Coming from Ghana, Africa, Mawule is an example of striving through hardship and pursuing dreams despite said hardship. Contrast Control happily welcomes Mawule into the family as he shares via an interview with me about his life, music, and drive to move forward to a bright future.
Mawule’s latest EP, Reflections, Is a testament to how hard work and persistence can create beautiful music. Mainly a message of love and not giving up on it, Reflections creates in 3 songs what most artists have to do in 10 or 11.
In my time listening to Mawule I’ve found great joy in the soft harmonizing of his voice with top notch beats that truly immerse me or anyone in the theme of love. RnB is a genre close to my heart as it to anyone else’s. At some point in our lives we feel love and the loss of it. But with Mawule, we all can recapture that feeling of satisfaction love can give us.
Well enough of me ranting you’re here to see what Mawule has to say about his music and life!
James West: Mawule, When did you start your career in music and how did you know you were meant to sing?
Mawule: I started my music career back in October 2009. I self wrote, recorded, and produced one of my first records “Let You Go” in a study room in the basement of my college dorm at around 12am. I published the record on my MySpace page and it attracted a lot of attention, including the attention of a music manager who wanted to work with me. Long story short things fell through and I pursued my education and put music on the back burner. At this point, I had given up on my dream of a career in the music industry.
My time away from music helped me realize that I was meant to sing. Though I was focusing on my education, music became my self-care. I wrote lots of lyrics, produced beats, and recorded samples of songs. I also listened to a lot of my favorite artists and the more I sang along to their music, the more I felt like a part of me was missing. My disengagement from the music world brought me back to music and helped me realize that I was meant to sing.
James: What inspires the songs you sing?
Mawule: I write music that people can relate to. Though not all my songs are from personal experiences, I cultivate a lot of my ideas from my general thoughts on love and relationships. So my mere thinking, believing, and knowing that someone out there can relate to the message express in my music inspires my songs.
James: The Reflections EP, What does it represent? What is the message you want to send out?
Mawule: I think every aspiring musician who knows their potential, believe in their talent, and are without a label, a solid fan based, and a supportive team experience moments of doubt. Sometimes you make good music but no one hears it. You grind daily to promote yourself and see no progress. I have experienced this feeling before and so the EP represents my progression beyond this doubtful stage. It represents the faith I have in myself to succeed in an already competitive and challenging industry.
The Reflections EP also represents my resiliency, hard work, faith in my team and the direction we are heading. When I listen to the EP, I am reminded of my potential and ability to produce quality records. I am reminded of my team’s support in me, their dedication to my records, the guidance they provide, and the ways they will push me to be a great RnB/Pop artist.
The Reflections EP also represents what I can offer to fans and the world and that is good music with meaningful messages on relationships, heartbreaks, healing, vulnerability, and love.
James: Is there a special process to your song-writing/recording?
Mawule: I am a storyteller and this innate gift is rooted in my cultural upbringing in Ghana. I credit my lyric composing ability to my story telling trait. My pen grace the pages and my fingers aggressively punch the alphabets on the keyboard when I think of a story I want to share with fans. My lyrics present a fantasy, they share a story, and depict the reality in many love and relationship situations that I know is very relatable to the general music listener and lover. I put a lot of effort into my lyrics so if anything, my lyrics is what I want fans to analyze more in my music.
James: If you could have anyone guest sing on a song of yours, who would it be and why?
Mawule: This one is a tough one, but I would have to choose between John Legend and Musiq Soulchild. It would have to be one of these two artists because their music speaks to me in ways that I cannot even describe. Their voice is unbelievable and their musical talent and abilities is nothing but an art of genius. I would choose these artists because my style reflects a little of what they do. I know that collaborating with any one of these phenomenal artists would be a smash record and pure “Hot Fire”.
James: Are you working on a full-length album?
Mawule: I am working on a full-length album. It will be a ten-song album. Though I have not named the album yet, I want to album to tell a story like you read a book, from front to back. I want the album to tell a story, from the first song through the tenth song.
James: What kind of plans do you have in regards of touring? Music Videos?
Mawule: I will start from the ground up doing a lot of open mic nights to get my name out there. When I released the EP back in July 2014, I never really got a chance to perform and promote it because I ended up dislocating my ankle in a sporting incident.
Soon after I started walking, I came down with a bad sickness, which led to me having a tonsillectomy. During my recover for my tonsillectomy, I developed a viral infection around my voice box. While patiently recovering from the viral infection, I developed bronchitis.
I am still currently recovering from bronchitis and have a few more weeks to go. So, as you can see, it has been a challenge to get out there to promote my music on the stage because I have not been physically and vocally healthy. However, during my recovery process with all these series of unfortunate events, I found myself sharpening my lyric composition skills.
I have written a lot of great music I know fans will appreciate and love. During this process, I also dedicated my time to keeping fans updated on my recovery process, life, and other ventures through my social media accounts.
It is always an amazing feeling when an artist can be so open and share their life experience and insights with us about themselves and the music they create.
Reflections EP Thoughts – 3 powerful songs that capture the essence of love and wanting to be loved. Heavy beats and soft vocals provide that time old enjoyable RnB music experience that many greats have pioneered. Mawule simply forged the sound into his unique style and will no doubt make tidal waves of fans fall in love with his sound and message.
I’m happy to add Mawule to the Contrast Control Family and thank him and Bldg Blocks Music Company for making this interview possible. But i will express gratitude again by saying I appreciate Mawule and Bldg Blocks for believing in Contrast Control as a way to promote great music and YOU, the reader for enjoying the work i do here.
For more information on Mawule please visit: www.facebook.com/musicmawule www.mawule.com/
Written by James West 2-11-2015
