The alté movement saw the rise of many exciting artists who brought a refreshing perspective to music on the continent. Being an alté artist meant going against the grain of what was popular and accepted in the African music scene. It occupied an interesting space free from genre categorisation and led to the birth of a new sound. As a movement, alté inspired artists and audiences alike, offering a space for creativity and community outside traditional boundaries. One such artist is SOLIS4EVR.
SOLIS4EVR (formerly known as SOLIS), a 24-year-old Nigerian indie soul/pop artist based in Lagos, describes her music as a dream you never want to wake up from. Growing up in Surulere, Nigeria, she took to music from an early age, captivating at just 12 years old with her YouTube covers. By 18, she was collaborating with some of the biggest names in the alté scene. Her soulful voice, vulnerable lyricism, and infectious genre-defying music propelled her career into the mainstream Afropop market. In 2021, she released her debut EP Stairway to Heaven. In the music, she is breathtakingly candid, an artist sharing her story for the love of it all.
After a three-year hiatus, she returned in April 2024 with renewed energy, a new name, and her single “Sorry 4 Calling,” featuring Dreamer Isioma. With a fresh outlook on life, a rejuvenated sound, and a robust record deal with Troniq Music, SOLIS4EVR is ready for what’s next.
Your reintroduction has been marked by an unapologetic confidence. What motivated these changes?
The beautiful thing about time is that it allows you to find yourself. What we’re seeing as this new era is the “me” that has always been there, that I’ve always wanted to showcase. When I first came into the scene, I was very young (18), and I think then I was very influenced by the things around me, the music that people were making, and the sounds that were predominant at the time. I just thought it’d be easier for me to be accepted if I made certain kinds of music because people already thought my old sound was so alté. I didn’t want to give them an even higher level of alternative music but I feel like now I’m just super confident in myself and in my sound. Nothing could stop me from getting to where I want to go.
Can you tell us a bit about your childhood, growing up were you exposed to a lot of music?
Growing up, I was exposed to music for sure because of my parents. I remember me and my siblings would listen to a lot of “No One” by Alicia Keys, “Speechless” by Michael Jackson, “Love is Wicked” by Brick and Lace, and I just remember listening to those songs non-stop for like a year. Then there were Nigerian artists like 2Face and P-Square that were constantly playing in the house. It’s funny because they told us not to listen to worldly music but they were constantly playing 2Face and P-Square. Another artist that shaped my childhood was Sade Adu for sure.
How did you build that personal relationship with music from there?
I started singing from a super early age. Some of my earliest memories in life are of me singing. From when I was five years old, I was already singing everywhere in the house, and then age seven was when I wrote my first song. From there it was just non-stop. Whenever I felt something I would just put it in music form. I was also super active in church. I was in church Sunday, Monday, Wednesday doing rehearsals and performing. So music has literally shaped my whole entire being and personality.
At what point in your life did you decide that music was the path for you?
I think right from when I started writing music around age 7 or 8 I knew for a fact what I wanted to do with my life. I know so many little kids grow up wanting to be a musician or a dancer or whatever, but there was such a surety in my heart that that was what I was meant to do. I grew up in the church and I’ve always had a very personal relationship with God. I would have conversations with God and he would assure me that this is in fact the path that you’re supposed to be on. So I’ve carried that with me from a very early age, which is why from age 12 up until I was 17, I was posting videos on the internet of me singing. So it’s just one of those things that I just always knew I was supposed to be doing and for me as long as I was putting myself out there in some capacity it would happen for me and that’s exactly what happened.
What was your relationship with music and your artistry when you first entered the scene, featuring on Odunsi‘s album rare?
Music has always been my diary and my safe space and so I write as a way to deal with things, heal from something or just to get my thoughts out. So I would write these songs or record these freestyles and then I would just make videos in my house that sort of just showed me in my natural element. I also wanted to use my music as a device for other people to not feel alone. I just wrote this with all of my heart and I would love for someone to hear it and feel seen. Even though I’ve known music was my path for a long time. I still didn’t know exactly how I was gonna make the pivot from girl on the internet posting videos to an actual artist. Which is why I’m thankful that it was through one of my videos that Odunsi found me and asked me to be on the album. But yeah at that time music was just an outlet for me to feel better in my own life and to help others feel good as well.
