For Danie, the meaning of the name of his new project “Sorry I Overslept” is quite literal. He’s tendering apologies for not blessing your ears early enough. He’s sorry he overslept, but he’s here now; bigger and better. Danie draws inspiration from happenings in his life, his mom, his relationship with his sisters, the man who told him he wouldn’t be something through music and thought it best that he leave the craft to chase better things. The concepts of the songs in this project are as real they come. Danie only wants you to do one thing though, listen. He wants you to listen and read between the lines so you can feel closer to him.
Fatiat: Can you please introduce Danie to us?
Danie: My name is Daniel Osaro Oyairo. I go by the stage name “Danie”. I’m an Afrobeats artiste. I’m a singer, performer, and songwriter.
Fatiat: It’s very nice to meet you, Danie. I listened to your project, by the way, and thoroughly enjoyed it. When did you know you had to do music?
Danie: Thank you so much for listening to my music. I actually started music at the age of 10. I’ve been in and out of the choir. I knew I had to do music professionally when this guy who took me to one of my studio sessions told me that I wasn’t going to be anything through music. I have had passion for it from time. I knew it was something I was going to do, but that was extra ginger and motivation.
Fatiat: That was an unexpected turn of events. Who were your earliest music influences?
Danie: To be honest, as far as my life goes, I’d say Chris Brown, Eminem, a lot of Drake. Earlier on, I remember passively loving songs from Fela Kuti, DMX, Michael Jackson, and a little bit of Westlife.
FAtiat: When did you decide to go into music officially, and were they any nay-sayers?
Danie: I decided to go into music professionally at the age of 14 – 15. There were a lot of nay-sayers, but because I am relentless with everything I do, I was relentless with the music too. There are a lot of people who want their version of things for me. Like I said earlier on, one of the very first people who took me to a recording studio said, “Guy, do you think you are going to blow through this? You should be going the other direction. Leave this music thing alone.” It was downing for a couple of days, but I picked myself up and told myself I was going to do this and go hard. And here I am now, going hard.
Fatiat: Wow. That’s very inspiring. Can you take me through the process of your EP “Sorry I Overslept”?
Danie: Everybody seems to love the name, but that’s actually real life for me. Like I said, I’ve been doing this for a while now and at a time, I felt like I had to focus on other stuff. I’m the first child of my family, and I have a lot of people that really love me and are trying to tell me this and that. When you have a lot of people’s mouths in your ears constantly trying to tell you what to do and how to do it, it might really affect your mental health and fuck stuff up for you. So, Sorry I Overslept was something personal to me, because I felt like I was away from the music scene for a whole lot of time, and there were a lot of people waiting for my stuff to come out. I had people messaging me to ask when they were going to get new stuff from me as it had been years. So, it’s just real with me. It’s like; I’m sorry I overslept.
On creating the project; I’d been working on it for like a year and a couple of months. I think the oldest song in the EP is Rock My World, and the song I recorded last was Energy. I recorded it on a Sunday morning, sometime in January. Every song on the EP is actually very personal to me. If you pay attention to the songs and the lyrics, you’d feel more connected to me. That’s literally all people have to do, pay attention.
Fatiat: What inspires or motivates you?
Danie: I feel like music was what I was sent to do. It’s my religion. What actually wakes me up is the thought of my sisters. I have five younger sisters for whom I want to get a better life. I want to give them the world, because I know how the world is for females. No matter what men do, I feel like the female gender always has to do four times the work.
Fatiat: Have there been any occurrences of people comparing your sound to a mainstream artiste’s?
Danie: I get a lot. As an emerging artiste, a lot of people have compared my sound to Wizkid, Tory Lanez, and even Yung 6ix.
Fatiat: So, I noticed there were no features on your EP. Was that a conscious decision? To have your very first project solely attributed to you?
Danie: To be very honest, I just kind of went with the flow. I went where the music took me. If there’s any other I’d love to dedicate this project to, it’d be my mom. She has gone through a whole lot of stuff for me. I don put the woman for wahala (chuckles). I just let the intimacy birth whatever it wanted to, and here we are.
Fatiat: Are there any music acts you’d like to collaborate with in the music industry?
Danie: Yeah. I’d like to work with Fireboy. Right now, I even have a song I’d like to get Santan Dave on.
Fatiat: Aiming high, I love it. How has the reception been for your project so far?
Danie: We are about to go in a whole new direction. I mean, the good news has arrived. It’s only been a while since the project came out, and I already have people buzzing me from all places. I just had this guy from L.A reach out to me saying he heard my song online, and he’d love to do a collaboration, and that was a win for me. I just want to be heard, really. So, I’d say the reception has been okay. Not bad.
Fatiat: Do you have any words for people who have been listening to your music?
Danie: Like I said, I want people who listen to my music to read between the lines so they can connect more with me. I feel like I’m a host of vibes, so you all are always going to get the best. Timeless music. There’s a whole lot I’m planning for this year, we are just getting started.
Fatiat: Do you have any videos in the works?
Danie: I like to do the most. I have a video coming up, but I want it to come as a surprise.
Fatiat: I know it’s really early, but when should we be expecting your next project?
Danie: I’ll give you this exclusively. I actually have another EP ready. I’m also looking forward to the album.
Fatiat: Best in EPs! We can’t wait. Thank you for gracing us.
Listen to ‘Sorry I Overslept’ here:
