The Future is Now is the second single and video from my new album Rasheed Re-imagined. The album and video are officially released here on RasheedMusic.com tomorrow (20 February 2017)  but I thought – since the song is called The Future is Now –  it might be cool to post the video for tomorrow’s video release right here today.

I very much hope you enjoy the video which was filmed around London’s South Bank last year (late summer if I recall rightly). The video was directed by Marcin Kovacs who also produced all the tracks on Rasheed Re-imagined.

The Future is Now is one of three Remixes on the album. The original version appeared on my last album Lease of Life and was produced by John Hamilton. Here we re-worked the song and I added a tiny bit of new re-worked vocals. It’s funny how life flows, as I listen back to this song I feel it’s apt for the times we are in where at one and there seems lots of change and uncertainty – and how also there is the key importance of being present, mindful and aware that tomorrow is partly a construct of the mind and partly a outcome of all that we have been – and all that we do today.

“Maybe we can make it, baby if we face it, don’t live your life waiting …make peace end all hatred” – Rasheed Ogunlaru, The Future is Now

I’m delighted to announce that you can now listen and enjoy my album Songs from the Soul for free on YouTube.

The album, first released here on RasheedMusic.com in 2012 went live on the internet on Monday and was the idea of my good friend Marcin Kovacs.  In fact Marcin had the great idea (that we’d first considered some time back) of filming a short interview with me talking about the album and combining that with making the whole album available.  So thanks Marcin for recommending both uploading the album and for recording the interview which you can watch above  (more follows…)

The interview above gives you a bit of an insight into the album and the songs contained within it. Basically the songs were written over a 12 year period. The earliest songs including the two opening numbers Soul Mate and Be Something were written during and toward the time I was pursuing career in music but I never got around to recording. In fact the album blends a number of songs which I wrote some time ago and then a handful of new songs written after my career in coaching had taken off and once I got into the recording studio with my producer, John Hamilton. You’ll hear John’s musical talent across the album. Typically my writing process is that a song will come to me. I’ll sing it and record it in my phone. I’ll then seek to find the chords on my keyboard at home and then I’ll go into the studio with John. Occasionally I’ll play the starting piano chords myself – or more often then not I’ll let John – with his skills as a musician – then play the part(s) and we’ll then build from there. If you like I’m the designer and architect and he is the builder and furnisher. One of the moments from John that I think is especially special is his piano opening and closing sequence on the song Return to Love which is very special as is the string line he produced for Live Before We Die which is the song about appreciating and really living life that came to me in a dream in which I heard Stevie Wonder singing the song.

Anyway check out the full album on YouTube and the video above.

Songs from the Soul – by Rasheed Ogunlaru.

Last weekend my good friend, Marcin Kovacs and I shot  the above new video to an old song that’s very dear to my heart: Live Before We Die is a song that came to me in a dream in about 2000 or 2001. It’s the first time and one of only two or three times that a song has ever come to me in a dream.

In the dream I heard and saw the legendary singer, Stevie Wonder singing this song. He was singing it in his trademark elastic tenor voice, riffing the song with remarkable emotion  – as only he can.

I woke up with the song going through my head. In my mind I swiftly went through all the Stevie Wonder songs I knew to try and place it. But after going through a good number, I realised that it had not been recorded!  I quickly and shrewdly recoded it on a simple recording device – I can’t even recall what type now, but fortunately I got the vocal melody down and the lyrics. I so especially remember that opening lyric as it was sung in the song:

‘Years are gonna crawl and then fly by, the first and last they’ll do for you is cry. It’s up to you what you will do meanwhile, let’s live before we die. Let’s live before we die.’  From what I recall the rest of the lyrics came through really easily.

I very much feel that this song was very a gift from Stevie. In fact I’m not even sure that I’d say. It was a gift but also feel as though this song belongs to Stevie. In the event that our paths should cross either directly or through those I meet in entertainment then I must pass this gift back to him and play it to him. For me it would be a dream to hear him sing it. While I’m very proud of how I’ve sung this I can very much here how he would sing it in his trademark register.

While the song emerged early in the 2000s it was a long time before I came to record it. A few years later – while I was briefly having some piano lessons which I really should have kept up – I learned the chords and how to play the song. (I’m very rusty these days and it would take me a while to find all the chords). But then in 2009 around the time when I started recording music with John Hamilton of EQ Studios I decided to  – at last – record the track. I will have played it to John and then John played the version you hear here. There’s a chance that a tiny bit of my playing may be here on this but essentially the musicianship and the wonderful string sequence is the work of John. He captured what I had always heard in my heart perfectly. In fact the only thing I did not hear is that fantastic opening piano and string line and the closing string line that John ‘channelled’ by hearing what I was describing.  He’s absolutely brilliant and a joy to work with.

Overall this is one of the songs I most proud of and it’s probably one of my best vocals to date. I sing it it really utilising my baritone voice and the lower areas of the tone especially which I often under-utilise But here it’s used to good effect. It’s great when all the elements of a song really come together. Not something I really achieved much earlier in my career due largely to the fact that I still had so much to learn and improve.

