In 2023, Kemuel made waves with his guest feature on DJ Spinall’s track “Bunda.” Now, he’s back with his sophomore EP titled “CLOUDS.” This 7-track project delves into themes of love, longing, resilience, and self-discovery. Inspired by childhood memories, Kemuel explains that each song carries a unique emotion, much like the shifting clouds in cartoons. The EP, a labor of love, took a year and a half to create and resonates with listeners’ shared experiences.
In this editorial, Kemuel breaks down each track on the project.
1. ALONE
Ironically, the song was made cause I didn’t wanna be alone. The song was to represent the feeling of wanting to be alone with someone. I wanted it to feel like a late night drive cause I’m really in love with the intimacy of the night. The general idea of love and night life is something I find interesting. Alone for me feels like a hybrid Afro beat song cause it’s a mixture of dance hall, pop, r n b, and soul. It feels like summer but midnight summer. This song is for the lovers that don’t feel like being alone all the time but alone with that one person.
2. 234
For 234, I was imagining that cliché r n b singing under the rain at the girls place and calling but she’s not picking up. I tried to bring it home, by using our country code number as the hook. I’m outside her house calling her but she’s not picking and it’s raining and I’m like already drenched. My next best option since she wasn’t picking was to take the window and I hoped I’ll fall into her arms(as the lyrics implied). I made it to give that upbeat feeling of being inside when it’s raining. I wanted the beat to be more electronic and futuristic but still have elements of Afro beats but not too obvious. It’s that song you’d wanna play when it’s raining and you’re thinking about that one person wherever you are.
3. POLO
For polo, I really tried to make the song feel like a video game, the way it builds up to the boss level. But the original storyline is like falling in love with a girl everyone thinks is crazy but his cause I like her, I convince myself she’s just misunderstood. There are so many elements I wanted to be present which are like the log drums which is the amapiano feeling and the marumbas. Polo is what you’d play when you wanna keep your energy up. The melodies feel nostalgic so much so that I can’t even place it. I remember making the song at night on my bed with Wondah. I and Wondah had just finished making a different song that was talking about me being on my way to somewhere(I hope it makes it out eventually). So I wanted to try something more upbeat cause the other was sad. I know I wanted to give something that represented a happy feeling. Hence the “kumbaye, kumbaya”. I remember it being in a gospel hymn so it was the part of nostalgia I added. I hope anyone that listens to polo connects to whatever nostalgia it brings and feel what I felt when making it.
4. GLNT
For glnt; it’s an abbreviation for good life no trouble. When I made it, I was in a depressed state cause things were not going as planned for me, I made it couple weeks after I made bunda, and I was trying to experiment with amapiano sounds, understanding groove. From the opening line you can tell I was being as vulnerable as I could be. It’s not a regular amapiano sound cause it has various elements in
- The song is about you keeping your head up, not letting the negative voices take over. So for everyone battling voices in your head, I hope GLNT is louder.
5. FIND
For find, I already had an emotion lingering, and my friend that’s a guitarist sent me this guitar loop out of the blue and I held onto it for a week till I decided how I wanted the song to feel. When I put in this loop to my laptop, all the emotions pent up started pouring. Its easier for me to get things off my chest when I write about them so I put it into melody. Find is about a way I felt sometime in August 2022. So if you’ve ever been in a situation where you’re heartbroken and your partner says you can’t find someone like them, this is like a comfort to it, a prayer or plea that we never find someone like that.
Even if you’ve never experienced heartbreak you’d feel it through the song, but I believe you’d have to had experienced it to get the full feel.
6. WATER
For water, it was a tricky song to make for me cause Wondah already made the drums and there was a whole different song on water before I scrapped it and made this. This song coming into existence was incredibly by chance.
The song is about not wanting flings because I’m the kind of person that loves deep connections and if you listen to my music good see I really love connecting to people and things. It’s about me connecting to a girl I don’t want to let go. I’m water and she’s snow, we connect to one another. I don’t want a smash and leave situation. This song is about that person being my water, after all the breakfast I don chop.
7. FOCUS
Focus as the name implies, is a reminder for me to stay focused cause I understand how distracting it is and how easy it is to lose your way in this industry I am. I know it’s not easy and I never had in mind that it’s easy. I work for everything I have but Gods grace makes it easier for me but I work really hard
for whatever I’ve achieved. So basically this song is a reminder that success has no shortcut and we should hustle and hold God with it.
I wouldn’t call it a hustlers anthem. Its for anyone who has a dream. “The journey of a thousand miles starts with a step”.
It’s a reflection of how Nigeria is right now. I hope everyone’s able to connect with this one. I hope it does what it does for me for you but better.
