Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo known as Iyeoka is a talented sister based on the west coast. She is a poet/singer/writer and more. Iyeoka just released a hot album that we had the opportunity to enjoy.
We wanted to ask her a few questions so you can get to know her more.
UDR: What is the meaning of your name IYEOKA?
We wanted to ask her a few questions so you can get to know her more.
UDR: What is the meaning of your name IYEOKA?
IYEOKA ALBUM COVER
IYEOKA: My name means I want to be respected.
UDR: As we come to the end of 2010, how productive has this year been to your career?
IYEOKA: The definition of my career is currently expanding in exciting directions. Every day feels like a clever personal breakthrough in the right direction.
UDR: What do you love more, poetry or singing?
IYEOKA
IYEOKA: Singing is my comfort zone. I always have melodies running through me.
UDR: When did you decide to sing professionally?
IYEOKA: I think I was 6 years old listening to a Whitney Houston cassette in Nigeria. I was attempting to imitate her vibrato. There was a duet Whitney sang with her mother. Her mother’s voice was deep and powerful to me and their harmony empowered me. That moment was a huge seed.
UDR: Where do you draw your inspirations from?
IYEOKA: life in all it’s magic
UDR: Are you faced with the same or different challenges working on poetry album to a singing album?
IYEOKA: Different projects inspire different challenges to overcome. It has been a beautiful experience overcoming the challenges with David Franz and Francis Phan my producers on the Say Yes album.
UDR: Every artist is usually placed in a box of category. Where would you place Iyeoka?
IYEOKA: My box is poetry. It’s a pretty box on the outside and the inside sends words to pull in deeper meaning.
UDR: What is The Rock by Funk Tribe all about?
IYEOKA: The RBFT is my tribe of musicians I perform with when I am performing my poems and songs. My mission when forming the Rock by Funk Tribe was to inspire uplifting music collaborations with musicians who shared a common goal to become a bridge between the poetry and the music. I currently have Tribe in the east and west coast and Hawaii.
UDR: Do you still work as a Pharmacist?
IYEOKA: My last day working as a pharmacist was January 4th, 2010. I spent my 2010 new year experience in the Dominican Republic where I decided I would finally stop picking up pharmacy shifts at my back up pharmacy gig and go all in with my music. At that point, my life was shifting and all signs encouraged me to offer more attention to creating music for the album.
UDR: Most Nigerian parents prefers their children to be Doctors, Lawyers etc, as a first generation of Nigerian American, do you get the family support in your poetry/music career?
IYEOKA: I’m lucky that my parents are blessed with the gift of perspective concerning me and my career choices. But it took me about a year to tell my parents I left my pharmacist lifestyle to pursue my connection with poetry and later music.
UDR: What inspired your song “Say Yes”?
IYEOKA: Say Yes was inspired by dramatic real life stuff in relationships. The song chronicles the roller-coaster ride associated with the process of becoming in love and saying yes to the next step in that journey.
UDR: Your track “I Travel Home” really took me home and made appreciate things the beauty of Africa. How important is the influence of African culture in your career?
IYEOKA: My home has always been influenced by sounds of Africa
UDR: Out of all the songs you have recorded, what is your favorite and why?
IYEOKA: my current anthem. Because it’s my current anthem.
UDR: What is your favorite food?
IYEOKA: anything that includes rice
UDR: Who is your favorite musician of all time?
IYEOKA: “of all time” is so dramatic. Maybe I could say I haven’t given away that title just yet. But I see what I like in the industry and artistry of music on a regular basis.
UDR: What is your favorite movie?
IYEOKA: I loved the Abyss. I keep it on anytime it comes on.
UDR: What is the one thing you can not do without?
IYEOKA: hope. i need alot of that stuff to keep things going.
UDR: Why should people buy your new album?
IYEOKA: To access the beautiful music I found in me that speaks about life’s little complicated turnarounds and happenings.
UDR: What can we expect from IYEOKA in 2011?
IYEOKA: More live shows and tours on the festival circuit, guiding poetry lifeshops and hopefully more people knowing about the music we’re making.
UDR: Anything you want people to know about we didn’t ask?
IYEOKA: Take a poetry workshop. It does a body good.
UDR: Thank you for taking the time out for this interview
