Tuesday, 19th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Timi Jay: The Music Master

By Fejiro Onohwosa
01 November 2020   |   9:00 am
For weeks now, Olakira’s “Maserati Remix” that has the help of singer Davido has enjoyed massive airplay. The single was mixed and mastered by Timilehin Jolaoso Joseph better known as Timi Jay who has been making music for more than five years. The 21-year-old whose career started as a disc jockey began to pursue his…

Timi Jay: The Music Master

For weeks now, Olakira’s “Maserati Remix” that has the help of singer Davido has enjoyed massive airplay. The single was mixed and mastered by Timilehin Jolaoso Joseph better known as Timi Jay who has been making music for more than five years.

The 21-year-old whose career started as a disc jockey began to pursue his passion for music while still in secondary school. The positive reception and reviews of his works spurred him on to become a music record producer. It was at this point he decided to take a step further into the mixing and mastering aspect of music production with “Commander In Chief” by Bujutoyourears.

Since then, there has been no looking back as he continues to work towards becoming a hotshot in the music industry. Enjoy his chat with The Guardian Life

Before Olakira’s “Hop In My Maserati,” you have worked with some other tops acts like Zlatan, Burna Boy to mention but a few. What would you say has been your biggest lesson?
I have learned a lot while working with different artists. If I am to talk to the ones that resonate with me, I will say that I strongly believe what is meant for you will definitely come to you. Also, I have learned never to give up on my dreams no matter how challenging the situation is. Lastly, you can only become a better version of yourself when you let yourself out of your comfort zone.

Are there other musicians outside of Afrobeats/pop that had an impact on your sound?
Yes, my productions and sounds are mostly influenced by foreign acts like Drake, Tory Lanez, One Direction, Lionel Richie, Kenny G, Whitney Houston. Although, growing up around my dad who is a Pro Disk Jockey and owns a Sound, Lights, and stage hiring company played a huge role and contributed to my musical background. My dad who is also known as “JollyJay” has one of the largest music libraries in Lagos State, both old school and billboard charts songs.

If you were to choose a signature instrument, what would it be and why is this essential for you?
My signature instrument would be a string instrument like the guitar because it adds melody and soul to my beat and it completes and occupies space in my beats which makes it a plus for me.

We have seen producers go on to release albums. Are you considering towing this path?
Yes, releasing an album is part of my considered list of future projects. As we continue to envision the growing influence in the Nigerian music industry or afrobeat as some would call it, my focus is to grow and be recognised for my music production as well as joining the league of new sounds. This way I can support lots of emerging and amazing talents yet to be main-streamed and as cheeky as I might sound, we are in a new generation era.

Your most difficult and rewarding production for an artist would be?
My most difficult production for an artist would be the beat making aspect because of its technicalities and artists choosing which of songs produced would drop next. While my rewarding production for an artist would be the mixing and mastering aspect because that’s the most important stage of music before release. The finalisation of sound that makes all output formats clear while grabbing listeners’ attention is my ultimate goal.

Which song will you say has gotten you the most recognition?
Choosing the song I was involved in that got me more recognition is quite difficult because all the major songs I have worked on so far have given me more recognition starting from Buju ft. BurnaBoy – Lenu remix, BadBoyTimz ft. MAYORKUN – MJ, Zinoleesky – Mapariwo, Olakira – In my Maserati which have all gotten massive radio rotations and fetching millions of streams across all digital streaming or viewing platforms and I’ll count it as an honor and blessing.

Who are some of the artists you look forward to working with in the future?
The list of some of the artists I look forward to working in the future are quite many but to mention a few; Davido, Wizkid, Rema, Psycho yp, ZandaZakuza, FireBoyDML, Kizz Daniel, Tiwa Savage, Moe Logo, DJ Cuppy, Master KG, Chris Brown, Tems, Teni the Entertainer, 6ix9ine, Khalid, Post Malone but majorly the artist I would love to work with is Drake. I selected these artists because I love their work ethics and how they work with sounds.

If you were to describe music using three elements of life, what would they be?
Music to me is can be classified as an art, science, and business. As an art, music is life and can effect change. It is not a want; it is a need. If you try to imagine yourself without it, you are bound to feel incomplete. It has become a necessity in our lives.

From a basic source of sounds, rhythms, and tempos, an infinite variety of musical expressions and emotions can be produced. It is the interaction of sounds, tempo, and pitch that creates music.

To make music, you must know how to break “sound” into elements of pitch, rhythm, and tempo. Science teaches us that sound is vibration, and the frequency of vibration is what makes different sounds. Music is the study of the sound created by those vibrations and puts them into patterns that elicit emotion. Sound engineers use tools like Eq and Compressor and reverb to create space in the frequency spectrum which makes any music sound balanced and smooth on all speakers.

For the business angle, if you are a music producer like me and you desire to do music as a full-time career, you need to learn to approach music as a business—to see yourself and your music through a particular lens so that you can succeed in the business community that surrounds the music.

As intimidating as the business world might be to some music record producers, in effect all business revolves around three very simple concepts: identifying a need or desire among people, developing a product that meets that need or desire, and marketing the product to the people who need or desire it.

In this article

0 Comments