FTK started out as a musical band in 2014 and recorded their first single same year. The group consists of twin brothers, whose passion for music has been the drive for their performance. In this interview withTosin Clegg, they talked about their music, working with 9ice, their future, and lots more
Together, we are FTK
My name is Falobi Kehinde and I’m Falobi Taiwo together we are FTK. We started music professionally in 2014 and released our first track, ‘Assassin’ with a follow-up video. Since then we have shot two more videos and five other tracks. We’ve just released, ‘Gbesoke’, backing it up with a video.
We always see a way through
The challenges have always been there. For example, it’s not easy getting performances and recognition in the industry, not as upcoming artistes, but as acts with something to offer. Also, promoting your works in the industry is tough, and there are a lot, but we always see a way through.
We love music naturally
We have been writing lyrics right from secondary school and we used to follow up artistes like P-SQUARE. Then, one day we were singing and thought we could take it to professional level. Also, since we used to dance, it aided it all. So we took it from there and that’s it. Music feeds the soul and it’s a passion.
Why we chose music is, first of all, we love it and second we can also make profit of it. It’s also the easiest way to talk to someone.
Our music is versatile
We tend to adjust and do commercial songs that others can relate to and, at the same time, we are into R/B. That’s our style basically.
We wanted a unique sound
That’s the reason we featured 9ice on the remix of ‘Gbesoke’. 9ice brings in the kind of baba agba flow, like he has been there right from time. He did exactly what we wanted. We didn’t want noise but just basically something that would flow and that’s why we had him because of the maturity. That adigun flow was it. Presently, 9ice is the biggest artiste we have worked with.
We are producing our next tracks
We are going to have two big names on it but we won’t be disclosing that yet. We enjoyed working with someone like Akabo Emmanuel, the music director for Ten String’s Music Institution, where we did our music training.
He was the one who produced one of our tracks, ‘Ise Oluwa’. We have worked with Bobby Kay, Dapiano and also with Indomix. We also worked with J Smith and a few more, but we are taking it step by step. We are thinking of working with MasterCraft too.
Our album isn’t coming out soon…
We have a plan for an album but not anytime soon. Aside music, we are also students of Mass Communication at Babcock University. That’s the other life we live, and aside from singing our other act is dancing, mixing a bit of choreography to our music.
We have added swag to our music…
Also, we dance and our live performances are usually dope; coupled with professional dancers backing us up.
At our show with Olamide, and a few others, we had dancers backing us up. Additionally, we are twins and in the industry we have P-Square, taking most of the duo awards but our sound is mature.
In the next five years…
We see ourselves not just on a big stage but on an international one. We see our music on almost everybody’s phone. We want to be among the top established artistes in Africa and topping everything major in the industry.
Working with artistes
We would like to work with Kendrick Lamar; he has this good feel and tight lyrics. And back home, we would like to work with MayorKun, Olamide, Sean Tizzle, Davido, 2Baba and more.
We plan to drop our tracks for some awards
Like the NMVA and probably Headies award. Basically we are aiming for the group awards and when we get that we can broaden our reach.
Friends and family have been very supportive
In fact, I see some of them following us and giving us hints when our stories go out there.
They are watching out for us and much more.
Designers we really adore
We love Versace, Louis Vuitton foot wears, Philip Plein and that’s our new found love.
The next step
Like we said earlier, we are into production of a new track, which we are ought to release.
And it’s going to be crazier than the one we released. Gbesoke is just a tip of the iceberg and the new songs would have more rhythm and flow.