The last, but by no means a big thanks to the very talented Marcin. This is our fifth video together. We recorded it last weekend. What you see is a one take and shot. Anyway I hope you enjoy it. Best wishes, R.

The funny thing about life is that when you step back and start to look back you start to see all the themes and the patterns. When I was pursuing singing as a living 15 or so years ago the songs were all about life, love, self discovery and such like and that’s much like the work I help people with now in my day job as a coach, speaker and author.

When I came to compiling the collection ‘Songs from the Soul’ I decided to gather some of the songs that were most dear that I’d written over the last 10 years or so and some new ones. One of those old tracks was “World Full of Wonder’ And then about 3 weeks couple of weeks ago my friend and talented creative, Marcin , who directed my last two videos pointed out that the track with just as still image on my YouTube channel had attracted a thousand views in a week or so and suggested we film a video. So that’s we did and here’s the result. Marcin a huge thanks.

World Full of Wonder written & performed by Rasheed Ogunlaru. Video directed by Marcin Steciuk.

David Greenberg, August 23, 2012

With Rasheed Ogunlaru’s debut album Songs from the Soul, we witness a pure and honest expression of an artist whose intent is so clearly to share an inspiring and hopeful message with the listener.  The magic of this album lies within its lyrical meaning, which is so refreshing considering that in today’s popular music we increasingly come across records that are void of such meaning.

Songs from the Soul displays a combination of musical eclecticism that weaves in and out of R&B, Soul, Pop, Dance, and Electronic music — when listening to the album we feel as if someone extracted some of the fundamental musical ingredients from the past half century, and fused them together into one.  And, the music is presented in a way that is so accessible to every individual out there, whether young, old, male, female, and regardless of ethnicity, because it speaks to something so universally human.

The album, which contains 12 songs, starts off with “Soul Mate”—a slow tempo opener that tells a story of finding your other half and how the power of such a connection can heal old wounds and lift someone up to a higher state of being.  The second track, “Be Something” fades in with the sounds of the oceans and continues with a melody and rhythm reminiscent of the 1960’s soul sound of Detroit and Chicago.

One of the many highlights of the album is “Love is the Answer”, an upbeat song that is about the moment of deciding to overcome your fears, doubts and pain, moving forward and becoming alive and free. You’ll have no choice but to feel uplifted and inspired after listening to this song.  It’s has the type of catchy melody that you’ll notice yourself humming to for days to come.

And, because it is such an integral element of this album, I must also mention the other aspect of Rasheed’s life; his alter ego of the day, which that he is a personal life coach.  Often times we come in contact with artists that produce incredibly beautiful music, but shockingly for us fans, we learn that the musician’s personal character in real life doesn’t match the beauty in their music.  In Rasheed’s case, we experience the very opposite.  It is so clear, that the humble and compassionate nature of his work as a life coach is inextricably linked with his art.  This link rings true with the the words of Sufi Master Inayat Kahn (1882-1927), “Music should be healing, music should uplift the soul, music should inspire; then there is no better way…of rising higher towards the spirit, of attaining spiritual perfection, only if it is rightly understood.”.  Thankfully for us as listeners, Rasheed understands this fundamental aspect of music all too well because of his work as a life coach.

The power behind Rasheed’s combination as both an artist and healer comes across so bright in his message on Songs from the Soul.  And just what exactly is that message?  It’s a message about the journey of self discovery, and Rasheed is putting out his hand asking the listener to join him in this journey through song.  I don’t know about you, but I’m in for the ride!

David Greenberg, a PhD student at Cambridge University studying music psychology, plays and studies saxophone — having most recently played and toured with the Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra. He completed undergraduate studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey studying both psychology and music, during which time he also conducted research in the philosophy of music at the University of Milan

Sooner or Later was one of the last tracks written and recorded for ‘Songs from the Soul’. When you hear it, it kind of speaks for itself. When the song arrived (they kind of sping into the consciousness) it had a North African / Middle Eastern flavour to it. As always the job is to capture it. And as is often the case when John from EQ Studios and I got together to record it, it unfolded true to how I first heard it compossed in my head. A huge amont of thanks go to John for his musicianship ..and being able to capture the soundscape in my mind. I really like the sentinment of this song. It is essentially a song about life sharing its shape and nature. I often say “If you listen closely enough to life you’ll hear it whisper it secrets to you” and I have been very fortunate.

You may have seen the video to Love is the Answer here on this site> if so you will have heard the uptempo version of the track produced by Rene Coffey. But interestingly I originally wrote the song as a ballad and when I put together the ‘Songs from the Soul’ collection I went in to record it again as a ballad with John Hamilton who produced the rest of the album.

It’s one of the songs (in all carnations) that I’m particularly proud of. Anyway click below to hear the ballad version of the song. I very much hope that you enjoy it. If you wanna learn more about the song read the earlier blogs here about ‘Songs for the Soul’ and Love is the Answer.

