Maze, also known as Joshua Erhunwmnese Okunzuwa, and Mxtreme whose real name is Godfrey Osenemandia Imhanwa, are an EDM artist duo from Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. The friends started making music as teenagers in the church.
They told Netng that they learnt how to produce music out of curiosity.
“A friend brought the software one day and we were like “hey what’s this?” and we just started from there.”
EDM hit them like it hit every other listener who heard EDM for the first time, it was euphoric. Speaking with Netng, they described how they first fell in love with EDM.
“We love Afro sounds but it is too normal. The culture is supposed to be diverse. We learnt how to produce together, out of curiosity and we started producing basically anything. The particular song we heard was David Guetta’s ‘Titanium’ and also watching the duo, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike do what they do, watching them control the emotions of thousands of people. On and off the stage, what they do is simply amazing, they were making peoples’ lives better by inspiring them. It was inspiring”
A lot of Nigerian didn’t grow up with foreign-influenced music, so their taste in music and what they love listening to will be limited to the sounds they hear of a regular. Maze x Mxtreme said adjusting to EDM and accepting the current situation of the music community towards the new sound. On the issue of adapting, they told Netng:
“We’re still adapting. You just have to keep telling yourself that it’s the right thing. It may not be paying the bills yet but we just hope that at one point, we will see a light in the tunnel. We’ve always had to explain to people who hear our music what EDM is. We’d tell someone we make EDM, they’d ask what it is and we’d say its electronic dance music. Then they’d say “what is that” and we’d explain on and on. But the truth is, we’ve found people who also love EDM the way you do. A lot of people in Nigeria are listening to EDM and varieties of it. You can see it shredding itself into different forms of music in Nigeria. We believe that it is here in Nigeria but people are not so prominent with it because it’s not the main thing, or has any big name attached to it.”
Despite all these challenges, they still have the strength to go on. For Maze x Mxtreme, EDM is not a temporary experiment, it’s a commitment. They told Netng on how they are also trying to redefine their sound to create something new called Afro-EDM.
“Passion has kept us going. Actually, we are doing Afro-EDM. We grew up with this mentality of music being cross-cultural. It would be better to add out culture to the West, instead of just playing one style of music, or doing what they are already doing in Europe. They are already doing this plain EDM and we cannot compete with them. So we are doing Afro-EDM, which brings the base of our culture and at the same time still adding theirs, so it sounds incredible. We’ve played at some shows and the audience response was crazy. We believe that for those people to show us love, it means EDM is here. So we grabbed every hope and we are going to keep pushing.”
When alte music broke into the scene, it came with its devoted, paying fanbase, which is not something EDM has yet. There are not enough platforms uplifting the new sound, nor are there people willing to invest it. Netng asked them what they felt needed to happen, or be done to promote EDM in Nigeria and here’s what they thought:
“EDM is a virgin area in Nigeria, in terms of prominence and monetization. Most of these big names, the music heads, are quite scared to invest in it. Every music that has come, like Psquare style of music, have all been influenced. Another thing is Nigeria has to step up, the way we need to step up in every other industry. We need to create a multi-platform where everybody can survive, everybody can trend. Everybody can listen to any type of music. We’re here claiming afro, afro, South Africa came up with gqom, we started doing gqom. They came up with amapiano, we started doing amapiano. Yet we are still averse to a new style. Nigerians just follow the trend, and that’s what gives the music head an advantage. It just takes investment. If they are bold enough to put investment into EDM, it’s going to blow up. There are a number of us who make EDM and there are several people who love EDM so we believe that if people who have enough resources can put in time and effort, there will be good results.”
The way alte came in, and soon we started having music festivals that also served to raise more artists in that style of music, is the same way there needs to be a deliberate effort to create a working structure for EDM. An EDM concert is referred to as rave. Some of the more popular raves include Tomorrowland, which draws thousands of people yearly for the music which is heavily Electronic Dance Music.
“If we can have matured raves in Nigeria, and you know more structured performance, it would help. The thing is, EDM can give people experiences. Great experiences, not just to come for a show and sing along with the artist. You can have an experience that you’ll remember for five years to come because that is what EDM is, it’s an experience. It’s more than music.”
For now, Electronic Dance Music is making baby steps in Nigeria. Some are just happy that it’s even here in the first place. It’s only a matter of time before it becomes mainstream music and it will be on record that artists like Maze x Mxtreme led the trail.
