Tell us a bit about yourself
Hello, my name is Tam Benjamin, I’m an Afro-Fusion/R&B Singer-Songwriter. I’m also a Law student, I’m Afro-centric/pro-African
What first got you into music and why did you decide to participate in the Djooky online music competition?
Music started off as an escape for me, firstly in lyrics..poems actually cos at a very young age, I remember before I was 6 years, my dad introduced Shakespeare to me and that helped shape my ability to express myself in words and over time, I started adding melodies to it. Melodies make emotions real..so I was basically writing down emotions in music and then I grew from there.
I decided to participate in Djooky online music competition because a friend of mine who’s a vocal coach from Tanzania told me about it and made sure I participated and here we are today after three seasons of trying
Who and what inspired you to make music?
As I said earlier..what inspired me to make music was the fact that music was an escape for me.. growing up as a teenager in an African household with military parents can be tough..so music was my escape. Michael Jackson is my biggest influence in music..He made me want to make music professionally.. watching him perform on stage..the mastery and grace and all that Talent and meticulousness in his melodies and lyrics and performance were/are mind-blowing. Overtime..I also got inspired by people like Chris Brown, August Alsina, H.E.R, Wizkid, Davido.
How would you describe the music that you make and what’s the creative process like for you?
I call my type of music fusion.. because it’s a blend of R&B, AfroBeats, and sometimes a touch of Caribbean…but mostly a blend of R&B and AfroBeats. Started off purely as an R&B artist but with time..I wanted to be identified as an African..a Nigerian..like I said before I’m very pro-African..so..I retained my original R&B signature but i infused AfroBeats… Afrobeats is magical actually haha.
For the creative process..it involves inspiration and the willingness to follow through…i get inspired by a lot of things.. nature, happenings around me..emotions etc.. sometimes it comes at once..like it was written somewhere in the universe and was given to me.. atimes it’s like an idea..i have to nurture it like a child and let it grow..but one thing i can say is that i like to be alone in my creative space/process..or maybe one or two people around when I’m writing and/or recording.
How do you feel the internet has affected the music business?
The internet has had a veeerrryyy huge impact on the music business.. it’s digitized and so a very effective tool to an independent artist..i can’t begin to say how much it has cos it’s really huge. Labels aforetime had monopolistic control of music distribution, production, marketing, publishing, and all that but the internet has made everything really easy. it’s like bringing the world to your doorstep.
If you were to change one thing in the music business what would it be?
Well, I’ll make the channel/process for discovering and promoting new artists a lot easier.. there’s a whole untapped gold mine in underground artists. Making marketing and collation of data especially in Nigeria for chart entry purposes better.. Nigeria doesn’t even have an official chart..we don’t recognize when a record/song goes platinum or Gold or all that.. that’s cos we don’t have good data collation organizations that are nationally accepted..we skip important data like the number of radio spins and all that for artists.
What is one message you gave your fans to make them vote for you in the Djooky song contest
Well, hahaha, my fans are my supporters so they believed in me from the start..I didn’t have to do a lot of convincing. I’d done that over time.. that’s what won them over to my music in the first place..when people believe in you..they also promote you.. that’s what happened and I’m reaaalllyyyy grateful to them.