Oma Mahmud, the alternative artiste-producer gives us the low down on his recently released album Rockstvr.
This is a guest editorial written by Oma Mahmud annotating his album, Rockstvr.
June 24, 2019
I am always trying to make projects at any given point in my life, so every year, once one is out i start working on the next one.
Although nothing elaborate led to its creation, the album was inspired by the fact that at that point in time (January 2018) when most of the album recording was done, I was trying to learn how to play the guitar to a comfortable point. It took about 6 months before I felt like I could record guitar into actual tracks. Then i started making music around that.
There are songs on the album that could have made my previous album ‘Pink’. I recorded like 17 songs for ‘Pink’ but i didn’t want the project to be too long so some of them were fit into ‘Rockstvr’. I literally just make music and if they sound good they make it into the album.
"Crase with You"
The instrumental for ‘Crase with You’ came in 2017 for ‘Pink’, my previous album. At the time I wasn’t really feeling the instrumental, I wanted to work around it. One day as I was driving around, the song came up on my phone and I started singing to it, then I realised that it could be a good song and because I could now play the guitar, I recorded the intro on it. There’s usually a story about women I want to sing about because i’m always in and out of something with women at every point.
"On My Mind"
A producer called Kabizzy came around with a couple of beats, ‘On my Mind’ happened to be one of them.
It’s a song about realising that you like a close friend romantically, and you try to see where it could go. Both of you have always been on the same page you never thought about exploring it, now you are giving it a go.
"Only One (feat. Damayo)"
We were in my brother’s house to make music, then we started playing Fifa and I was like "dude we might as well just make music". We went to the studio and started making a beat that led to ‘Only one’. The song features my very first guitar recording then I sent it to Tamar to record a verse and that’s how the song came to life.
"Rock Me (feat. Yung L)"
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Also produced by Kabizzy, I just recorded on it. It’s a feel good song. I kept running into a girl at industry events and then i asked her for a verse on the album. She was one of the first people to do a verse on the album.
"Roadman (feat. King Mufasa)"
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I made the beat originally for 'Pink'. I recorded alone on the track for the old version but I decided to add King Mufasa’s verse after taking out one of my verses.
"Mogbe (feat. Prettyboydo)"
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This is everyone’s favourite song on the album. One of the beats by Kabizzy. I recorded hoping to feature Shank on it but then I sent it to D-O who did his thing on it. It’s a great song and we have a lot of fun playing it live. These days my music is transitioning towards live music.
"Party & Bullshit (feat. DJ Yin)"
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This was me Banky and DJ Yin in my bedroom studio playing a loop for like 4 hours and having fun around it, just playing around the guitar. Then Yin stood up and recorded something. At the end of the session that lasted like 5-6 hours we just had Yin’s four-bar verse, so I had to do the rest of the song. I mixed and mastered it then put out it out there.
"Hold On (feat. Paula.B)"
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Hold on is the only song I didn’t write a single word of, I just produced and arranged it. A friend of mine Ayo, sent me a voice note after I told her on WhatsApp that I was making a dance type beat and turned it into a song.
"Broken Promises (feat. Khandie)"
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This was the first single I released after I put my last project ‘Pink’. It initially didn’t have any features on the original version but I felt like I had to give it a little kick. So I got this amazing vocalist who goes by the name of Khandie to do the hook, and she did great on the track. Everyone has been asking about her since.
I wrote the song at the end of a relationship, realising how we’d been making promises to ourselves like ‘I love you forever’ and so on and at the end of the day it came to naught.
"Hypnotize"
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This is a really old song. One of the first songs I recorded for ‘Pink’. I was waiting for a verse from an artiste-friend who’s kind of big but we both forgot about it. When I was switching to a new laptop, I stumbled on the song and I thought I could do something great with the song. I tried to mix it as best as possible because I lost the original instrumental file, so I did the best I could with the files I had then mastered it.
"Religious"
The last song on the project but also the most recent song recorded. It was inspired by The 1975’s 'I Couldn’t Be More in Love' from their latest album 'A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships'. I wanted to do something in the ballpark of that song.
This album was basically me figuring things out as a musician and expressing who I am now on records. My next album is going to be more deliberate and better curated.
