Ebenezer Obey Fabiyi, no doubt, is a legend in the entertainment industry and a source of inspiration to many others. At 78 years, he never hid his love for God, as revealed in my so many years of close interaction with him.
What then is the genesis of your philosophical lyrics? Is it inborn or did you learn it?
I will call it the gift of God. It is very easy for me to compose songs, not everybody can do that. It’s not just about becoming a composer, it doesn’t start and end there, but what kind of songs are you composing? That is the question. If you can compose good songs, good songs last forever, it will become a point of reference. People would want to play it everywhere; they want to listen to it all the time. People know an artiste for his qualities.
Did you ever find yourself under pressure to satisfy your listeners?
That must be a good pressure. I don’t call it pressure because pressure is what you’re doing out of pain and hardship. When you’re good in what you do it is a good pressure. They book performance up to six months and one year in advance. I enjoy doing it; in fact good music cannot come from pain. It has to come from the mind that is flowing and settled. If it looks like pressure that must be a good pressure.
How then do you get inspiration for your composition?
If I lay down on the bed it comes, early in the morning when I wake up and go to toilet, it comes. It can come anywhere even on stage. You can’t compose when you’re occupied, no that’s why it comes when people cannot disturb me, on my bed, toilet.
Can you tell us memorable stories of your life?
I can never, never forget Mr. Cress, I used to call him my father, I see him as God sent man to me at the my point of need. I wanted to be discovered, I knew I had something in me. When you have good things in you, you must not allow it to die until you find a way to deliver it. If I didn’t have the opportunity to be heard all those songs could have died in me. You see the main reason why I trekked all the way from Mushin to Lagos Island was because no technology that allows you to record and take your demo to the producer. So I didn’t have the money. I trekked all the way to Afrodisia Studio on Lagos Island. I met the secretary who said I can’t see the Managing Director that the person I suppose to see was the Artiste Manager and he was on leave. So he said, I should come back in six weeks time. The argument continued and that was how the Managing Director called through the intercom to know the cause of the noise. The secretary said there is a young man here who said he is a future star, he says he wants to see you and I told him he can’t see you. So the Managing Director exclaimed future star, send him in. Can you see one of the reasons I can’t forget him. So, I told him I’m a future star, I want you to record me and don’t pay me, my records will sell, after the records are sold then pay me. He kept on looking at me, speechless. The rest is story now.
Tell us what inspired the Man, the Horse and Donkey story in one of your albums.
The meaning or the baseline is ‘no matter what you do you can never satisfy people ‘ from the crawling stage of a child if he or she damages any one’s material, an enemy is made at that tender age. After growing up if he has a bicycle and do not give some pairs to ride he makes another round of enemies. If he is brilliant in school and comes first he becomes the enemy of others behind. If he is loved by the boss due to his diligence they will give names. You can’t definitely please the world. That reminds me of a man and his child in the donkey while son walked beside. People chastised him for not putting his son on the donkey, so he came down and put his son on the donkey. On the way he was mocked for walking while his son enjoy on the back of the donkey. He decided to ride together along with the child on the donkey. So people again met them and said ‘ah you and your son want to kill the donkey? So they both came down and started trekking. Again people accused them by saying ‘you are slaves to humanity, you are trekking while the donkey is moving freely ‘. That was how the man remembered one of my songs that says ‘there is no way you can please the world ‘