Our music appeals to everyone -Tru Mantra

Tru Mantra

Tru Mantra is a gospel music duo made up of Lanre Abiose and Anthony Okwechime. With four successful singles to their credit, they’re coming up very fast. OSEYIZA OOGBODO BLOG met them recently and they spoke about their plans and passions.

Can you tell us how Tru Mantra came about?

Tru Mantra is about our motto which is ‘Light music in a dark world.’ And Lanre and I are friends, we got together in church and we wanted to start to put together music that will appeal to everyone, whether you’re Christian or otherwise. And that’s what Tru Mantra is about. So we got together that let’s make music that we enjoy. And it’s Christian music, we don’t compromise on that, but it’s fun, it’s interesting, even if it’s in the club, they’ll jam it, and if it’s in church, they’ll still jam it, even if they don’t agree with the style.

Are you succeeding in your basic mission of spreading the gospel?

Yes we are. We’ve done a great job of taking a style of music that the Church in certain parts is not familiar with and bringing it into the mainstream amongst gospel people. And when I say gospel people, I mean if you’re going to be ministering in certain locations, and I say ministering if it’s in a church, or whether you’re performing in other places, people expect a certain kind of music. What we’ve been able to do is we can be doing afrobeat in church, we’ve done rap in a wedding, we’ve been in a secular environment, and secular people heard us, and unless they figure out the words, they are like this is great music.

How many songs and albums have you released?

We’ve released at least four songs, we are working on more, and we’ve worked on at least twelve songs already.

You’ve released five songs in four years of existence. Don’t you feel that’s meager?

Well, like our first couple of years, we had to work out a plan, because we work as well, so we go to the studio after work, and we had to come up with a schedule to enable us complete our singles. But basically, we were having fun. Lanre and I started doing stuff together that youths don’t like to go to church, they think it’s boring, they’re gonna come and sing hymns, let’s do something. So the first two years it was just having fun. Over the last year, we decided that what we do, people are making requests for us in different parts of the country. So we released a single, feedback was great, so we said let’s take this to the next level. So we’ve been together four years but it was just having fun, not about taking it to the next level, but it’s now time to do that.

Is it right to say that when you started, your jobs were hindering your progress?

I wouldn’t say so. It’s all about priority. When we started, it was just fun. And fun should never compete with your job. At the point when you decide this is more that fun, this is a ministry, an outreach, and it’s effective, at that point you can start to balance it all that yes I have a career, at the same time, ministry actually should be even more important than what you do daily.

Do you still work or you’re now into full time ministry?

We still work. We are both complete professionals. I’m a computer engineer and Lanre is on the accounting side of things.

Tell us about your singles.

We started off with an afrobeat single called Great God. And it’s not afro hip-hop but proper afro in the sense of Fela. Then we did Chasing The Wrong Thing and it was actually when we started doing afro hip-hop because Lanre and I are rappers and we also sing. And as its title implies, it’s all about telling folks that you’re chasing after the wrong things. You’re chasing wealth, finances, you want a car and a house, if you chase those things, you might never get them and even if you do, you life will be incomplete. Instead, chase after eternal stuff. After that is Obed Edum. And its point as well is about the presence of God. There’s a story in the Bible about the Ark of the Covenant and a person who agreed to keep it, and while it was with him, he found favour. So what we talk about in it essentially again is that people like all of the external stuff. But if you have the right thing on the inside, if you have the presence of God, all the wealth and fame and fortune that people chase after, you’ll have them and they won’t mean anything to you. Then we shot a video for our fourth single, Ife Wa Gbona, a love song. And ther's Onye N'ekwu as well.

Ife Wa Gbona is a love song, and you’re gospel artists, is it that you’re compromising?

Well, it’s a different kind of love song. Marriage is an institution made by God. It’s symbolic of Christ. And the world has tainted it. So we’re trying to make people know that God knows love, God made love. To live a life filled with love, you need to take your inspiration from the Bible, from the Author of Life. So it’s a love song based on the scriptures about love. It tells you that if you want to have a love-filled marriage, look at what the Bible says about love. You wanna have a relationship with people that there’s true love, not just superficial, not just eye service kind of thing, if you want real love, go to the Bible, look at what the Bible says about it and that’s what Ife Wa Gbona is all about as a lot of lines in it were taken directly from the Bible.

How did you feel when you were shooting your first video?

Definitely excited, especially as to how it would turn out. Cos when we started, as Tony said, we were just having fun, but it’s gotten to a point we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback, and we know everyone can’t be deceiving us, there’s value in what we do, and we want people to have more value through good visuals.

Are you prepared for fame?

Fame is a platform essentially. For us, if that platform arises, it’s the better opportunity to reach out to the world with the gospel, because it’s all about the gospel. It started in the church for us, and by God’s grace, we’ll never deviate. So a bigger platform is an opportunity to get the message of the gospel out. The reality is you need God when you don’t have fame, and you still need Him when you do. So I believe the foundation we have is solid and fame can only be just an addition to the tools we can use to make our music more global and more impactful, essentially.