Braye
I wrote “Stuck” when I was in my sister’s apartment in Abuja, 2022. This was when I first started really playing the
guitar a lot. I was just there, playing my guitar everyday, taking walks around the estate and listening to my
recordings. I had it recorded on my phone with just my voice and guitar. When I came to Lagos August 2022, I would play
it privately to people when I’m showing them my stuff. If you notice, it has the same first chords as “Slipping out of
time” (another Braye song) because those were the only chords I knew how to play on the guitar.
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I was playing Chess with Michael Brun, I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me. This was during a Sony music camp in
Ghana, 2024. They usually do a kind of get-together as part of the camp. So we go to the beach, there was a Chess board,
and we played and introduced ourselves you know. He tells me he’s a producer and we got familiar We saw eachother again
at the camp the next day and he had the chance to listen to “Bossa Nova” which was one of the only songs I had. They
were taking a break from his studio session so he says; “let’s go into the studio, there’s nobody in there”. In the
studio, he started playing something on the keyboard with a kind of synth and some drum samples. I started humming along
and that became the melody of the intro. He recorded it and said; “You’re a genius bro!”. It all happened in about three
minutes. So he sent it to me and I shared it with DUKE, my producers at the camp. They were like we have to make this.
We were able to finish just one verse during the camp. I completed the song one year later.
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Braye
I had already started making “Bring you home” on my keyboard in Lagos in 2023. I was listening to a Rex Jim Lawson song
“Jolly Papa” and if you listen, you will hear that it inspired the progression for “Bring you home”. We made it in
January 2024 at a camp in Accra. I worked on the song with DUKE (credited producers). The thing is, when a song is
complete, as an artist, you will feel it. If something is missing from a song, I would aslo have a feeling. Sometimes,
you can still think about a song later and say “I could have done this or that”. But you have to know right now, what
you want to do. After listening, I just knew the song was complete and ready.
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Braye
This was one of the first songs I recorded during my camp in Ghana, 2024. The camp started with some sessions for Sony
Music. We were all busy because there were sessions all day and we couldn’t do much. I had made “Slipping out of time”
with just my guitar in my sister’s apartment in Abuja as far back as 2022. So one morning in the camp, I was playing it
and the producers, DUKE were like; “What song is this? Let’s make the song”. I was already so familiar with the song and
it felt impossible for me to share it. I felt very attached to the song and I didn’t want to subject it to people’s
opinion. I didn’t usually play it to people, but I just felt like playing it that day. That’s how we made it.
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We were in Ghana, January 2024. The producers, DUKE said; “we made this for Tems, but she didn't use it”. When they
played it, right there, the melodies came to me. I said, know what, I’m going into the kitchen to write the song. I
wrote it without listening to the beat, all I had was that first melody in my head. Usually, I write my songs on paper,
but I wrote it on my phone, came out and said to DUKE, let’s record this. We’d had a long and stressful recording
session leading to this point. During recording, that part “all I need…” was so difficult for me to sing. When the mic
was not on my mouth, I’d sing it so perfectly, but when I have the mic, I’d get so nervous and couldn’t sing it. After a
while, I finally got something. I was recording right at the point that I was waiting for my ride to the airport. So the
first part of Painless Melody, I recorded in a haste.
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