By: Okeowo Hephzibah Ọpẹ́yẹmí
One minute, you’re just another student walking around campus. The next, people are turning their heads because they recognise you from the stage.
For Alabi David Oluwafikayomi, popularly known as TheVyine, winning the Bigi Soundcity tour Competition at the University of Ibadan came with exactly that kind of switch. More people know his face, more people are interested in his sound, and opportunities are beginning to knock. As he puts it, people are also starting to reveal their “true colours.”
But who exactly is TheVyine when the microphone is off?
Away from the stage, he describes himself simply as a “random UI boy” and a regular student. A final-year Special Education student in the Faculty of Education, a lover of poetry, and an aspiring artist, he is currently navigating the interesting space between being a student and becoming the creative individual he hopes to be.
In this conversation with UCJ, TheVyine talks about winning Bigi, the sudden attention that came with it, losing some privacy, balancing music with school, his plans for an EP and the price that sometimes comes with chasing the thing you love.
The Interview
UCJ Correspondent: To kick off, I would like to congratulate you on winning the competition. Congratulations.
TheVyine:Yeah, thank you.
UCJ Correspondent: Before we talk about the competition, who is the person behind the performance? What should people know about you beyond what they see when you perform?
TheVyine: Um, you mean to say what I feel like people should know about me that they don’t know?
UCJ Correspondent: More like, who are you outside the performance?
TheVyine: Oh, outside the performance. I’m Alabi David Oluwafikayomi, um, I’ll just say random UI boy. I mean, um, regular student.
UCJ Correspondent: Regular student?
TheVyine: Yeah, I mean I am a regular student. And I love, um, poetry, you know, outside performance. I’m a sweet, caring, jovial person, you know, I love to like make peace with everyone. I think that’s just, that’s all about me. I don’t really have issues like that, you know.
UCJ Correspondent: And what department, faculty and level are you in?
TheVyine: Oh, oh, yeah. Um, special education, Faculty of Education, final year student. Yeah, so.
UCJ Correspondent: Special Education and music, how do the two connect for you?
TheVyine: Okay. It’s like this, um, I’ve always loved music before going to school, and I was supposed to study that, but my parents were like, um, music is a talent; you don’t really need to go to university to study it, you know. And you know, thank God for the kind of generation we are right now; a lot of things are advanced. You don’t really need to go to school to learn anything. You can just go to the internet for that. But like, that aside, um, so I guess that’s just it.
UCJ Correspondent: So, indirectly, you’re in school rebelling against your parents.
TheVyine: I’m in school doing what my parents want. I’m studying, I’m, you know, doing it and as well doing what I want for myself, cause by the end of the day, I would be left to do what I want. And if I don’t build the foundation for myself right now, cause I believe school is for networking, I believe school is for building the community. Whatever friend you have right now would be the connection you have in the future, you know, for your children. So, yeah, that’s how it is.
UCJ Correspondent: So, you’re basically killing two birds with one stone?
TheVyine: Exactly.
UCJ Correspondent: It’s been a week since you emerged as the winner of the Bigi Music Competition. How has that changed your life? What difference has the win made so far?
TheVyine: Okay. Well, normally, almost half the school knows me, and I guess popularity, right? I mean, I had been before, but it’s more now. I mean, everything I had just amplified. Popularity, musical efficiency, see, and, you know, I get more chances and opportunities to showcase my talent, you know. And it’s helping a lot in my career as an artist. So, yeah.
UCJ Correspondent: What opportunities have you received since the competition, specifically after the win?
TheVyine: After the competition?
UCJ Correspondent: Yes.
TheVyine: Okay. Um, I’ve had, um, how am I going to say this? I’ve had individuals in that space, in, um, the space of music, better artists that would, you know, better propel my future into that. I’ve met with a lot of people; a lot of people have contacted me. Oh, I love you, I love your sound. I want us to work together, you know. I want us to do this, you know, blah, blah, blah. So, a lot of opportunities like that, too. And a lot of, um, interference, too. So, yes.
UCJ Correspondent: Take yourself back to that day. When your name was announced as the winner, what was going through your mind? Did you genuinely think you were going to win?
TheVyine: You want me to be honest?
UCJ Correspondent: Yes.
TheVyine: Yes.
UCJ Correspondent: Is that not pride?
TheVyine: It’s not pride; it’s just, I have this saying I always tell myself: we are all born with greatness, right? And I believe so much in myself. I didn’t before. I just had a new manager, Ifeoma, who changed that about me. I didn’t believe in myself. But now I started to, I believe that if I do something, I definitely should succeed in it. I shouldn’t entertain any pessimistic thoughts or anything. My mind is, I’m in this thing; I need to win. I need to win for everybody, I need to win for my friends, I need to win for myself. You know, that’s why I said I knew I was going to win.
UCJ Correspondent: So, you stepped onto the stage with the mindset that you were going to win that medal?
TheVyine: Yeah, I’m more like, I stepped onto that stage with like a thought of, I need to do this thing to the best of my abilities. That’s more, that’s more of the thought I had that day. So yeah.
