Epixode opens up about ‘Indoors Session’

MuseAfrica.com‘s Maritha Brooth caught up with Ghanaian artist, Epixode to talk about his virtual performance show – ‘Indoors Session.’

The session serves as a means for the act to entertain his fans with different renditions of his songs.

Epixode, born Theophilus Nii Arday Otoo is also a creative director and a fine arts painter.

MuseAfrica.com: For the people who don’t know, what is Indoors Session and the inspiration behind it?

Epixode: Basically, Indoor sessions just like the name suggests is me having different renditions of my songs, if not old songs, unreleased songs or even freestyles of some of my songs indoor.

It’s a set created indoor to give the fans a different feel of the regular song they hear on the record. Personally, it’s just for me but I don’t know if later on, I will get to invite musicians not necessarily artists who sing but like guitarists, instrumentalists to have you know different renditions of different songs.

MuseAfrica.com: What inspired the set for Indoors Session?

Epixode: I can’t really explain how the set came about but it’s just me trying to fix things in my space. It’s actually one of my guestrooms in my house that I had to transform to a set and I ended up doing everything.

Now, you can see plants around, it’s just to give it a natural feel. I love plants and in my house I have so many plants. Putting the set together was not difficult. I only wanted to have a space different from what people see. You can bear with me that most of these freestyles sessions or virtual kind of performances that we see is basically the colour type with just a microphone hanging somewhere and somebody singing. If you watch from the set, I am trying to sell every part of me. We have my paintings in the background, the teddy bear is just for balance in the sense that if a kid should watch it, definitely they will identify one particular thing that they would like. That teddy bear is for my daughter so I have a feel of her around me.

I as an artiste, look beyond and I always say that anything I create is not for me but for the next generation to also get to see the kind of legacy that we were leaving because if I hadn’t granted an interview to tell people I created the set, it would just be the regular thing that everybody is doing but I am looking out of the box that as a person, ‘what if I have to pay somebody thousands of Cedis to just create a set for me?’ Coz it looks good. It’s simple, Google is our friend, YouTube is our friend why don’t I just go on there and find things that will make stuff easier. I can’t go and pay for these red lights and all of that. Or I can’t buy this HMI light for thousands of cedis. All the things you see in there are DIY (Do It Yourself)’s that I created myself even the lights. it was just a normal saucepan, a led tube and then I had to attach a microphone stand.

Just building this Indoor session took me about 6 months because it was around the Covid-19 time last year that I decided that if we were not going out anymore, to have these big shoes and all of that, what can I do to entertain myself and my fans. And that’s how come I was able to put these things together. I am an independent artiste without a label so if I am not getting paid for shows, then it means that I can’t have enough money to invest in some of this equipment and you will be amazed if I told you that this 'Indoor Sessions' is strictly shot from a phone. Even though I have a camera, I am trying to make it low cost as possible and I end up editing it myself. So it’s just me, one-man soldier trying to put my work out there.

MuseAfrica.com: Would say you COVID-19 is the main reason for bringing us Indoors Session?

Epixode: Yes. It’s one of the ulterior motives and I must be frank that artistes or creatives from this side do not look beyond our boundaries. We don’t learn and I am part of it because you would have crazy artistes on YouTube or the internet who don’t even have big songs or top the charts on billboard and all that but there are YouTubers who just go out there to play instruments even in their corner somewhere and they drive crazy numbers and that’s income.

‘The world is going into a space where if the world locks back again, how do we get to make money from our stuff?’ That’s one part that also pushed me to start this thing, I have always tried it but the consistency has not been there so we end up starting something and you don’t have any support so then you leave it and go to the next thing. Just trying to do different renditions of my songs keeps me going every week and I end up shooting them in a day because I am actually working on different projects. I just take one day shoot as much as I can with say four different vibes, edit it, and drop it every week and I am able to cover months with just a day shoot. People are getting more creative each day and I think it’s just me going out of my normal ways to help creatives as well.

MuseAfrica.com: Are you looking at a short term or long term project?

Epixode: I am actually investing on this side now to make it look different from what people are actually doing. Don’t be amazed to see Epixode doing like live looping. That’s what I invested in last year you know, all the equipment are in so just be on the lookout. It’s gonna be crazy, I am now studying those machines so I don’t wanna put something out there when I don’t really know what I am doing but its gonna be different from what any other artiste is doing, trust me.

MuseAfrica.com: Do you have any last words?

Epixode: All I wanna say is thank you Muse Africa for giving me the space. I must be grateful because you are the only platform that has actually called to find out what is really happening with the indoors session and I appreciate it. In this season let’s all be creative, let just put our works out.