‘We started writing songs at age seven’
Gregson: I am Godwin of the Gregsons but they call me Greg Black. I am from Adamawa State from Numan LGA while my friend and colleague Osakwe is from Delta State. How did you guys get into music? Godwin: Well I was born into music; all my life has been music. I remember when I […]
Gregson: I am Godwin of the Gregsons but they call me Greg Black. I am from Adamawa State from Numan LGA while my friend and colleague Osakwe is from Delta State.
How did you guys get into music?
Godwin: Well I was born into music; all my life has been music. I remember when I was growing up as a child; I loved music so much that I joined the choir in my church at the tender age of six. At that point, I became the lead singer in the group, but in 2005 I decided to make it official when I travelled down to Lagos and from there, I showed my talent which got people to appreciate me. I was also opportuned to travel to the USA, that was where I met Greg in Maryland, Washington. He saw me singing in the church so after the whole service, he walked up to me and said, wow, you sing so good and he introduced himself to me as Greg and he was from Nigeria. So I said am also Greg from Nigeria, and we had a good laugh and parted ways that day. It was when I came back to Lagos after my return from the state that we started sharing ideas about music and how we can do it together. So one day he said to me, since you are Greg and I am also Greg then we are the GREGSONS so that was how the name came about.
Osakwe: As for me, I do a lot of writings, I wrote my first music at the age of seven, so I got to realize that I am talented and from there, with the love I had for music, I kept on writing and composing music for my friends in school until I left for the USA.
You guys became an instant hit with your track “Don’t Go”, what was the secret behind it?
Osakwe: Well, the song is an emotional track, what really happened is that I was actually in love then but my partner Greg here actually brought the idea of the song. He composed the chorus for me and the inspiration just came as we were both sitting down and we started singing and adding more ideas to the song. So after then, we went to the studio and did the song and it came out perfect because it became our hit track on airwaves.
Can you tell us about your upcoming music/album?
Osakwe: Actually, we have been signed under a recording studio, Zakudia records and subsequently, our CEO is working on it. We are going to be expecting some big foreign artist like Chris Brown in our new album because we have already worked on that. We are doing a collabo (collaboration) with him because we really love his styles of music, the way he does his thing while singing. Also we are working really hard towards the success of our video in South Africa which is going to be in this month of July.
We are also going to collaborate with M.I, in fact we just signed the deal with him and I am sure it’s going to be another hit track because M.I is really amazing in his music, and some other artists too which we are going to collabo with.
Can you share with us how your video will look like?
Godwin: You know, this is our first video record so we really have to put in our best so that it will be excellent. That is why we decided to take it down to South Africa. People have been listening to our songs on radio stations, they only hear our voices but they don’t know us physically, so I guess with the video, it will make us more popular, though we can’t say we are not popular, but the world needs to know us well. To add to the South African video, we are going to be doing some of the videos here in Nigeria so that our culture can be portrayed in the video.
How do you see the Nigerian entertainment industry?
Osakwe: Well, the way Nigerian artist are hitting the road, in the next five years, Nigeria will be taking over the world. Presently if you go to the U.S, you hear Nigerian music being played even in clubs and a lot of people love it so much. You can imagine a Nigerian artist like D’banj how far he has risen in the Nigerian entertainment industry with the song he sang with Snoop Dog.
Godwin: In fact, he has already signed another deal to collabo with Kanye West. So you see he has really opened the way for foreign artists to collabo with Africans, they now know what we have in terms of music because I remember way back in the U.S when I had my first performance in the church, when the Pastor announced that a guy from Nigeria was coming up stage to perform, I mean the whole place became so quiet all of a sudden. They gave me that audience and I never disappointed them. So that is to show that we Nigerians are going places.
Have you guys found fulfilment in the entertainment industry?
Osakwe: Yes, we must say that we have found fulfilment but we still need to clean up some things. If we really must go far then we must hold ourselves like one. I do not want to be too religious but God Himself said love your neighbour as yourself, always be in peace with everybody than going about backbiting about something. Therefore, as brothers, we need to encourage one another to get it right in this life. I think that is the way forward
What motivated you to rise up against all odds?
Godwin: When I was growing up as a child, I had this challenge; I had always wanted to be that person that pulls the crowd. As a child, I will go and talk to them just to get their attention. I will just go to their front and pick up any object that looks like a microphone and begin to sing and dance for them. But I had this challenge of speaking because I had a very tiny voice, so they will always laugh at me but that was what I really wanted in life. So I got on my knees and prayed to my God that this is what am inspiring to be so He should see me through, and the Lord has done it for me today.
Osakwe: For me, am always seen as a man with high esteem, you know people always place me on that level so it now became a major challenge because I cannot afford to let them down so I strived hard to become what I am today. You see like my elder brother in Lagos, he will always call me and tell me that am going somewhere in life so I should never give up and these words really helped me because it was like a back bone to me. Each time I remember I will always want to put in my best effort in what am doing, but I thank God for everything.
How has being stars affected your private lives?
Godwin: Well we still see ourselves as who we were. Nothing has changed us really, we still relate with people like before and we hang out freely if we want to, so nothing has really changed us.
What are the major challenges you face in the entertainment industry today?
Osakwe: Doing music in Nigeria is not easy, you know. The audience’s acceptability is one major challenge. I remember when we were invited to Rhythm FM in Abuja here, the presenter just immediately slut in our C.D plate and after playing some tracks, there were calls from people all over Abuja, that was amazing.
Godwin: Another challenge is that our kind of music is different from others because we do not want to do what others are doing, so we work hard day and night to bring out the best in us.
What advice do you have for the upcoming artists?
Godwin: We must say, they should always put in their best in all they do and they should do what they know how to do best. We were once like them and here we are today.