Celeste Ojatula, an Indie folk artist is a rising music sensation in Nigeria. In this interview with Weekend Magazine, the English graduate from University of Lagos talks about how she started playing the guitar, her first record single, and more. Excerpts:
Weekend Magazine: How would you describe your kind of music?
Celeste Ojatula: I will say it’s surreal, transcendental and spiritual. That’s the idea of my music. It touches the soul. It makes you think deep and takes you into a realm that you never imagined or that you were not in before.
WM: You are releasing your first record single this month titled ‘Black’. Why did you name it ‘Black’?
Celeste: The original idea is about young people and how we view life, how we treat others and tend to be what we aren’t. So everything is just bleak. Some of my words are like “I just want to do something so I can get something in return. There’s no genuine reason for anything. Everybody’s trying to do stuff because they expect something in return.” So that’s the reason why it’s black.
WM: This is your first single, yet you have already made quite a name for yourself as an artist. What have you been doing all this while?
Celeste: I officially started professional music in 2015. I just finished school in 2016 so I had to deal with school. My dad isn’t particular about it and I also have siblings who advised that I needed to focus on my education so I would have something to fall back on. So I had to put a pause to music. Within 2015 and 2016 I was just in between. I’ll say I started in 2016 after I was done with school. But during that period I had a lot of events that I was going for.
One of my first events was Rocktober Festival in 2015. It’s an annual event for lovers of rock music. I got a lot of fans and now have a steadily growing fan base. I had my first titled ‘Hang out with Celeste’ where I had a couple of people come together to listen to my sound and understand it. We were almost fifty in number at the event. So, that is what I have been doing, going for shows, meeting new people and connecting and working on my EP and single.
WM: How many shows will you say you have been on so far?
Ojatula: I honestly can’t count. They are many, perhaps at least fifty.
WM: What was your first experience on stage like?
Celeste: It was frightening. My hands were shaking. I was about thirteen years old. What really helped me though was that I was a chorister and had some stage experience. I was acting and was the first person to come on stage. I was also supposed to sing. It was a secondary school competition and there were a lot of people present. What calmed me was that everywhere was noisy but when I started singing the place went quiet.
WM: How did the guitar become your go-to musical instrument?
Celeste: The guitar was an accident actually. What happened was that my sister woke up one morning, at a time we used to save up a lot, and said she was going to get a guitar and later got one for N7, 000. It was a black guitar and she had a teacher who tutored her. Sometimes she went out for rehearsals and once her tutor asked me to learn too. I replied that I was very fine with simply singing.
In church we had a voice trainer who also told me I needed to learn an instrument. I soon realised that it was a problem if I couldn’t read music or explain it in musical terms. That was how I decided to be dedicated and learn. We had just two lessons and classes and the trainer travelled. Materials were available, so I used them to learn to a particular level.
WM: What do you hope to achieve with your new single, ‘Black’?
Celeste: I’m hoping it makes people think differently. Now we have a lot of young minds who are depressed. It’s meant to open their minds to the reality of things and be positive.
WM: What are you usually found doing when you are not singing or playing the guitar?
Celeste: I’m usually found writing. I am a content and creative writer. I write short stories. I have a blog I am writing for now and a website called myidlepen.com.