Did you feel any pressure at that time to succeed?
I wouldn’t say I felt that sort of major pressure. I just had no clue how I was gonna go from internet singer to an actual artist because again, I was 17 at the time. I just finished high school. I was doing A-levels, you know, I knew nothing about music business or distributing music. I’m not even sure I had never even been to a studio at that point in time, I was recording everything on my phone. I was clueless. So I was really thankful that my first ever official song was with someone who’s already pretty established at the time, so he really guided me in understanding a lot of those things.
You took a 3-year hiatus from music in 2021, can you talk a bit about what you were up to during that period?
I spent the first two years removing pressure from myself to constantly deliver and be active as an artist. In this social media age it almost feels like you’ll lose relevance if you’re not constantly posting or releasing music and, of course, it goes without saying that being an independent artist comes with very real struggles. I wanted to make sure that I was creating a body of work that I was completely sure about that felt true to me.
In my personal life, I was going through quite a bit that left my mind kind of hazy and I don’t want to create music when I’m not quite myself. So I needed to give myself time to heal, to feel like myself again before putting any music out. Even when I finally got back to myself I knew the caliber that I wanted to be releasing music at, I didn’t want to put out a project or music if it wasn’t gonna get the push and energy that it deserves from my end.
How did your approach to releasing music change?
Stairway to Heaven, I did that completely independently. No team. No marketing. No PR. Everything was me and my manager at the time literally just emailing 10,000 people, you know. Whilst I’m thankful for that EP and I’m thankful for how far we were able to push it. I was still left a bit disappointed and a bit set back by it because I feel like it could have done more. I guess every artist feels that, even if your song does like 20 million streams you always feel like you could do more.
I knew I definitely wanted the new music to have a very serious plan in place before I release it and so for the final year of my hiatus a lot of thought was spent just negotiating talking to record labels talking to PR firms, getting a solid plan in place and I’m thankful for all the offers that came my way. It can only be God because I hadn’t released music in two years and I was still getting offers from people. So I just spent the better part of that last year trying to set myself up for a good deal so that I can start releasing music then and that’s what we did.
The energy you deliver on your latest single “Sorry 4 Calling” is very fresh and exciting. Is this a sneak peek into the energy and sound of your upcoming project?
Oh 100%! It is the perfect intro for what you’re about to get when the tape comes out. I can promise you lots of energy, lots of dynamism and some serious songwriting.
Your collaboration with Dreamer Isioma is the perfect pairing. How did that come about?
I’d been a fan of Dreamer Isioma for a while and I remember when I made “Sorry for Calling,” I just kept thinking someone needs to be on this that matches my energy. I had compiled a list of people. The more I looked at that list the surer I was that it was Dreamer that I wanted the most. I didn’t even know them personally. So I just reached out on Instagram one day like: “Hey, I’ve got this song and I think you’ll be great.” And they literally replied, “yeah sure”. They came to Nigeria because they’re from Nigeria, but they live in the US, then we became the best of friends and now collaborators.
Congratulations on your recent signing to Troniqmusic. What inspired this major decision, and what do you anticipate?
So, obviously the biggest difference is that now there’s a structure right? So as an independent artist, you’re sort of just out in the wild trying to make s*** happen for yourself with no guarantees of support. However, since being signed to Troniq, there’s so many subsets of people working behind the scenes to make sure that they hit our goals. I’m someone that has always been very goal-oriented, so once I signed to them I created all sorts of briefs and a vision board with my first and second quarter goals of the year. They were so surprised at how on top of things I was. Like, yeah, I’ve been waiting my whole life for this. What do you mean?
What is success for SOLIS4EVR?
I just want to touch as many hearts as possible, whether it’s by putting me on the biggest stages or by my music going viral, as long as the souls that I can touch and hearts that I can reach are growing. It’s people coming up to me and saying, “Everytime I listen to your music I don’t feel alone.” That is very important to me. I’m just recording music, writing songs, but to hear that they’re touching people that I don’t know is such an incredible thing to me.
Finally, give us your dream blunt rotation.
Doja cat, Azealia Banks, Martin Scorsese, Davido and Wendy Williams, I feel like that’ll be so chaotic.
Written By Anabel Rose Kubabom
