Music Art: Fidelis brings “Want This” to warm hearts
Singer, Fidelis, has brought to life his dream of a career in music. Importantly, his debut song “Want This” aims to give warmth and a sense of belonging.
Fidelis, who is proudly first a writer, said he actually started by writing lyrics at age nine, though he did not really understood what it was.
“The thing is I’m a writer first. So, at the age of nine, I started writing lyrics. I didn’t really know what they were at the time, but I knew I could string words together and make them look somewhat decent.”
Fidelis committed time to preparing foundation for a sound career in music as he took guitar lessons, vocal lessons, and learning how to hone his craft to become a better musician.
Now based in Canada, Fidelis was born in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State. But, growing up, he shuttled between Nigeria and Europe. And he believes that moving to London for high school gave him broader opportunity to piece together resources for a music career.
Like every musician, Fidelis has a crop of musicians who influenced his genre tilt, as he explained: “I was heavily influenced by female musicians, from Aretha Franklin; Nina Simeone was someone I used to listen to a lot; Tracy Chapman too.
“But when I moved to London, I got into the pop scene that was at the time making a buzz. At the time before Ed Sheeran became Ed Sheeran, I used to listen to his early stuff before he made that name. Ed Sheeran was a big deal for me growing up, Olly Murs too. Just learning about writing and music (from them). They were definitely big influences.”
Distinct variations of those influences can be heard in Fidelis’ music that he vaguely describes as “pop-indie-soul,” but “Want This” subtly avoids all those descriptors, rising and falling based on the tides of emotion that Fidelis feels in the moment without losing the populist theme that makes pop music pop.
“I think it’s really appropriate as a first song,” Fidelis says about the single. “It’s really an ode to why I’m still doing music despite what I consider to be my many trials. Why I’m still here despite everything that has pushed me away from being here. It’s about returning to your point of inception, the original reasons and thoughts, and remembering that those thoughts and reasons are what make everything important instead of getting overwhelmed by what’s going on today.”
Explaining why it has taken this long to get music out, he explained: “I haven’t had much experience musically, just because I hadn’t understood what it took to make music until more recently. Obviously, since I was a lot younger I’d been in studios and all around London, and they gave me somewhere to experience music, but in terms of working towards putting stuff out, I haven’t done much of that. I hadn’t been allowed to, from my family’s perspective. I wasn’t really given that space to explore that.”
With “Want This,” Fidelis wants to bring people into a more accepting side of the world.
“For me, music has always been about passing on a message. Creating a space for anyone who listens to my music to feel somewhat easy, warmer, and to feel the less-cold sides of this world we are living in. I try to make music that makes people feel that. It’s very relatable. It helps people feel better about what they are going through. And it tells them that there are other people like them out there and they aren’t alone.”
The Guardian.
