Apart from my last post on my visit to Ghana, I haven’t been bringing you the latest in my music discoveries. I’ve basically been missing here for a year. It’s been a mix of things to be honest: lack of inspiration and motivation, every time I’ve had an idea I’d start but wouldn’t finish. Writer’s block is also real. Balancing work with this blog has also been a challenge. On a positive note, I’ve had a big opportunity that has come out of doing this blog for almost 5 years (time flies). I’m going to do my best to be more consistent this year with this blog! Anyway, let me show you what I’ve been up to in the last year in the music journalism space.
GRM Daily
Being able to write for the biggest platform in Black British music in the UK still baffles me till today. I remember my sixth form days where every Sunday I’d be eagerly waiting for all the drops on the latest tracks on their YouTube channel. Now I get to hear some songs and watch videos before they are officially released. We’re moving up slowly but steadily!
In short, this opportunity came through a call-out for new writers on Twitter. I don’t use Twitter, so my brother sent me the link to the tweet and the email of who to contact. I sent over my blog, and the rest is history. I’ve done press releases, show reviews and much more since joining them. It’s opened me up to different styles of writing, particularly short form which I wasn’t too used to before. I’ve also been able to go to events that I might not normally go to by being a GRM writer. One of these was the GRM Awards night, which was aired on Channel E4. To see all the artists, content creators and industry heads in one room was interesting and even inspiring. GRM Daily has been where most my time has been in the past year, but other things away from this blog have happened.
Kwesi Arthur Interview
This interview is definitely one of my highlights over the past year. Before starting this blog, I said to myself I’d interview an artist from my home country one day. And its happened. Kwesi Arthur, if you don’t know by now, is a rapper from Ghana who also delves into afropop and local Ghanaian sounds. I’ve been listening to him since he broke through back in 2017 and it’s been good to see his progress as a listener of his music. Kwesi Arthur released an album last April entitled ‘Son of Jacob’, and ahead of its release, I had the opportunity to hear it and interview him. When I found out, it was a mix of excitement and nervousness. Excitement because it was something I had visualized happening before I started this blog, but nervous as this was actually becoming a reality and talking in such settings is something out of my comfort zone. Whilst I was having thoughts in my head about the interview going left for whatever reason, it was very much the opposite. It was like talking to one of my boys and basically having a normal conversation. It was a good experience and hopefully sooner than later I’ll be doing this much more. Check it out here: https://grmdaily.com/kwesi-arthur-interview/
Graduation Records
I got the opportunity to write for Graduation Records* through GRM. Whilst I hadn’t heard of them before, I got to learn that they are an artist partnership label very much rooted in helping independent artists grow and increasing their reach. This attracted me to write for them as it’s always good to see rising artists getting their talent recognised. The article I wrote for them covered the top moments of 2021. For me to be given the chance to summarize the year after only a short time at GRM showed me how good I actually am at this writing thing (imposter syndrome can kick in a lot). A nice cheque came with it too 🙂
Sounds Of Our Homeland
So ‘Sounds Of Our Homeland’ is the latest project my friend & I currently have going on right now. As people of Ghanaian and Nigerian heritage, the aim of our page is to educate and promote our cultures music to the diaspora. Whether it’s a bio of your favourite artist, the meaning of your favourite song, or Ghanaian and Nigerian music facts, we want you to visit our page and keep coming back for more knowledge. We started around the end of last year but going full force this year. So follow the page on Instagram (@soundsofourhomeland) and join us on our journey as we grow your Ghana & Naija music knowledge. If there’s anything you want to see as well, don’t hesitate to message us !
And that’s it. I’ve been up to a couple of things away from here, but I haven’t disappeared. Stay tuned for the next post!
perspective of j.k.l. 