Why we are sticking to African music – Mamuzee twins

Weekend Magazine: Tells us a bit about your background? Anthonio: What am I supposed to say? Well, my mother is a fine woman, she gave birth to us and we love her for that. We are the seventh among the ten children my mother has given birth to. We are God fearing and humble. We […]

Weekend Magazine: Tells us a bit about your background?

Anthonio: What am I supposed to say? Well, my mother is a fine woman, she gave birth to us and we love her for that. We are the seventh among the ten children my mother has given birth to. We are God fearing and humble.

We would never forget our growing years in Ajegunle and how hard it was growing up in the ghetto. But we thank God, we didn’t die and were never involved in crime. Our father had 10 wives and nine known concubines, but our mother was easily his favourite. She had visible influence over the old man. My mother actually went as far as India to learn how to prepare vegetarian dishes for our father who was a vegetarian. And that was where his love for my mother grew. While our father was supportive of our musical career, our mum was somehow not impressed. We are happy that today we don’t regret going into music. Most of our mates are now lawyers and doctors, but they still want to be like us.

What are the challenges so far being musicians in this part of the world?

The challenges, as I keep telling other musicians, are basically fund-related. It has not been easy being African artists. You know what it means to raise funds. The only grace we have is that we have more shows abroad and they pay us in foreign currency, mostly the United States dollars. So the difference is kind of better. We have held shows in Nigeria and the highest money we were paid was N11 million.  But outside these shores, America for example, they pay thousands of dollars.  God has been faithful, but I will love to see a situation like what we have abroad here. Abroad, we hardly have time to rest, it’s all shows, shows and more shows, but here in Nigeria, I rest like two or three weeks. So I am just praying that more shows will come up in Nigeria so that we can build our heart desire. The Mamuzee twins are not rich, but we are comfortable. The greatest challenge like I said earlier has to do with money, through which you can start your project.

It is easy for an artist to say I want to bring another artist to grow, but the truth is this: when you have a show and you want to bring an upcoming artist, people will now see it as a problem. Every artist wants to help somebody else, because you believe that when you leave, you have to have somebody behind. Though it is a bit difficult, we are still trying our best and we will keep doing that.

Speaking about other artistes, what do you say about big artistes not helping upcoming ones?

Andre: There are such instances but for us it is different. We have a nongovernmental organization through which we did some talent hunt in the Niger Delta zone. The guy we featured on our single was from that talent hunt. We are trying our best, but the truth is that it is not easy. Don’t be deceived, it is difficult for an artiste to take care of another artiste.

It’s not like in foreign countries where you have a management team to take care of such things. There is also the issue of acceptance of upcoming artistes by the public because every big artiste wants to help the younger ones in order to leave a good foot print in the sands of time.

How did you come to marry twins, is it because you are also twins?

Anthonio: It is an intriguing story. They (the twins we married) were from Ikoyi while we lived in Ajegunle. Their parents, who were well to do, wanted them to see the other part of life, so they were brought from Ikoyi Secondary School to Ajegunle. They were in Mokola High School while we were in Unity Secondary School but we were in the same complex. We didn’t have the courage to approach them, because they were more refined. There was an ‘amala’ joint where we used to eat. We would go to the woman and tell her that when our ‘wives’ come to eat, she should not collect money from them, we would pay the woman. So, when they come to eat, the woman would tell them that ‘your husbands’ have paid for the food, but we still did not have the courage to come out to them until they eventually left after about a year or so.

Somehow, we didn’t see them again until our final year when we met them at Obalende where they wanted to board a taxi. Since we couldn’t afford a taxi then, we had to board molue with the hope of catching up with them. Fortunately for us, they came to visit a friend of theirs in Ajegunle and that was when the whole thing started again. We courted for about nine years before we got married proper.

Their father tried to train them as medical doctors, and when that failed, he insisted they must be lawyers, but that too did not work. Finally he wanted them to be soldiers and even sent them to a military institution, but at the end of the day, they took to music. In school, they used to beat the desks and nothing else interested them except music. In 1999, they came out with their first effort called ‘Bobo’, followed by a gospel track, ‘Abi you no know say Jesus na God?’ With the success of their first effort, they went to South Africa and spent three years at the College of Film and Broadcasting. They came back in 2003, and came up with ‘Awigiri’, the African Esan dance. And we got married and we are living happily ever after.

You guys are energetic on stage. Do you take performance enhancing drugs or other form of stimulants as people are insinuating?

Anthonio: We are naturally crazy people. I usually tell my Personal Assistant that I don’t smoke and I don’t drink, but I am still crazy. Let’s suppose I drink and smoke, what will happen? We are naturally energetic people. Some time back, the General Manager of NTA said we still perform the same way we started ten years ago and he asked where we got our energy from. There is no drug that can do that, there is no drug that can sustain you for ten years. So we can confidently say that we are natural and real in all our performances.

Where do you want to see yourselves in the next five years?

Anthonio: God knows our steps and he plans it for us. He has a better plan for us and others to step up. He knows the future and what is going to happen in the future. So I don’t have any comment about that.

Do you recall any embarrassing moment on the stage?

Anthonio: It’s ‘dil chich kachin’. You know the Rio de Janeiro carnival in Brazil. I saw a man eating something and I also ate that thing, with my long throat. It is made from sugar so it was very sweet. I wanted to impress the girls around that I had money even though I was from Ajegunle. The girls asked us if we liked it and we said yes. As we hit the stage to perform our stomach started rumbling and that was a very embarrassing moment for us.

Do you guys quarrel?

Anthonio:  Yes sometimes.

Have there been cases of mistaken identity?

Andre:  Yes, several times especially when it has to do with our wives. They are also very identical. Our wives play a lot of pranks on us. When we come home tired his wife comes to my room and my wife goes to his. They like to pull our legs most times. But gradually we are getting them at their own game by knowing when they pull a prank on us. That is the beauty of being married to identical twins. We give God the glory for making us a happy family.

You have an African concept in your sense of style. Why is this so?

Anthonio: When you are asked to mention music and musicians that have stayed longest in the mind of the society, you hear Sweet Mother, you hear Fela’s music, Bongos Ikwe, Sunny Ade and Osita Osadebe. African music stays forever. It does not fade off. We used to hear Alex O and others in his likes, but they have all faded off. That is why we are sticking to African music.