? How do you make it relatable?
I am a Naija boy, I lived my whole life in Nigeria. A lot of people mistake me because I am here in the Uk and from the way I talk… All that is just to adapt to the people here.
In my blood,my bone, my mentality… everything is Naija. I am an Ibadan boy (I am from Ibadan back home in Nigeria).
My music is me. What makes it relatable is that I can relate to the experiences of people back home because I am one of them.

How was growing up like for you musically?
I was creative. I used to draw. I used to do anime..I still do anime. Everything I did as a kid I always knew that was what I was going to do when I grew up. My parents tried to shape me to be “a doctor, be a lawyer and all that”. But I knew for me to have that sense of joy in myself, I have to do what brings me joy which is music. So I started off with indigenous rapping back home. I was very inspired by the likes of Reminisce, Olamide. I have a couple of songs out there. I started singing around 2017 so my focus was training my voice. I actually put in the work to make music that I enjoy. I know I have good music taste. If I like my music, there’s gonna be people that like my music.

So how would you define your music style, what are you trying to sound like?
I like the freedom of being able to make whatever I want to make because as a creative that I am I have different moods, I might be able to make a different style of song and I am quite proficient in every genre I touch . But right now, my comfort zone is Afrobeat. I make a lot of Afrobeats.. I make dancehall Afrobeat, amapiano-sounding Afrobeat and sad Afrobeat ,emotional Afrobeat that I make. I just like to stay outside the box, I don’t like my creativity in a box. When someone tries to put me in a box it feels like work. I try to enjoy what I do as much as I can.
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I’m interested in your creative process. As an artist, how does it work for you?
The way I make music is very similar to the way I make art as well. I do have an art page, by the way, just to plug that. I have a art page on Instagram called Swad Arts. But the way I make music is the way I make art as well, where I build the foundation and then I build whatever I finish on top of the foundation. But right now, I’ve gotten to a stage where I don’t write. It’s a very weird thing to say. I really don’t write. I just know what I’m going to do on each song. I get the beat and then I listen to the beat and then I have the song in my head and then I recite the song until I know the song and then I record the song. Recording, for me, is the shortest process for it. I tend to enjoy it. I know the song before I make the song type of thing. That’s pretty much my process right now

From the process, artistry generally, what do you enjoy doing most? Is it the recording, the writing of the song, or performing it?
I really love recording, but I really want to do more performing. Right now, I really want to do more performing because there’s this sense of performing where you’re very nervous before you do the thing, and then after you do it, you’re like “Oh, I want more of that. I want more of that.” So yeah, I really do want to perform and I have a lot of songs nowadays make for good performance

In terms of collaborations, do you have any coming up or how open are you to collaborate with others?
Yeah, in terms of collaboration, I’m very open minded to collaborate. I have a lot of people, a couple of people on my mind that I would love to work with. I love to work with my guy Minz. I have two songs coming with Hitsound the producer, so hopefully one person I would also really like to work with is YKB. When you ask a lot of people, They will start saying “oh, I want to work with Chris Brown. I just want to work with people. I really enjoy their songs, I enjoy their sounds and I think this guy called Melon. I could actually end up working with BNXN, because I don’t know him personally, but, like he is boys with one of my boy called Curtis J. I could end up working with him. But right now, those guys and this guy called zichi? You should check him out. He’s really good.

So speaking of bodies of work now, are you dropping any body of work this year? What are your plans?
I just dropped a single a couple of weeks ago or like a week ago or something. I’m dropping a performance video of that single. Should be coming out either late, probably early next month, but right now, I’m still building with singles. And then I’m trying to gather, expand my fan base a little bit more so I can drop a body of work. So I know that you people mess with my music. This is a gift for you guys. So that’s kind of what I want to do at the moment. But I have too many songs. I have a lot of songs. Like, if I want to drop album tomorrow, I drop the album.
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In terms of storytelling, what types of stories do you want to sell?
Okay, funny enough, I was having this conversation yesterday. It’s like, I want people to know even if they don’t know me personally, because I do tend to keep my private life off social media and stuff. But I love people to feel like they know me and my experiences. So a lot of my songs are on a much more personal level. That makes sense to feel like you know me because I’m trying to branch into other ventures as well, like vlogging and show the behind the scenes process to make people that mess my music also mess with me as a brand and as an artist. So that’s kind of the thing that I’m doing now. And each song has their own story behind it.
So it’s like when you listen to it, especially if I have a song that blew up and a new fan wants to go back to listen to the discography, you can always feel like, “oh, after listening to this, I feel like I know this guy a little bit more”. And I figured that helps build a stronger connection between the artist and the fan. That’s one thing I wish that the artist I looked up to when I was younger did, which they did, and I’m like, I will do that.

Tell us three things about yourself people will be interested to find out. It could be your peculiarities, strong likes or dislikes, habits.
I’ve got a really funny, interesting family and when I start dropping vlogs about me and my personal life and whatnot and people watch it, I feel like people will be able to see you would then be able to see what I’m saying. I’ve got one brother and my family is a very small family, just me, my mom and my brother. But because of my one best friend, everything is very funny and interesting. So I got that going. Two, even though my outside persona is like that, I’m very into nerdy things because I draw, I watch and I love playing games as well. Like PlayStation5-That’s my life. I do that a lot as well. And then I play football. I don’t think any of these artists or none of these celebrities, I don’t think anyone can drag with me on the pitch.
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Finally, what do you envision for yourself and the brand?
Okay, I’ll use an artist as an example. Do you know this guy called Ross? Ross, like the artist called Russ , An American act. It is something like that I would like to see where I have a very strong fan base that mess with my music and mess with me as an artist, as a person, as a brand. So I know for a fact that I know the people that my music is going towards. So once I know that and then I can build on it, I know that’s why I have to build on you. I mean, so I have a confidence in there’s a certain type of like what’s the word? There’s a certain type of closeness between me and the people that mess with my music. Does that make sense? So that’s why I want to build on it. And in a couple of years, I really hope everything goes this way, by God’s grace. But in a couple of years, I do want to view my fan base on different platforms. So I’m making my website as well so that I’ll be easy to find and connect with. So yeah, that’s kind of what I’m trying to do as well. And obviously trying to put a stamp on the scene and have as many years as possible makes it as much years as possible. It’s the fans that give you the success, does it? So as an artist, if you focus on the making beautiful songs for the fans , give them what they want, One is just going to keep on being successful.
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