Digital Cover Story 58: TAY IWAR
Words by Seneo Mwamba
When you hear the opening chorus of Wizkid’s “True Love” which debatably among the Wizkid FC is the best song on his iconic Made In Lagos album, you can’t help but feel the vibes and the smoothness of Tay Iwar against the background of Juls’ stunning production before Wizkid and Projexx join in on the vibes. And while this song was a moment on the album for everybody who has heard it, for the Nigerian producer, songwriter and singer Tay Iwar who lent his pen to write Steady also on Made In Lagos, this was just one part the musical journey which he has been embarking on since the age of 14.
Since this moment, Tay released his 2021 EP Love & Isolation before embarking on the Made in Lagos World Tour with Wizkid, which saw him performing in arenas and stages all over the world, including a four-night sold-out stint at London’s O2 Arena. Not to mention working with Burna Boy, gaining production credits on his track “Alone”, and joining tours with Lucky Daye and Bree Runway. Most recently, however, Tay released his appropriately timed and titled EP Summer Breeze.
The EP plays exactly how the title suggests and is everything you would expect from Tay. It incorporates various elements of music that have been apparent through his musical influences and early musical beginnings. When you hear the title track, which again sees him pairing with Juls, you feel like you want to drive in a car with the top down, as depicted on the project’s cover art. Unsurprisingly, this song kickstarted the project, as you feel it represents the entire essence of the 8-track EP and what Tay is trying to capture. “The first song I did for the EP was Summer Breeze with Juls. That was the oldest song, and it was when I realized that I wanted to make a project. By then, I didn’t know if it was an album, an EP, or just two tracks, but when I made the song, I was like, yeah, I’m making a project”.
Having had many things happen between releasing his last EP Love & Isolation, for Tay, it wasn’t necessarily about the intention of making another project per se rather than just making music and going from there. There wasn’t necessarily a concept or any idea before the moment of having Summer Breeze. “Each song is its own concept, and in terms of making it and tying it together, It’s like a puzzle. The way I make music, it’s like a puzzle I always have. When I got Summer Breeze, the song was 70% or 60% done; I left the song and decided to start making other stuff. I just kept on working on unfinished ideas I had, and whichever one fit into this summer vibe, I put to the side over time; I kept reducing that list and fine-tuning songs and changing ideas into songs and changing one idea into other ideas and created the EP in that way.”
And so, he got started on the process of making the EP which saw him collaborate with a bunch of different people across the board with features from the likes of Twelve XII on the opening track “Undercover Lover” as well as Knucks, Kojey Radical, and IDK. And even those sound as natural as teaming up and working with everybody across the project. “All the people featured there are because we’re already in tune with each other. And nothing was false. Nothing was labeled because I don’t have a label, so it was all naturally done.”
Arriving at this moment has been in the cards for Tay since he first embarked on his musical journey. At the age of fourteen, having gotten his first laptop, he learned about Fruity Loops (the production software) and, through YouTube, learned all about making beats and selling them, which is how he began his journey into production. However, even then, it was not the catalyst to make him consider being a singer. Even though it is something he had been doing all while growing up, that came when he was in high school, and a school talent competition happened. “I knew I could sing from a young age, but the first time I knew that my singing could affect people’s emotions was around year 10 (SS1, as we call it in Nigeria). My class had a mini singing competition, and no one knew I could sing. So I decided to sing that day, and a girl cried because she said it was really good. So that surprised me, and I thought, wow, maybe this is something I should do. But I still didn’t want to be a singer. I wanted to be a producer; that was my initial dream to be a producer. So I was doing my beats and looking for people to sing my songs, and then my brothers came back from uni, and they just told me that it would be better if I just sang on the beats instead of trying to give it out for free or like find people to record and all of that. So I sang it myself, and when I started releasing songs, I released my first song when I was 14, and then after that, I released two more songs.”
“My class had a mini singing competition, and no one knew I could sing. So I decided to sing that day, and a girl cried because she said it was really good. So that surprised me, and I thought, wow, maybe this is something I should do.”
- TAY IWAR
The rest, as they say, is history as Tay has been consistently working and developing his sound to what he has become known for. He blends the sounds of afrobeat and R&B as well as throwing in various elements by way of his classical piano background. Also his inspiration from the likes of Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, and Prince to name a few of the artists contributed to the soundtrack of his household growing up. The variety of said inspirations can be displayed across Summer Breeze. The EP offers a variety of different moments sonically. While you have the softness of songs like “Summer Breeze”, “Healing”, and “Don’t Lie”. Moments like “Juice” and “Broken Promises” have a different edge which is enhanced by the features of Knucks and Kojey Radical.
The lyrical moments on the EP are something among themselves as Tay was tapping into various emotions and feelings of things he had experienced when doing the project. “Regarding the songwriting, I feel like the lyrics are very straightforward. “Undercover Lover” is about a secret lover, and “Don’t Lie” is about turmoil within a relationship and honesty and dishonesty. Healing is about trying to get past and move on from a relationship. I feel like the topics I’m addressing on the EP are all things that make you sit down and think.”
The whole EP captures Tay’s authentic and distinctive essence, from the production to the songwriting to the visuals and everything alike. It feels as if he is taking you on a summer journey which is the one true intention apparent when he put the project together. Without thinking about what it means and how it represents what he was doing or where he was in his life, it is more about giving people a solution and medicine for whoever wants to feel the summer breeze. “The only information I had when I put this EP together was that I wanted it to be a summer experience. I wanted it to be the calm between the chaos of everything. It’s like after a rave in July when you’re done, you’re drunk, you’re hungover in the morning, and you just want to chill and recollect yourself. That’s what this music is for. However, it applies to you, and whatever you are doing, that’s what I wanted to make for people.”
Listen to Summer Breeze here
Watch the visuals for ‘Undercover Lover‘ below
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