Edem: Live play is the thing
When you’re one of the most successful artists of your generation, a time comes when you need to innovate. And just like some of his illustrious predecessors did in their heyday, Over Again hitmaker, Edem, says he’s adding a live band to his repertoire.
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Drawing his inspiration from the likes of Abrantie Amakye Dede, Kojo Antwi, Bessa Simons and other highlife artists that have endowed Ghana’s rich musical history, Edem reveals that this is a new step in his career and says he’s assembled a group of bandsmen he hopes will take his music to the next level.
Brimming with confidence and enthusiasm, Edem says he’s more than excited about his new project and let out a small secret that will certainly excite his fans. “I’m also learning to play some instruments,” he says, “And I can’t wait for people to see me playing an instrument live. It might be a piano, guitar or whatever”.
Asked why he has decided to play live at this point in his career, Edem says he feels it will give his image a facelift, a new appeal and a new direction.
Barring all the difficulties associated with keeping and maintaining a live band in mind, the Nyonuviade rapper and Dzodze native plans to be more strategic with how he uses his band.
“It’s not every show that I’ll be performing live but most of the strategic shows that are live band oriented like Ghana Music Awards for example. I feel that I can do better with live band than a lot of people because I’m the best hip-hop performer in the country, and once I roll out and I start performing live it has to continue. I’ll try and see if I can add traditional instruments like the local drums that I’d rap over and take this to a totally new creative direction.”
Commenting on what different thing his band would bring to the music scene, he said: “Because I’m a purely hiphop artist, most of my songs are rap songs but I want to infuse hiphop with live band music and do it effectively.
“People shouldn’t think that it’s only soldiers and highlife artists that can do live band music. With the kind of consistency my musichas achieved since my first album, people should know that this is something I’m going to do on a highly professional level.”
Edem divulged that he has named the band Volta Regime Music Group (VRMG) band and says he wants his fans and people in general to associate his band with his music brand like it pertains in other countries.
“In time, as an artist, I want to be identified with my band as pertains in other countries where some artists can be identified with their bands. This is what the old very classic highlife artists used to do,” he told Showbiz.
The next plan, according to Edem, is to conquer Africa with his band in tow. He sees the next five years as an opportunity to grow his brand and his band to continental renown.
“Within five years, the Edem brand is supposed to be found on the African continent and by this I mean visibility in Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania and efforts are already being made in that direction.”
In his final words, he said he would be releasing his new album titled Books and Rhymes very soon and thanked fans and well wishers for supporting his career. “And I have a lot of major international collaborations on my album so they should look out for it also,” he said.
