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| The Okoye brother, peter, Jude and paul okoye |
INVASION, the new P-Square album, is here and everyone is excited about it. Not only that, there was a massive show to herald its arrival at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.a day to the show, the Okoye bothers talked about their album INVASION and much more, savour
Why did you call the album, INVASION?
PAUL: It’s due to the experiences we have had in the past five years that we started traveling for shows outside the country. In most of the African countries, that is the word that is usually used to describe our coming. We had planned to release the INVASION videos, but the album is coming first and among all the names we had, we felt this was the best for it.
JUDE: Another idea is that P-Square has been in the limelight for the past ten years now and you would find a P- Square product in virtually all Nigerian homes. So, it’s like we have been invading home all this while and because of the kind of work we have put into this new album and the expectations we have for it, we feel that this is the album that would finally invade both the already invaded homes, cars, clubs, minds and the ones yet to be invaded.
There were ten tracks in each of the previous three albums, why 14 now?
PAUL: Left to me, I would have stuck to ten, but when Jude and Peter bought the idea of more than ten, I had no choice. They even wanted more songs on it, but we didn’t have any time for more. We also considered the expectations of our fans who are expecting more than ten songs from us.
What are the ideas behind some of the songs on the album?
PAUL: On track one, we were trying to please the parents who are always trying to get their mature children married. When I look at my mom, I picture all mothers and the pressure they put on their sons to get married. So, the song is about love and marriage. On “Me and My Brother,” we are trying to tell people that God blesses people in different ways; you mustn’t be perfect or the best at what you do before God can bless you. Another song is “Chop My Money.” It is talking about beauty and admiration. It’s like a guy seeing a fine girl and saying that even if he doesn’t date the girl, she deserves to “Chop My Money.”
Among the songs, which are your favourites?
PAUL: I and my brothers, Peter and Jude, are very competitive and we argue a lot because everybody wants his own thing to come out best. In this album, everyone loves track one, but I have two other tracks: “Asamkpokoto” and “Chop My Money.” I love “Asamkpokoto” because Peter produced the beat and the first time I heard it, I fell in love with it and I told him that even if we were going to cough on it, we will. I loved the drum beat because it was totally strange.
This time around, Peter produced 50 percent of the songs on the album unlike before when the most of the production work rested on me. I am good with love songs while Peter brought in a new flavour to the album. He brought in “Asamkpokoto, Bunie ya Enu, Forever, Jeje and Do as I Do”. He was doing up to four beats every day for me to listen to. I suspected that he would be more active production-wise on this album because on the Danger album, he produced three tracks. This time around, he produced five tracks and I did five while our band members did the other four.
There are also more collabos on this album than the others, what happened?
PAUL: Firstly, there were more songs on this album than the others. There had also been the allegation that P- Square only does collabos with their people, but we decided to kill that impression once and for all this time. We have already had collabos with 9ice, LKT and Darey. We also listened to the songs on the album and identified people who would fit into collabos on them. Waje is our person right from time. May D is an artiste under Square Records, Tiwa Savage is a fresh talent and it wasn’t even the song we felt she would fit in on that she chose. She was the one that chose to feature on “Do As I Do.” We had always wanted to record with Naeto C and you can see that the song was perfect for him.
In the album that had “Busy Body”, featuring Waje, what led to her not being on the video?
PAUL: Waje was in Enugu when we heard her voice and insisted that whenever we were doing a new album, that we would have her on one of the songs. The problem we had on the video was that Waje never had an International Passport then, we didn’t know and we were to shoot the video in South Africa. She was in Enugu then and when we were preparing to go to South Africa, we called her for her passport so we could apply for her visa as well and that was when we found out she didn’t have an International Passport.
Were there people you would have loved to record with that didn’t make it on the album?
PAUL: Yes, we had intentions to record with the Chocolate City artistes but they weren’t around when we were supposed to do it and we were working on a schedule with our marketers. They had already come around and sampled the beat, but at the time we were supposed to record, they were outside the country. The song had to do with the fact that we were all artistes that came to Lagos from the city of Jos and have been able to make it this far. So, we wanted to encourage other people from anywhere to live their dreams and that if we could make it, they also can.
What was the arrangement with the marketers on this album?
Whenever P-Square wants to release an album, the marketers normally demand about two weeks for them to be able to print up to two million copies of the CD so that pirates won’t take over. We still didn’t meet up with that deadline and that made us leave it at 14 songs.
JUDE: We are also using three marketers on this album. The marketers on their own had already discovered that a P-Square album is too big for one marketer to handle with the current situation in the country, so they teamed up and being the three biggest marketers in the land (Tjoe, Ahbu Ventures and Obaino), they are able to combat the pirates that would have taken over only one marketer.
So far, the reports coming in are fine. From what they have told us, the demand is high and the sales are going on fine.
When was the first song recorded on this album?
PAUL: The first song we recorded on the album was “She’s Hot” which featured Naeto C and that was early last year. At that time, it didn’t have Naeto C on it and we weren’t yet living in our own house with our own studio yet. We did it at Foster Zeeno’s studio and later redid it when we packed in here.
Coming over to the concert, when did the idea of a P-Square concert come in?
JUDE: Apart from 2003 when B&H launched P-Square, there has never been another P-Square-only concert in Nigeria. So, towards the end of last year when Flytime came up with the idea of a P-Square concert, we bought it, but we told them that it would not be nice if a show like that has P-Square singing only old songs. We told them that we were planning to release an album this summer and that it would be nice to have the concert then. They also liked it that way and since then we had been working on having this show. It was initially supposed to be just a P-Square live concert. We just felt it would help drive the album forward and add more value to the show. It was originally a Flytime show just like the 2Face and Mo’ Hits shows.
Last year, the story that your dad visited you in Lagos here was big, are they coming for the show?
JUDE: Firstly, the whole family is flying in from Jos and other places for this show. Then, when our dad came last year, it was his first time of ever coming to see us in Lagos. He is also busy with his business in Jos and even when he came, we had to promise to pay him all he would have made from the business for the period he would stay with us in Lagos, before he came. But we didn’t really have to promise or pay him that, he is our father and we just wanted him to come and be with us for some time and see how we are doing in Lagos.
When he eventually arrived, he was very happy. He was really proud of us and told us that he never expected it to be this good. He thought most of the things he was reading in the papers were just fabrications and it was only then he started believing what he was reading in the papers.
What did he tell you people about marriage?
PAUL: Our dad is not that kind of person; he respects everyone as his own man. Everything about marriage comes from the moms; they are the ones that always want you to settle down. When our parents came here and saw how responsibly we were living, our mom really calmed down and let us be.
When are you guys getting married?
JUDE: I will get married when I want to get married. I have everything it takes to get married, but I am not going to do it just to satisfy other people. I want to get married and stay married, which means I have to get someone that is compatible with me before I can take that step. I am looking at someone now, but it is not yet confirmed.
PAUL: Like Jude said, getting married is not just done to please others. I’m not in a hurry and I have someone I would get married to. The person has been with me ever since, even before our breakthrough and as soon as we are ready, we would let everyone know.
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