Music Interview: Bukola delves on her creative tastes, musical influences & new single “A Good Thing”
Great to have you on Xttrawave. Please, introduce yourself.
Thank you! I feel honoured to be on Xttrawave. I’m from Vancouver, BC and my artist name is Bukola, which is actually just my first name! My parents are both from Nigeria and belong to the Yoruba tribe. In the Yoruba culture, names are very important because they believe that a name can influence one’s entire life cycle. They actually name the baby eight days after they are born during a special naming ceremony. My name means “added wealth” and I’ve always been so grateful for how much thought and care went into choosing my name which is why I decided to keep it as my artist name.
What got you into music and made you realize that it was your chosen path?
I’ve always been surrounded by music ever since I was a little kid. My dad would always play well known Yoruba musicians such as Barrister and King Sunny Ade in the car and at my parent’s old store, we’d always have a CD playing Bob Marley’s greatest hits. As for when I realized that I wanted to be a musician, that happened when I was nine years old. I was watching a whole bunch of YouTube videos one day when I came across Willow Smith’s music video for “Whip My Hair”. I vividly remember seeing myself in her and being so blown away by her talent. She looked like she was having such a great time and I knew from that point on that I wanted to live my life having just as much fun as she was in her music video. This is when I decided that music is what I had to do.
Tell us about your new song. And what’s the story behind it?
“A Good Thing” was such a fun song to write! It was co-written with two super talented Vancouver musicians Aaron Ross and Chin Injeti and was also produced by Chin. The song is basically me poking fun at the “player” mentality that a lot of people my age adopt. This is why there’s a bunch of light hearted witty lines about needing to “grow up” sprinkled throughout the song. The song is also about recognizing your self worth. We are all deserve to be treated like the beautiful people we are and if people can’t see that, it’s on them.
What makes your music unique? How would you describe it?
What makes my music unique is my musical upbringing. I taught myself how to play guitar and got most of my training by figuring out charts in jazz band at school. I’m also a sucker for contemporary and old school R&B as well as the fact that I was brought up listening to traditional Yoruba music. I would describe my music as a blend of contemporary R&B and acoustic soul. I like to think of my music as India Arie meets Daniel Caesar.
Who are your biggest musical influences? And any particular artist/band you would like to collaborate with in the future?
I love this question! I’m inspired by a lot of different musicians. I loooove John Mayer. I think his guitar playing is absolutely breathtaking and his songwriting is so vivid. I also really love H.E.R. She creates such classic R&B tracks and she’s also an incredible guitarist. There’s so many artists I would love to collaborate with! I really love Jessie Reyez. She’s got such a beautiful soul and I love how raw she is. Another dream collaborator would have to be Daniel Caesar. He makes such vibey R&B tunes and it would be a dream to be on a track with him. I’m also such a huge fan of Alessia Cara! Her songwriting skills are unmatched and her voice honestly gives me chills.
Which is the best moment in your musical career that you’re most proud of?
Honestly, I think the best moment so far has been working with my team on the single release. I cannot even begin to describe how grateful I am to be surrounded by such talented and kind people. Having a great team filled with good people is something that’s so important but so hard to build and I’m so lucky and fortunate that I’ve got such amazing people working so hard to help me make my dreams come true.
How do you balance your music with other obligations – family, friends or work?
To be honest, in high school, I didn’t really have much balance. I would spend every minute of the day on music. I spent all my lunch times either in choir or jazz band and then before and after school I was just practicing guitar and writing songs. I would also take the bus after school to get to recording sessions, lessons and performances and then have to stay up late doing homework when I got back home. But now, I’ve learned that balance is super important…and that having a social life is pretty nice haha. I set a certain amount of time to practice everyday and certain goals that I want to achieve for the day. This allows me to work towards little achievable goals whilst having time to spend with my family and friends.
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?
Show up to everything! You never know who you might meet or what you might learn at events. For example, I met my manager, Mark Fenster, completely by accident. I went to a musician development workshop and ended up performing at their open mic at the end of the night. Afterwards, Mark told me that he’d like to work with me and I’ve been working with him ever since! He took me under his wing and it’s been such a pleasure and honour getting to work with him. I didn’t go to the workshop with the intentions of securing management or anything – I just wanted to get better at music. So show up to everything and take all the opportunities you can get! You never know what will come out of them.
If you had one message to give to your fans, what would it be?
Thank you so much for showing me so much support and kindness. It means the world to me that you’ve all been streaming the song, watching the music video and spreading the word about the single! I’m genuinely so lucky to have you all in my life and I’m so grateful for all of you.
What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects?
Yeah! My debut EP, “The Chronicles of a Teenage Mind”, will be coming out sometime this summer and I can’t wait for you all to hear it! But in the meantime, you can expect another single from the EP to be coming out very soon.
https://youtu.be/WnQRmyxhQl0
https://soundcloud.com/autumnstudios/05-bukola-a-good-thing-1
Follow :
