Bros Alenski is a Nigerian singer and rapper with lots of stories to tell, mostly coming from his troubled childhood. Let’s get to know him better, in this interview for The Electronic Corner.

Sir Joe: You use your own life’s bitter experience as an inspiration for your lyrics. Can you please elaborate a bit more on that?

Bros Alenski: Actually, I have always wanted to be a pilot. Growing up, I never thought about becoming a musician because I never loved rap music.
The day I listened for the first time to the song ‘Unconditional Love’ by Tupac, though, was when I realized that I had to love myself irrespective of the conditions. Because of my family problems and the lack of love from my parents, I hated myself for being so miserable.
However, after listening to that song, I realized that if you want people to love you, you gotta love yourself first.
I’ve also realized that I could write and sing my own songs, and since that day my mentality about life has completely changed. That’s the reason I’m a musician.

SJ: Rappers seem to be numerous in Nigeria, or maybe I have this impression because one of them uses the same artist name I use, Sir Joe.
Do you think most of them share your same motivation to make music?

Bros Alenski: As I’ve said before, I’ve always wanted to be a pilot, but my parents couldn’t afford to get me in a school, so I had to find a different life for myself, and I found out I could write my own songs and my own lyrics.
That discovery, however, could happen only because I was exposed to American music, and to ‘Unconditional Love’, in particular. I believe that exposure was the trigger for me to become a musician.

SJ: Your latest release is called ‘Be Alive’. What does it mean to you right now to be alive?

SJ: You use FL Studio to record all your material. What made you choose this specific DAW over others?

Bros Alenski: A lot of people think FL Studio is a cheap application and it’s not for professionals, but I strongly disagree. To me, it sounds good and it’s user friendly.
When I decided to make music and use software for it, I asked Google for suggestions and the first result that came out was FL Studio, and it was instant love.
I know there are so many great applications out there for making music, but FL Studio is just my cup of tea.

SJ: How do you record and process your vocals?

Bros Alenski: Recording and processing my vocals is straightforward. I’m not a big sound engineer, and I had to learn to do all by myself because I couldn’t get anybody to help me.
I approached different studios, but they were too expensive to record a whole song, so I thought that I’d better invest money in some equipment to record songs myself, because I’m planning to stay long in the music industry.
I watched many videos on YouTube, and I learnt how to make music. As I said, I am not much of a sound engineer, so my workflow is pretty easy.
I just record my vocals, I create my beat, then the first thing I do to vocals is to apply some EQ to cut some low ends. Then, I apply a de-esser to remove some of the sharpest sounds, and I add a compressor.
Sometimes, I also use a little bit of Autotune. It’s a very simple effect chain, what I use on my vocals.

SJ: Can you share the technical challenge that you encounter more often during your recording process?

Bros Alenski: To be honest, the biggest problem I have with making music is that most of the times I end up with vocals that are too sharp, kind of piercing to the ears.
I don’t know if it’s the mic I’m using, but that’s my greatest challenge. I use effects to make sure the high ends of my vocals blend in the mix, so that the song can sound very balanced and good.
I’m still learning, though.

(Now I invite you to watch the following video, starting at 11:41, where we are going to have a detailed FL Studio tutorial).

We say thanks to Bros Alenski for this inspiring interview and we wish him all the best.

Don’t forget to visit his Facebook page

You are also welcome to check the other interviews for The Electronic Corner