MP3 Tunde Olaniran - Infinite Modulation

Imagine if Lauryn Hill and David Bowie had a son and gave him up for adoption to Madonna and Marvin Gaye, who in turn raised him with Kelis as a big sister, enrolling the two in jazz lessons.

NOTE: If you buy a cd, send me an e-mail for a free track.

17 MP3 Songs
POP: with Electronic Production, HIP HOP/RAP: Alternative Hip Hop



Details:
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, October 22, 2006
By Chad Swiatecki

Name: Tunde Olaniran


Home Base: Flint


Sounds Like: Imagine Cody Chesnutt, Jack Johnson and OutKast's Andre 3000 on a world-spanning musical journey in Prince's little red Corvette. And the Neptunes are driving. If that sounds too scattershot, the Taste This! lead singer's ambition and emotion makes the eclectic blend work.


Ravi Revisited: The track "The Producers" is part of a small fraternity (if not the only member) of locally produced songs to feature sitars and Indian raga rhythms. The music forms the foundation of a soul/rap hybrid and draws on Olaniran's longtime love of Indian music.

"Sitars are one of my favorite instruments, and I'm always listening to classical Indian music, to the point that a friend had to tell me to cool it on playing it all the time. The first beats I ever made used sitar samples and I thought it would be good to use since Punjabi MC and Jay-Z did a song together and Truth Hurts had a song that used sitar samples, so it's been out in the mainstream somewhat."


Honest and Open: The songs on Olaniran's debut record are starkly personal and honest, whether they're autobiographical or directed at people in his life. That means there's no irony to an over-the-top song such as "Champion," where Olaniran's golden soprano soars and sings, "You're a champion!"

"My friends and I joke that 'Champion' will become some kind of motivational song for the Special Olympics because it's so out there, but that's the way I felt while writing it and I'm not afraid to express that. You might see me closing my eyes when I'm singing certain songs live, because I'm putting myself out there and up on stage there's nothing you can hide behind. Some are harder to do live than others but there's no song that I absolutely wouldn't sing on stage."


Splitting Time: Olaniran's solo work lets him explore ground outside the mostly funk/hip-hop rock of Taste This!, though the singer admits it's hard to balance the two projects. Still, the band remains a priority and he always looks for ways to integrate his band members in his other work.

"There are lulls with both, but I don't focus as much on the solo stuff as I do on the band, so when we got a bunch of shows in November it was no problem. The band supports me with things like (DJ) Jimi Hendricks spinning for shows and I want to get Paul (Woolcock) doing some guitar parts for me live. I love doing both because there's some songs I just can't do with the band, but at the same time you can't duplicate the live energy on a record."