HITMAKER PHEELZ [@PHEELZGOOD] SPEAKS ON ‘PHEELZ GOOD’, LOVE, AND AFROBEATS

In between rehearsals for his upcoming performances in LA and New York, longtime Nigerian artist, Pheelz, joins GUAP for an interview.

Pheelz is no stranger to hard work. He has represented the industry for over a decade and the quality of his work reflects his evolving talent, innovative perspective, and unmistakeable passion for the arts.

Read more about the his latest EP, what love means to him and his take on the evolution of Afrobeats.

Bethel: I know each track falls under the persona of lover boy, bad boy, and hit maker. What was the inspiration behind that creative direction?

Pheelz: To be honest, that’s the kind of expressions I’ve had since I was a child. I used to be very shy, so I’d draw these masks and they would express how I feel. If you see all my artwork for all my songs, my EPs and my albums, it has like a mask on it, because that’s what has carried on from my childhood up until now. 

My plan for the mask is to create a larger than life brand. I’ve created sixty masks so far, but I’ve only revealed six. The world is yet to see the rest of the masks and the rest of the emotions. The three masks on the EP are the three emotions I tried to put in the body of work.

Bethel: Every song on this EP is a bop. I listened to the whole EP without skipping. What was the selection process like for these tracks? 

Pheelz: My name is Pheelz for a reason, d’ya get. I’m all about the feelings, I’m all about the emotions and that was what initially got me into music and got me to fully love the music. So the first question in my mind before picking the songs on the EP, is “what are the emotions that I am trying to communicate to the people?”

I’ve always been a fan of love and I’ve always believed that God is love, so the first thing that came to my head was pure, undying, aggressive love. That directed me to pick songs like ‘Stand By You’ and ‘Pheelz Like Summer’

The next emotion was that guy in the club that just wants to pop bottles with a bit of ego. When you see the bad boy, he has a heartbreak chain on him. He’s a heartbreaker, he’s just a bad boy that wants to enjoy life. That’s where you have songs like ‘Finesse’, ‘Pablo Escobar’, and ‘Ballin’.

In the third one I just wanted to put up the cultural, traditional hitmaker emotion. I call it the Jaye Jaye mask and that’s Yoruba for enjoyment. That’s where you have songs like ‘Ewele’ and ‘Emi Laye Mi’. The three masks actually directed my song selection process.

Bethel: ‘Stand By You’ is a beautiful song and so is ‘Pheelz Like Summer’. Is there a chance we could get a project soley for the lovers?

Pheelz: For sure, for sure. There’s actually a tape that I worked on. I don’t know when I’ll drop that, but it’s called blue music and it’s just soley for lovers. ‘Stand By You’ and ‘Pheelz Like Summer’ came out of blue music.

Bethel: You were heavily involved in the whole creation process. What is your favourite part of the process?

Pheelz: It will be singing, songwriting and making the lyric videos, because I made the lyric videos as well. That was one of my favourite parts of working on the EP.

Bethel: If you had to put them in order of preference. What would that look like?

Pheelz: Okay, in preference? It will be songwriting first, then singing and then the lyric videos.

Bethel: You really flexed your muscles in the production, singing and songwriting parts of this project. You’ve reached a level of freedom that allows you to do so. What more could an artist with your experience need to elevate the sound of future projects?

Pheelz: Man, I just want to keep creating. That’s where I’m at right now. To create fearlessly, to create without boundaries and without boxes. I am also trying to speak more with fashion and tech. There’s lots of ways I can help the world and change the world with my ideas. Those are the two spaces that I like to experiment with in the near future.

Bethel: You have some pretty dedicated fans who, at times, are quite demanding. So from your experience, what have your fans been like after the release of this EP?

Pheelz: Oh, man, they’ve loved the EP. Every single fan that I have relates to one or two or three of the emotions, because it’s an emotion that everyone has felt or will feel or is feeling, d’ya get? 

The lyrics just touch them in ways that I can’t even imagine. I go beyond groove and music and actually let the lyrics mean something to the fans. 

Bethel: So I’m from London and Afrobeats has been a part of the London culture for many years, but it’s really blowing up globally. What are your thoughts on that? Does it have more space to grow or has it hit its peak?

Pheelz: Man, I don’t even think it has started yet. It’s not even close to hitting the peak. I keep telling people that Afrobeats is not one sound, it’s a spirit. You need to understand that first and when you understand the spirit of Afrobeats then you understand the fastness of Afrobeats. 

There’s a wide area of things that we can do as African creatives and I need the world to understand that. And I also need every single African creative out there to be ready to teach the world and show the world that we are bigger than one sound and we are bigger than one trend. 

In the future of Afrobeats, I’m seeing it mixing with different genres and making little genre babies like afro-jazz, afro-fusion and afro-hip hop. We’re not close to the end yet, we are just starting.

Bethel: I completely understand what you mean. The old-school afrobeats that we had is a completely different sound to what we have now.

Pheelz: Exactly!

Bethel: My final question for you is just to feed my curiosity on how the EP was made. Was every song produced in Lagos? 

Pheelz: No, not really. Some songs I’ve had for like four, five years now. I had ‘Ballin’ and ‘Emi Laye Mi’ like five years ago. ‘Pablo Escobar’ and ‘Stand By You’ I made in LA . ‘Ewele’ I did a little bit of it in London and then finished it in Lagos. So yeah, just bits and pieces everywhere across the world. 

Bethel: Well, I am truly excited to see what you have for us and looking forward to when you’re down in London. Hopefully you’ll be performing your EP here.

Pheelz: Yeah sure! I love London

Bethel: And London loves you

‘Pheelz Good’ marks the start of 2023 for Nigerian producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Pheelz. Afrobeats bangers and melodic R&B songs grace the star-studded release, which features Davido and BNXN – all of which demonstrate the rising star’s dazzling versatility.

Listen to the full project here:

Discover more from GUAP’s music section here.