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Finding Nimo In AratheJay’s World

Meet AratheJay, one of Ghana’s most spiritual yet open crooners. Born in Sekondi, he spent most of his upbringing in Kenya, a country well known for shaping its sound with its indigenous artists. Forged in the rich cultures of Ghana’s sound, AratheJay’s style bursts with soulful themes, complexity, and feeling. AratheJay has an exquisite way of using jargon across melodies, a style that sets him aside from his peers. He always opts for sounds that reflect the wonder and frenzy of life on Earth, alongside his love chapters. AratheJay loves highlife and gospel music, upon arrival, he was learning on his laptop while blasting Kofi B in the background, a Ghanaian highlife artiste who inspired one of his best records, Onoa. At first glance, I couldn’t make him out, seeing him without his balaclava felt new to me. I’ve seen him perform so many times, but it’s my first time seeing him without it. 

His new body of work bursts with imagination, complexity, and feeling. The abundance of ideas might seem excessive if they weren’t so carefully arranged. For the iMullar, he discusses the album, gospel music impact, and an introduction to his world.

Congratulations on the release of your first body of work,  you named it after one of the greatest animation movies of all time, a movie that tells the story of finding your way back home, is that the theme of the EP? What’s the story behind “FINDING NIMO SERIES: THE CAPSULE”? Why that name?

My style is an extension of the movie, and sort of has the same theme as the movie, finding your roots, and finding a home. In my sense, it’s know-how on finding me, my sound, an introduction to my world, and the sonic adventures it comes with. The capsule talks about an element of things that comes together, to serve as a remedy, so the finding Nimo capsule is things coming together, in their raw form, not corrupted, in its element, medicine for all, and that is what the tape is about, it’s for all.

Let’s talk about the visual element of the album. The EP cover is you in your trademark Sheisty, with a boxer’s shorts on, signifying a fighter/champion aesthetic. Has being an everyday fighter always been the visual you identify with most?

It’s a little bit of everything, you could say a representation of eras, and times. You can see me in a vest, with a championship belt, and cowboy boots, which represent the Wild West era, an era where only the strongest survive. I had a balaclava on too, my trademark like you said, something often linked to fashion, but Balaclava is a warfare attire, that dates back to the 1800s when soldiers wore it during the Crimean War. It’s a symbol of revolt, adopted into Eastern-European culture, made for fighters and that’s what we are. I know it’s quite popular in the crime world but this is another part of it, the actual part of it people tend to overlook. But yeah, it represents a fighter/soldier/survivor, and that’s all we are.

We seem to have mutual friends because whenever I play your stuff, they always talk about how you’ve been good and doing this since high school.  When did you realise that you wanted to keep doing this — that this was the beginning of something, not the end of something?

When I came to understand that what I was doing (music), was for a purpose, initially I didn’t have that understanding, I was recording for the fun of it, you know, a teen who was enthusiastic about the idea of music. But it got real for me at some point, it started to feel like that was my purpose. A message has to be sent, through one of the most relatable ways of reaching people, through music, and I started to feel like the carrier. I have been recording since high school, and my classmates knew me for that, they were up close to my genesis, so it’s nice to see them still root for me. There was never a pinpoint, but with time I realised that is what I was doing, i didn’t even notice at first, one of the mysterious ways of music right?

Your project is filled with Modernised Highlife/Hiplife. Onoa samples classic Ghanaian songs, what were you listening to while doing this project, and which mode did you have to activate for it?

I don’t have a mode that I have to morph into for album mode and all, I get that’s how it is for some recording artists, to help them navigate, but for me, it is more of a free fall. Creation is a never-ending thing, so it’s a continuous thing. At any point in time, the message can come and that always fits what I’ll be working on at that time. For the making of the capsule, it was a combination of songs.  Onoa was released 2 years ago, the newer songs resonate with those sounds, so there’s no particular mind frame for it, it just flows and with time it gels. The capsule is practically a compilation of my work over time, they are various tapes. FINDING NIMO itself is ready, but I still want people to get into my sound, so they move with me accordingly. I listen to lots of Gossip, and classic Ghanaian gospel songs. I love Diana Asamoah, Esther Smith, Elder Mireku, Nyameb3ky3r3, and I love B4bonah too. They inspire me.

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Photo Credit: Brian-Jason Gogoe

B4bonah and Aema are the only collaborators on this Ep, Were there any criteria you had for the folks you contacted?

Any criteria? I think it was all God’s doing. Nothing was planned But those artists I listen to.  Bonah is my senior, same as Darkovibes, I had a moment where their songs came up during a walk, and that moment inspired me, hearing Mercy right after Dear God was so inspiring to me. But I love them, they fit the project. These are artists I was relating to before we even worked. Aema is a close friend too, she co-wrote Kante, a very amazing artiste. I worked with her for her album, she’s so good bro. But there is a deluxe coming soon, I will unveil the features with time.

Which song gave you a tough time? While recording the album, were there any songs that gave you a tough time?

I don’t think any song gave me a tough time when I’m locked in, I’m locked in. I never really sleep a song because of a hard time. I feel like there’s always a message for me, once I get in the booth, by God’s grace, it has to come, it will come, it’ll flow, so that’s how it’s been for me. With the right sound engineers and all, it gets easy. I’m afraid that one day I will run out of what to say because I believe anything I talk about is a message from higher-ups, so if it’s not coming, there’s a disconnect somewhere, and I will have to work on reconnecting to my source. I have a lot of music to share with everyone, it’s a whole series, so my fans should expect it.

Stream AratheJay’s latest project here.

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The iMullar is the voice of emerging African music and the lifestyle that surrounds it, showcasing exceptional talent from all around the globe focused on promoting the most distinctive new artists and original sounds, we are the authority on who is next.