Mizzle on Creating “In The Dark” and Collaboration between artists in Nigeria.
The music industry can be an unforgiving one if an artist isn’t ready to wait for what presents itself as precisely the right moment. Nigerian singer Mizzle knows this all too well and has positioned himself to do exactly that.
Mizzle, who released his latest EP titled “In The Dark” has waited 10 years to finally put out a body of work that he describes as his perfect sound. The project was released on the 1st of July 2021 and features guest verses from Niniola, Oxlade, and his mentor Sarz who has been helping Mizzle with craft since he first started in the industry.
The EP was created during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria. Although the circumstances around him weren’t ideal, Mizzle saw it as a perfect opportunity to lock in and focus on what he describes as his last release for the year besides a few features here and there.
The song “Smile For You” featuring Oxlade began as a ‘how to create an Oxlade song’ on TikTok and started to become a viral trend. Fans were so captivated with this that Mizzle secured himself an Oxlade feature which would later see a series of features be added to his project which wasn’t supposed to have any features on them.
Innovation has always been a part of Mizzles mindset. His never-say-die attitude carried him through life when others doubted his musical abilities. The journey wasn’t easy but finally, Mizzle is at a point in his career where he is happy with his sound and level of production.
The opening song ‘Mizzle Love’ sets the tone for the rest of the EP, which lends to his Afropop sound. With the release of ‘In The Dark’ Mizzle makes a statement that he is here to stay and cement himself in what is becoming an increasingly competitive music scene in Nigeria.
For more on his creation of ‘In The Dark’, advice for up and coming producers, and the collaboration between artists in Nigeria read our interview below:
This interview has been lightly edited for the purpose of clarity and context.
Daniel: As a new listener, how would you describe yourself as an artist?
Mizzle: For people who have never heard my sound before I would say it’s Afro-pop (Nigerian-style). It’s very calm, very mid-tempo, not too fast or too slow it’s really in the middle. I’ll describe it as sweet, I try to gather sounds that are always pleasing to the ear.
Would you say that there were challenges that you needed to go through in order to become the artist you are now?
I’ve definitely had challenges but the music I’m currently making is just an evolution from where I started. I always had the idea but the tools or resources might not have always been there to perfect the sound I’ve always wanted to create. As time went on I began to get better, bearing in mind that I’ve been making music for ten years already. My levels of production started to increase over the years to the point where I now produce my own songs on my project.
How did you manage to deal with people who have not always believed in your journey with music, or who have doubted you in any way?
As all students of the game should do I studied those who came before me, I’ve learned from some of my favorite African artists and how they didn’t care about what people said about their sound. To be fair I always told myself that I should have a strong mindset if I want to do anything in show business or entertainment. No matter how good you are there is going to be someone that is against you, not everyone is going to like your music or your sound and that’s fine. You have to have a strong mind in the sense that you cannot be looking for negative comments and let them affect your day or your approach to making music. Luckily for me, I learned these lessons very early on and now it’s very difficult for me to be swayed and I don’t think it’s even possible for someone to tell me that I can’t do something.
Earlier you said that you’ve been making music for ten years now, at what age did you start taking music seriously?
I started taking it very seriously when I started to produce my own music. This was 5 years ago. I was 23 years old at the time, still fresh out of college, and either I had to get a regular job or do music so I chose to do music. I met a very big Afrobeats producer called Sarz and fortunately enough for me he was willing to mentor me. While being is understudy I really started to believe that this is what I wanted to do and who better to learn from? I knew that I was going to need a lot of grooming at first but when I get to where I wanted to be eventually then everything was going to be worth it.
How did you find that experience of having to produce your own music, especially starting out?
As a producer you have to have a knack for making beats firstly there needs to be interested in how beats are made I had that so it wasn’t difficult I would say but when I met my mentor I was just watching him produce every day and when I got home I would try the things I saw him do. It was just me practicing every single day until it became second nature and I was happy with the sound that I created. It was very hard for me to just give up on producing altogether because I knew that I didn’t have any money to pay a producer for beats.
What advice would you give to producers in terms of getting their beats out there?
I would say that they should pair themselves with an artist that they believe in and stick with that person and make as much music as possible. When a song does blow up then the artist will stick with you as a producer that way you build relationships that last.
Talk to me about your creative process, has it been affected by Covid in any way?
Yeah but I don’t think negatively, in fact, it actually encouraged collaboration because everyone was at home. So we were actually forced to do something. Most of my project was actually created when Covid was at its peak so for me, it wasn’t that bad. I actually got a lot of work done.
What inspired the name of your EP?
So I called it “In The Dark” because most of the music I’ve been making was when I was unknown and nobody knew me. Now that these songs are released I’m coming out of the darkness and people are getting to know me through my music. The second meaning is to do with love, the songs are very female orientated its kind of just showing my appreciation for women and me trying to seduce them by bringing them into the darkness.
The intro track “Mizzle Love” is named after yourself, tell me why you decided for this to be the opening song?
The song itself is about me, the whole song encompasses my sound. Every lyric describes me; I’m probably not going to be faithful because I’m a lover boy!
What was it like working with Oxlade?
It was amazing, this project wasn’t supposed to have any features at all but when I made the TikTok on how to make an Oxlade song it blew up and somehow reached Oxlade himself! The song got so much traction online that people didn’t want it just to be TikTok, they wanted an actually song. So I saw it as the perfect opportunity to add features to my project. Once he did the verse it was a done deal. We shot the video for it which is available right now on YouTube (the song is called smile for you).
I really gravitated to the song sweet escape upon my first listen, what creative space were you in when you created this song?
To be honest I was very frustrated because this was at the peak of my darkness. Remember that I never felt the feeling of never being good enough like I always believed in myself but around this time things were not happening for me, I was waiting and waiting and nothing seemed to be going right. The song was me expressing that I need a sweet escape from a city like Lagos where everything moves so fast.
Was there any difficulty creating the project itself, maybe with features not coming on time?
Working with any big artist there is going to be setbacks, wanting to record vocals, wanting to sign things, or even speaking to management. Personally, with this project, I would say that the real problem came along when the vocals had to be mixed and mastered. I had an idea of how it wanted to sound but I needed to work very closely with my sound engineer. If something was wrong or didn’t sound right, we needed to start over.
Talk to me about the rollout of your project then?
Once we picked the songs for the project, our next step was to name them after that I then explained the concept of the project to my team. We discussed things like how we want people to feel when they see the artwork and how it’s going to make them feel.
The Nigerian music industry is one of the biggest exporters of African music globally, can you give me more insight as to how the industry is in Nigeria?
The industry is just like any other entertainment industry in the world. It’s cut-throat. Nigerian artists don’t like collaboration with other Nigerian artists. Once an artist gets to a certain level they feel like they shouldn’t feature any other artists on their songs. It’s like everyone is fighting for the number one spot it’s competitive yes but that mindset isn’t sustainable. I believe in collaboration and I think it’s a way in which you grow your fanbase. Music is also an experience that needs to be shared. So why not collaborate with others and help people where you can.
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