How I Was Forced Into Music Production –U.S-based Singer, Duncan Daniels

MICHAEL AKINOLA

For Duncan Onyemuwa, a fast rising singer, songwriter, music producer and entrepreneur known professionally as Duncan Daniels, his journey into music production was divine.

In a recent chat with our correspondent, the versatile artiste also known as Dunkishrock said he was forced to shift into production after he couldn’t get a producer who can deliver what soothe his own genre of music.

“The main reason I got into music production in the first place was because I was unable to find any producers at the time that could produce my type of genre so I decided to learn and produce myself,” Duncan said.

According to the United States-based artiste, “I was so determined at that point, that I released a 12-track debut album titled “I Don Taya” which till today contains most of my personal favorite songs I have recorded.”

He said he achieved that “Big Dream” only to realize he had only just scratched off the surface of his music career.

“I was such a novice in the business aspect of the music and it cost me a great deal in the way I handled the marketing of the album. To cut long story short. It did not do too well,” he revealed.
 
Not long after that experience, Duncan Daniels moved to Boston, Massachuset, to pursue a degree in music production at The Berklee College of Music.

He noted that he struggled a bit musically as his once unwavering confidence in his musical prowess was shaken by the disappointments of his debut album.

Just like so many of musicians of today, he decided to try and experiment with a more commercially sound in his bid to get himself the needed attention from the afrobeats-loving demographic.

He rather lost himself as he could no longer write from the heart. The passion and conviction in his delivery was no longer real even though he gained a larger fan base and audience with songs like “Like This” featuring rap star, MI.

The sophomore album titled “Shostoppah” was good but almost all the tracks only showcased his production skills: at most nine of his earlier passionate delivery came out in the album.

“I had to force myself to sing in different styles that were not my person, ” he said.
 
After “Shostoppah” the struggle continued.

Duncan released single after single trying really hard to impress people at the same time competing with other musicians who were more comfortable in the genre than he was.

After releasing his last single “Wine Am Low” featuring Sukiyaki, which was a song from the commercial afro music perspective, Duncan had a self check moment and realized how much self doubt he had let himself fall into and how far he had strayed from his original sound.

“I was not happy about that at all,” he recalled.

Just as he was beginning to fall into depression and lose all hope, he received two phone calls from two friends who do not know each other.

And both calls which came in less than 24 hours of each other, had these friends called to tell him what he already knew about his sound.

They both confirmed that his recent songs sounded pretentious and having heard music from his first album, they felt he was trying to please everyone instead of enjoying his art.

This totally threw Duncan off as they hit the hammer on the nail and so he decided to go back to the drawing board and get back to work.
 
He felt relieved like a big weight lifted off his shoulder and all the pressure was gone. He then decided to keep it real, be true to himself and make music exactly how he feels it instead of how he felt the world wanted him to.

He decided to let passion take over rather than bother about what was popular at the moment.

After all, most of the great musicians of our time created trends with their music.

“The best way to achieve any goal or follow through on any dream is by staying true to yourself and not doubting your abilities,” Duncan said.

Quoting late Steve Jobs who once said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – living with the result of others. Everything else is secondary”, Duncan Daniels, is currently putting finishing touches on his third studio album titled “iDunkishrock” and he recently released the first single off the album titled “Blindly in Love”.