As a child, Oluwakemi Famugbode Adetula took to playing the drums. Now an adult and mother of three boys, she’s blazing a trail with her Gangan (talking drum) on a path traditionally meant for men. More known as Irawo Drumline, Oluwakemi, who also practices accounting for creative businesses.
However, the urge to pursue the hobby took another dimension after she finished secondary school. She joined the Boys Brigade of Nigeria at St. Johns Anglican Church, Satellite Town, Lagos where she and her family worshipped. This time, she played the snare drums and the tenor drums. It was then her parents knew she played the drums. Her dad was even pulled in to become one of the patrons of the Boys Brigade.
“My members always wanted me to play (with them) because anytime I’m with them they make more money because people are always thrilled to see a female drummer,” Oluwakemi recollects of her time with the Boys Brigade. “And I took the snare drum which is usually in front.”
In fact, the latter part of her name, Irawo Drumline, came during that stint. “The tenor drum, bass drum, snare drum and other things make up the drumline.”
All this while, she had not yet got admission to higher institution. She later studied accounting at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos but continued rehearsing with the Boys Brigade. After that, she got admission to study accounting at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.
She had met her husband in 1995 while still playing in the Boys Brigade and they got married in 2002. She became Mrs Adetula.
From accountancy to playing drums
HAVING trained as an accountant, Oluwakemi worked intermittently between 1997 and 2012 in the corporate world. But she wasn’t fulfilled. “I hated Mondays. I don’t like traffic and usually most of the jobs I got were on the Island and I lived in the Mainland.”
It was time to become an entrepreneur. The mother of three boys started her own accounting firm, Axiom Corporate, in 2013, after giving birth to her last child. “It was to help SMEs,” she said. She later relaxed on it. Earlier, she had started Drumline Entertainment in 2007 while at music school. According to her, “people were not taking it (the accounting business) serious” because she was combining accounting which people consider as a serious profession side by side music. She, however, merged the accounting side of the business with Drumline. “Under Drumline now, I have the accounting aspect where I consult for music and creative industry people,” she said. “I do accounting for people in that area because they now take me serious. I stopped Axiom Corporate but I cannot stop my music for anything.”
While the school has started with teaching drumming, it will kick off fully in January 2016 and dovetail into teaching other aspects of music as well as the business side. “We’ll teach how creative people should account for their business all those things that are not really taken serious, alongside with music.”
It had been a winding journey for Oluwakemi. After graduating from the university, she had participated in the one-year mandatory National Youth Service Corps in Lagos. During that period, she took part in music and drumming. “I was in the Lagos State Cultural Troupe. I played the talking drum as well. We represented Lagos State at the annual NYSC cultural competition in Abuja in 2006.”
Though her troupe didn’t win the competition, the experience was a baptismal of sorts for Oluwakemi. “That was the first time I would perform on stage with the talking drum,” she said. “I wasn’t an expert then because I was still learning.”
It would take seeing Ara and Ayanbirin, two contemporary female drummers to set Oluwakemi back to her love. “I said ‘this is what I want to do,’” she recalled.
An opportunity presented itself when she saw an advert for a scholarship to study music at Pencil and Film Television Institute, PEFTI, in 2007. She applied for and got the scholarship. One student was to be chosen for each department for the available scholarships. She got the scholarship for music.
She, however, said that before getting the scholarship, she had always been curious about how talking drums made music. In 2005, she approached Mr Taiye Alujo, a talking drum expert, who she said is still her mentor, that she wanted to learn the talking drum. She learnt rudiments of drumming from him.
“It took me six months to learn the rudiments,” said Oluwakemi. “But to perfect it and use it the way I use it now, it took me about three years.” But the learning process continues for her. “I always learn something every day. I still learn new idioms, new proverbs, the panegyrics (oriki) of a particular town. Maybe I want to praise someone from Ijebu, someone from Ilesha all those ones are very technical.” She needs those to be able to perform at specialised events. “It’s a continuous process,” she said.
But while the Gangan is seen as a Yoruba instrument, Oluwakemi has deployed it to jazz. To her, that is misconception she gets frequently.
“People believe that because I play the talking drum, it’s a cultural instrument, but to me it’s not a cultural instrument as such. For me, it’s just like any other musical instrument. But because (they’re) older than I am, I don’t want to argue with them.”
At PEFTI, Oluwakemi had learnt the theory of music and the drum set. She followed by composing songs. But she discovered that playing the drum set put her in the background. It was not a position cherished. But with the talking drum, the player stayed in front. And the fact that the talking drum is an African instrument appealed more to her.
“I wanted where people would see me, where I could also dance with the drum. That was why I chose the talking drum as my major. So I could stay in the forefront, I could sing. Unlike the drum set. Apart from that, I wanted an instrument that would give me melody like the violin.”
Though Oluwakemi learnt how to play the violin afterwards in 2009, she has adopted the talking drum, deploying it as her choice instrument to play jazz music.
Becoming Irawo
SHE had wanted to use her name but at music school during her graduating performance at PEFTI, that changed. When asked her name, she simply stated ‘Oluwakemi Adetula.’ The manager thought the name was too boring considering what she did. She then thought of how people came out to see when the drum is being played. “It’s like a star,” she said. “And that’s how I feel. When I play the talking drum, people want to come and see whether it’s true that it’s a lady playing it. The talking drum is like a star that makes people come and watch.” Irawo,a Yoruba word, means ‘star’ in English. Hence, she became Irawo Drumline, a name she has adopted for her brand.
At present, she runs a music school which incorporates accounting consultancy for creative businesses. Recently, she held a workshop and concert where she played some classical pieces from Beethoven, Victor Uwaifo (Joromi), Osita Osadebe (Osondi Owendi) with the talking drum.
“I cut across all languages,” she said.
“We cannot go far if we keep saying the talking drum is only for the Yoruba. It has to be contemporary. And that is what I use it for. I use it as a jazz instrument.”
Finance as the challenge
THOUGH, enmeshed in full-time drumming and music training with her outfit, Drumline Entertainment, Oluwakemi says, “has not been easy. It’s more of an advocate job that I’m doing now. It’s not lucrative now. People are still trying to see, ‘okay, what is she doing?’ I believe that by the time I release my album and shoot some videos and promote it, people would understand exactly what I do.”
But like many small ventures, Oluwakemi says finance has been the greatest hurdle she has had to deal with so far.
“When I go for events, people would not want to pay. They would say they are promoting you.”
But after being in the industry for a while and attending professional meets, like the recently organised Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) conference on digital marketing in Lagos, Oluwakemi knows better.
“At a point in time, you should draw a line between when we get paid and when we’re promoting,” she quips.
“People don’t want to pay for intellectual property. But you need to get paid because without music, other things would not flow in this world.”
Her debut album, a 21-tracker, is due out in February 2016.
THE NATION
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