Stories from “I Wish I Had More Time“

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.

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.

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.

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.