Daily Inspiration: Meet Ify Iwobi

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ify Iwobi. 

Hi Ify, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I always went up to toy pianos from 18 months old and experimented with the keys. I knew I wanted to be a pianist/writer from a very young age. I had Piano Lessons from 7 years old and studied up to Grade 8. I also studied music in school, college, and university. I always made my own tracks, and my first piece was written at 7 years old. I showed my teacher my first Classical Piece in one Lesson, and she called me a ‘Little Mozart,’ just like the composer. I liked lots of different genre musically and I always have ideas in my head for my next piece. I developed my performance techniques and writing at Brunel University. After I graduated in 2015, I sought performances and wrote tracks. I have performed around Wales for example Wales Millennium Centre, Senedd Assembly of Wales, and National Museums of Wales. I have also performed in London at the House of Commons, at Parliament, at the USA Ohio, and in Nigeria for Wazobia Max TV. Music has always been a source of happiness for me even in the darkest times. Growing up, I was bullied in primary school and in secondary school. I felt alone and sad during school. However, playing my piano and creating music was my outlet, my happy place where I could just be and rest in creativity. I was also supported by my family and my faith in God. Several years later in 2020, CO-VID 19 caused ripples around the world, and during this time I fell into a deep anxiety, depression, despair as all my paid gigs were cancelled. The isolation was tough, and brought back my school days feelings. It was difficult, but I wouldn’t let this get me down. I had an idea to go back to my Nigerian roots and try Afrobeat as I hadn’t released works since my debut album ‘Illuminate.’ R’n’B/Afrobeat was a completely different genre for me and I looked at other artists such as Wizkid, Burna Boy, Flavour, etc. to see how they made their works. I released ‘Thinking About You’ which was my first Afrobeat piece featuring Jinmi Abduls and co-produced with Dai Griff in July 2020. I uploaded this piece on BBC Introducing in UK and following their assessment, my piece was designated a BBC Radio Wales Welsh A-List track and stayed on the charts for 6 weeks. Being Welsh A-Listed by BBCRadioWales means that your track is played on the same list as Adele, Beyonce, Ed Sheeran etc. I was thrilled to hear this news after going through very difficult times and I began to write more R’n’B/Afrobeat tracks. I subsequently wrote my EP ‘Bossin’ It’ and another track from titled ‘Love Rapsody’ was designated a BBC Radio Wales Welsh A-List track. This led to more A Listed tracks including ‘Solo’ (ft Luna Lie Lot) towards the end of 2020. In 2021, ‘Ambition’ (ft Anwar Siziba) and most recently ‘Rise’ (ft B-LAKE) featured as A Listed tracks. It has been a journey, not always smooth sailing, but totally worth every minute! My dream is to be known worldwide for my music, my compositions, performances and songwriting. In 2021, I was delighted to be invited by Royal Airforce Regimental Band to Northolt as they wanted to perform one of my original compositions called Flying High – a classical style piece. This has been one of the highlights of my career, to have a full ensemble perform my piece and bring it to life in a concert hall. It was truly exhilarating. It was particularly poignant for me, because I had composed Flying High, at University and it was a piece that uplifts and gives the feeling of soaring above one’s problems and challenges. I would love to work with artists such as Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Clean Bandit etc. to write tracks together, to play piano at their gigs. I keep working towards that goal so that it becomes a reality. Looking back at how far I have come, the journey has made me who I am and I am very grateful for the opportunities I have had and will have in the future!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Growing up, I was terribly bullied in primary and secondary schools.  I felt alone and sad during school. However composing music and playing my piano were my outlets- when I play the piano, I feel like I am in an oasis of peace and tranquillity and I pour my feelings into my music just be and rest. My piece Solace, in the Illuminate Album, has the words: “Solace comes to us from sadness, Truth be told I’m filled with gladness I wanna be free to be me” Through my journey of pain and difficulties, I was supported by my family and my faith in God. Several years later in 2020, CO-VID 19 pandemic, had a global adverse impact around the world, and during this time I fell into a deep depression due to isolation, similar to feelings that I felt long ago in school. It was difficult, but I wouldn’t let this get me down. I had an idea to go back to my roots and try Afrobeat as I hadn’t released works since my debut album ‘Illuminate.’ R’n’B/Afrobeat was a completely different genre and I looked at other artists such as Wizkid, Burna Boy, etc. to see how they made their works. I released ‘Thinking About You’ which was my first Afrobeat piece featuring Jinmi Abduls and co-produced with Dai Griff in July 2020. After being uploaded on BBC Introducing in UK and assessed, it was made a BBC Radio Wales A-List track and charted for 6 weeks. The A-List on BBC means that your track is played on the same list as Adele, Beyonce, etc. I was thrilled to hear this news after going through this depression and began to write more R’n’B/Afrobeat tracks. I subsequently wrote my EP ‘Bossin’ It’ and another track from titled ‘Love Rapsody’ was assessed and A Listed. This led to more A Listed tracks including ‘Solo’ (ft Luna Lie Lot) towards the end of 2020. In 2021, ‘Ambition’ (ft Anwar Siziba) and most recently ‘Rise’ (ft B-LAKE) featured as A Listed tracks. It has been a journey, not always smooth sailing, but totally worth every minute! My dream is to be known worldwide for my performances and works. I also want to work with artists such as Beyonce, etc. to write tracks together. I keep working towards that goal so that it becomes a reality. Looking back at how far I have come, the journey has made me who I am grateful for the opportunities I have had and will have in the future!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Pianist/Songwriter/Composer/Musical Director. I am an antiracist activist and my creative venture into Afrobeat, Hip Hop, RnB, is to shine a light on my culture and heritage; bringing together my Welsh and NIgerian heritage through my compositions. I love performing either for large concert events, or for community events and for charity events. Through my performances, I have been funding the school fees of 10 disadvantaged children in a village in Eastern Nigeria. I donate my charity performances ticket fees to cover the costs of school fees. I perform solo but also with my ensemble of session musicians. I write tracks with featured vocalists + instrumental in an array of different genres from Classical to R’n’B. My main instrument is piano though I play 6 other instruments, I co-produce my works and make all musical motifs and instrumentation. I don’t sing and I’m known for being like Clean Bandit, ADP in my work. I am most proud of my achievements during the pandemic and getting altogether 5 BBC Radio Wales A Listed tracks one right after the other – which is my dream! I want my performances and works to be full of emotion and touch each listener. I am a Welsh/Nigerian musician and I want to be creatively free and not be confined to any one particular genre, I compose from what comes to my head. At the moment, I am focusing on making R’n’B/Afrobeat works but you may see a Classical Piano + Orchestral piece here and there too!

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something that many people don’t know about my work is that I make all the motifs + instrumentation of each track myself! Many think that I develop this with other musicians! However, I co-produce with Dai Griff, usually telling him my ideas and he enhances what is there which is always a blast!  I also love to dance to my music at home and create funny videos with my brother Chuka which I may upload on my social media just for laughs.

Contact Info:

• Email: ifyiwobimusic@gmail.com
• Website: https://ifyiwobimusic.co.uk/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ifyiwobi/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IfyIwobiMusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/IfyIwobiMusic?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ifyiwobi

Image Credits
Dai Griff
BBC Radio Wales
Jin Noh