Music can be a great culture preserver, documenting shared heritage/culture and passing it down from generation to generation. For Eastern Nigeria, Highlife is not just a music genre; it’s a cultural preserver serving as a historical witness to the journey of Ndigbo through the ages.
It documents important personalities, stories, ancient wisdom, and struggles while entertaining its audience. In this New age, several artists are trying to keep Highlife alive by either indulging in its original form or by inventing new sub-genres to suit the taste of the current generation.
This Weekend, INFOEAST sat down with Chiekezie Umeh, also known as Eastern Vybz, as he shares his vision and an innovative sub-genre he invented, known as New School Highlife.
Infoeast: Hello Eastern Vybz, welcome to this interview. You call your genre of music New School Highlife. Can you briefly explain the difference between this highlife brand and the existing one everybody knows?
Eastern Vybz: New school highlife is basically highlife meets the 21st century; it has heavy Afrobeats influence in structure, length, and lingua, whilst still maintaining the instrumentation of highlife, so you can see the heavy bass influence, the cry baby guitars, the adages and bridges, everything that makes us love highlife.
Infoeast: What do you think about the rise of new music artists in the southeast? What is your opinion as an insider?
Eastern Vybz: Its interesting, far more interesting days ahead, believe me, we must double down and build on what have brought us here, which is hardwork and intentional propagation of our lovely language, a lot remains to be done in the infrastructural sector, and the personnel development, an industry is a much more that musicians and producers, its the critics, the show producers, the models, the directors, the labels, the arenas, but the future is bright, quite bright.
Infoeast: We saw a video of you singing at Main Market. That was a brave marketing gimmick. What do you think about the experience, and how did it help give you visibility?
Eastern Vybz: The stage is where i am the happiest, i like performing and giving my audience a good time, so if you’ve paid attention you would see im often shooting in the markets be it main market, ochanja or eke awka, they love me there, i give them a good time and they never want to see me go, its all part of the process, it does a lot for me mentally, I may be a tad shy initially but once the music gets on i love it! I go from Chiekezie to Eastern Nwa mama.
Infoeast: What are the challenges you are facing in building a successful music career with Eastern Nigeria as your base?
Eastern Vybz: It’s getting good personnels that know their work and are genuinely interested in long-term success, finding the right people to work with, but it’s a growing industry, so I’m quite optimistic.
Infoeast: Do you have any new songs coming out, and when are we getting an album?
Eastern Vybz: My first project is coming next month, and I also have a new song off the project coming just before that, o ga adi kpo kpo!
Infoeast: You seem to be a great student of the Osadebe school of music. What did you like most about his body of work, and what is your favorite song of his?
Eastern Vybz: Osadebe is the greatest to ever do it. I’m greatly inspired by him, so you can imagine why I hold him in such high regard. My favorite song of his is “Oye oma bishop”.
Infoeast: Do you have any message for our readers about your career? Can you say it now?
Eastern Vybz: Jisi ike, every good thought counts, so stay optimistic, ife oma di n’iru.
Music Catalogue
Catch up with Eastern Vybz music anytime via the following Channels
- Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/ng/artist/eastern-vybz/1527538681
- Audiomack: https://audiomack.com/eastern_vybz
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1qS1NDeopCjlxQobmVLr6p