But Songs from the Soul is pretty much as it sounds… songs that that come from within, from the self. They tell the story of the journey of finding oneself. The collection begins with Soul Mate (which you can hear on the music player here) it’s a song that’s dear to me that I wrote back in 2000 or 2001 – it remains one of my favourate if not my favourate song. Be Something  the second track was written soon after.  I love the naive, honest, youthfulness of the songs seeking and wanting to attain something. Live before we Die was inspired by a dream – there’s a seperate blog about that – but lyrically it speaks for itself.  It’s one of the first times you hear the gorgeous strings sounds that John Hamilton has created on tracks throughout the album. Love is the Answer is next – you hear the uptempo mix first, brilliantly produced by Rene Coffey. I originally wrote this as a ballad – and I originally wrote it for a friend who was a gifted singer and has gone on to achieve some success, however but who never recorded it … so I decided to.World Full or Wonder and Return to Love are next on the collection. The latter song opens with a beautiful piano intro by John Hamilton from EQ studios who produced the album and played most of the instruments. It starts with the lines “It seems to me we live through dreams and dream through life – will we float away through space and time?” The next Track is “Love Me” which was written much later. It’s uptemp and makes me smile as there’s a little humour in It and plays with contrasts.

Just Smile is -again- one of the more recently written tracks and was the last song to be completed even through we strated work on it some time ago. It’s a ballad that evolves into a waltz. But after starting recording it I felt there was something missing and left it for a while. Eventually I realised the album didn’t have much of the more fun, playful side of life or myself – and the song could evolve to reflect what it was expressing. So the reprise style outro brings on the party. Again you can hear that track here on the website music player. Thanks to Andrew Peace for the additional guitar licks at the end. Help Me, Find Me, is another uptempo number. It’s really about one having a conversation with your wiser inner self; a bit like a question and answer session  Q: “The question is who am?”, A “Now your asking… ready to look inside? See what’s lasting.” It’s one of the first times I’ve ‘conciously’ brought the themes that I express as a speaker / inner fuifilment specialist with the music – although in truth I’ve learned that they’ve never been seperate.  Sooner or Later is about the nature, flow and seasons of life, space and time – it’s frank rather than sentimental. It’s always great fun creating all the voices that I use vocally on a track.

The collection begins to draw to a close with a timely reminder While Life Passes By  which you can again hear on the music player here… “And it’s not what you have, it’s not what you hide, or the things that you lack, our the stuff you aquire… meanwhile life passes by.” Again there’s a blog about that song here if you’d like to know more about it. The collection closes with the ballad version of ‘Love is the Answer’. The songs lyric was original written biographically to fit the singer who I wrote it for and their life. When I decided to record it I decided I needed to add a little someting to the bridge/break “And this great mystery that brought me hear well I may never know….” It’s an apt song to end the set as it brings together the personal with the universal – something I always love playing with on songs. I love for a song to be as deep or superficial, as personal, inter-presonal or universal as the listener chooses to hear it – and as it is apt for them.

Thanks / credits

All songs written and sung by Rasheed Ogunlaru © Rasheed Ogunlaru 2012.Big thanks to Marcin for the cover image and for the fab video for Love is the Answer. Thanks again to Rene and to Steve.

The biggest thanks go to John Hamilton. John was a joy to find some years ago when we met at an event. He ran a studio and I told him I was a coach/speaker with background as a singer. He invited me to his studio and soon after we started recording. Soul Mate I think was the first we worked on. I’d come in playing the chords and singing the track in question or just playing it on my recorder or sounding the melody lines with my voice. The instrumentation you hear – except the uptemo mix of Love is the Answer which Rene created and produced – is John. The magical thing is that he created what I hear in my head and could hear the bits I didn’t. he’s a joy to work with a complete professional. He’s also had a few hit records so he knows his stuff.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the album and the tracks that you can hear here.

This song is one of my most proud and lucky musical moments. I was asleep – and when I sleep I’m often quite conscious. I often dream of everyday things. I’m often aware that I’m asleep – sounds strange but it’s how it is. Anyway I was asleep many years ago and in this dream Stevie Wonder was singing this song. I woke up (fortunately with the melody still in my head) and quickly went through all the Stevie Wonder songs I knew. I then realised that it was none of them. Sometimes when this type of inspiration happens you’ve got to be careful that somehow someone elses actual work hasn’t meant that you’ve copied their song.  Anyway having do0ne these two quick checks within my self I quickly recorded it onto my tape recorder. I later found some chords, and developed them with my piano teacher at the time. By the way I can’t really play the piano but I can fortunately always just find the chords that I need to write the song.

Some years later I decided to record it. And John Hamilton from EQ Studios who I worked with on virtually all the Songs from the Soul songs did an amazing job on this musically. He captured it beautifully. In my head I can still hear Stevie sing it in a higher key. Trust me when I hear that he absolutely delivers this. It would be a dream to hear him sing and record this. So if you know anyone who knows him please pass it on to him and thank him for the inspiration.

This is one of the last songs that I wrote for the Songs from the Soul collection. It was inspired by a phrase that my best friend would say that I think was attributed to John Lennon which goes something like ‘Life is something that happens while we’re making other plans’.  There were originally 2 bridge/middle eight bits and I made a choice as to which I felt sat best with the song. This song is a bit of a reminder to self that I suspect most of us can really identify with.