UCJ Correspondent: Winning comes with opportunities, but it can also come with pressure. As my dad would say, “The more you climb up, the more the devil.” Since the competition, what negative side of this new level of visibility have you experienced?
TheVyine: Okay. I thought I would be able to deal with people talking about me every time I walk around. But thinking now, it’s so much that I feel so uncomfortable. You know, fame comes with its price. I can’t get to do some things like personally anymore. Um, I have some friends that are now not friends, now enemies because of some personal reasons. Um, a lot of things. A lot of people are showing me their true colours. And you know, it’s, it’s just like a new experience to me, and I’m just like, okay. Okay. If this is the price I pay for what I want to be, then it’s fine.
UCJ Correspondent: So, you’re willing to pay the price for who you want to become?
TheVyine: I mean, don’t you all sacrifice something to do something?
UCJ Correspondent: Sacrificing your freedom?
TheVyine: Yeah. Maybe it’s worth it.
UCJ Correspondent: But what does freedom mean to you?
TheVyine: Freedom? Oh, okay. Freedom means, um, the state of feeling at ease in anything you do.
UCJ Correspondent: Based on that definition, do you still feel free?
TheVyine: Yeah, I do.
UCJ Correspondent: Why?
TheVyine: Because personally, I’m a kind of person that, I won’t call it nonchalant, but I’ll just call it as I trained myself to not really care about what people say. Because if I say I should do what A says, B would get mad. And if I do what B says, A will get mad. So why don’t I just do what I want? And I don’t know; anyone can feel whatever they want to feel. That would be fine, though.
UCJ Correspondent: As someone who is becoming a celebrity on campus, how are you able to balance music with your academics? At the end of the day, you’re still a student.
TheVyine: Oh, okay. That’s been, um, I’ve had a lot of friends that are really like, cause I’m not really, really like an academic enthusiast, sorry to say, but like I know it’s important, and that’s like my primary assignments here. So I’m, I’m shovelling it. I just know I’m doing fine. I go for the important things I’m supposed to do, classes, tests and all like that. I just, I don’t know how I do it. I’m just going to say it’s God or something. I just know how I balance it, and it doesn’t really affect me like that. I might miss a couple of classes, but I balance myself.
UCJ Correspondent: And your CGPA isn’t suffering because of it?
TheVyine: Ah! Nah. I’m just like the normal average student. I’m not there high, but I’m not low, so yeah.
UCJ Correspondent: Somewhere in between?
TheVyine: Yeah, exactly.
UCJ Correspondent: Do you intend to study music after completing your degree in Special Education?
TheVyine: Yes.
UCJ Correspondent: Will you be studying it at the University of Ibadan?
TheVyine: No.
UCJ Correspondent: Where?
TheVyine: I will let the future decide for me. I don’t know where, but I know I would study music.
UCJ Correspondent: Bigi is over. What’s next for TheVyine?
TheVyine: You guys should anticipate my EP.
UCJ Correspondent: An EP?
TheVyine: Yeah, I’m working on an EP. And I will be representing UI at a bigger competition.
UCJ Correspondent: Finally, you mentioned earlier that your parents initially saw music mainly as a talent rather than something you needed to study professionally. Yet, here you are, pursuing music while completing your degree. What would you say to UI students who are also trying to balance academics with a talent or career they want to pursue?
TheVyine: Okay, so I’m going to try to like correct you. My family, my parents, they have been supportive, especially my dad, very supportive, but they’re just being supportive. I think they just realise that this boy just really wants to do this thing, and I don’t think I can stop him, so just finish your school, and you can do it, you know. So, like my advice to you and anyone chasing their talent, their dream, their career: your parents won’t follow you all through your life. They are just building you up; they are just doing what’s best for you, building you up for you to be able to, like, face the pressure that real life comes after school. And in doing that, you have to be fully equipped. And that does not mean you should waste your talent, because if you don’t cultivate your talent, you would lose it in the process. That’s what I learned from. Because I mean, I’m in special education and I’m like specialising in gifted and talented students; that’s my unit. So talent, according to my lecturer, is like if you don’t cultivate your talent, it could die, you know. So there’s no time. You can’t say you want to be done with school and you don’t want to start all over again. You might not have time. You might not. It’s sad, but that’s it. You might not have time, so you have to like start right now. Start it right now, keep doing it. It might not be like doing anything. Time and effort would work along the way. Yeah. It would eventually come up to what you think it is. But you need to ask for guidance from God, too. I pray, yes. I pray. So when you do that, I think everything is going to be smooth. God, time, effort, cultivation, you get your result. God, my effort, cultivation, we get our results.
The final note
For TheVyine, winning the Bigi Soundcity tour music competition may have changed how people see him, but it has not changed the way he sees the journey ahead. The attention is louder now, the opportunities are coming, and the privacy he once had is slowly becoming a luxury.
Still, there is an EP on the way, another competition ahead, and, somewhere between Special Education and music, a young creative figuring out what the next version of himself looks like.
For now, TheVyine is simply asking people to anticipate.
And perhaps that is the interesting thing about creatives on campus: sometimes, the person you casually pass on your way to class is quietly building something you will eventually hear, watch or remember.
