What are your early memories about music and dancing?


Paul: Going way back then in primary and secondary school, we were dancing to the music of Alex O because he was a very good dancer then and at our tender age, we danced to his songs at birthday parties.  It got a point that whenever we were passing and saw a birthday party going on, we would go in there and start performing without invitation.



Were you performing individually then or as a group?

Peter: We were like a group; Paul, my elder brother Tony and I were doing that and at a point, we found ourselves miming the songs of MC Hammer, Bobby Brown and others but the main singer to push us a lot was Michael Jackson.



How did Michael Jackson influence your dancing then as kids?

Paul: I think performing Michael Jackson’s dances was the first performances we did that really gave us money because while we were singing and dancing in school then, it was energetic and fun but nothing was coming to us in terms of money but when we started doing Michael Jackson, the money started coming.

Whenever we performed Michael Jackson, we tried as much as possible to dance the way he used to do it. But we faced the challenge of costumes; the clothes, the hand gloves and everything we put on was crafted like those of Michael Jackson.


But it helped us in the sense that people took us serious and knew that they had to pay us for our performances. And again we realized that there was demand for some particular songs, like Billie Jeans, Thriller and so on but Thriller was the hit performance that was most sought for.

How old were you then?

Peter: we were 14 years-old when we started doing that. Thriller was the most expensive performance we had at that time because the costume and the painting of our faces and fixing our hair to look like Michael Jackson were quite strenuous.



Does it mean you realized early in life you were destined to be musicians?

Peter: There were a lot of things happening in our lives then; we were trying to go into football, music and other things.

We were the jealous type whereby if we see anyone doing something, we would go back to do that same thing. Finding ourselves doing music, dancing and playing football at the same time was just was not an easy task to overcome but we chose music.



At one point did the interest in music overshadow the rest of your ambitious?



Paul: It was in 1996 during the  Atlanta Olympic when Kanu Nwankwo and the Dream team won the gold medal in football. We were still into music having left football but that singular feat made us take up our boots because we heard the Head of State then, Late Gen. Abacha, was buying cars, houses and what have you for the footballers .


Immediately we dropped the microphone and picked up our boots again and headed straight to the field. But all of a sudden, we realized we couldn’t cope. We then decided that we had to go back to music.



You have more brothers than sisters, how was growing up like them?

Peter: It was difficult because parents always look at boys as being stubborn and try so much to prevent them from getting involved in criminal activities. Our parents were not an exception. They always were watchful for any kind of misconduct we might engage in. They fixed their attention on.


Training many of us through the university was quite challenging, it really was. At a time, my Dad stopped paying our school fees   because of our over indulgence in music; he was of the opinion that since you loved music so much, he would stop paying our fees. He wanted us to be educated.


What are your education backgrounds?

Paul: We attended Tempest Nursery and Primary School in Jos after which we went to St. Lumumba College also in Plateau  State. We later went to do Diploma programmes at the University of Jos. After which we proceeded to the University of Abuja for our Degree programme but I didn’t finish there; I completed my first degree at the River  State  University in Port Harcourt. I studied Mass Communication while Peter read Business Administrations.

 
Peter: Both of us were at the University of Abuja studying Business Management but Paul hates mathematics and calculations, that made him opt for the Arts. What made me continue with Management was an experience I had while in the secondary school. There was this boy that was always taking the first position.


I looked at him and asked myself if it was possible for me to use an injection syringe and suck his brain into mine be as brilliant. So I asked him how he does it and he invited me to join him; I didn’t join him to be taught; I wanted to know his secret. I discovered that the boy was denying himself of so many pleasures; the playing, the excitement and so on.



When I denied myself likewise, I took the second position and that experience later went on to help me in my career in music; I learnt that for you to excel, you go for what you want with passion. Today Paul can play the guitar and I can handle the piano; we never went to any music school to learn to use these instruments.



You grew up with Chelsea star, Mikel Obi, in Jos, what was the relationship like?

Paul: It was great. While we were still playing football, we went to the Pepsi Football academy together though he was our junior then; we were in the under-17 category while he was in under – 13. Growing up with Mikel was exciting because he lived opposite the stadium with his parents and they operated a shop where we normally converge for drink water after playing football.



How did your parents feel when they saw your addictive interest in music?

Peter: They never liked it; our Dad never liked it at all. Our Mum was supportive but at the same time she was scared; she felt like, “if these boys disappoint me, I am finished.” You know how mothers are, she supported us financially, morally and all that but at the end the fear for what her husband would say should we fail was there all the way.

It was difficult for us during then because our father never wanted us to take up music. In fact, our interest in music brought quarrel between our parents. It wasn’t funny at all.


 

Were there cases where you got punished because of your involvement in music?



Paul: It happened on several occasions. There was a time that we had a motorcycle accident while carrying our piano and guitar; the instruments got broken and we got injured but when we got home, our father flogged the hell out of us despite our bleeding hands and legs because we came home late.



Did your father ever take your musical equipments away from you?

Peter: He has broken our guitars on many times over. We used to construct guitars before we started buying but he kept destroying our instruments and always shouted at us to face our studies. Our mother would be pleading on our behalf. It was too much drama.



How did you feel anytime you lost an instrument?

Paul: It was very painful especially the one we got from the school. Before we started buying guitars, we used to practice with that of our school but it became a casualty in our father’s hands.



That his action got us punished for two weeks; we were asked to pay for the damaged equipment and punished by being asked to dig a hole that had the depth same as our height.   




The Nigeria Music scene got to know about P-Square when you won the Benson and Hedges Music talent hunt. How did you get involved?




Paul: I think it was one hell of an opportunity for us then.  We were still in our first year at the University of Abuja in 2001 when we were informed about the competition in Jos. 


We were already popular in Abuja and bought the form. We came tops out of 38 artistes that participated. We took the first position and eventually represented the Northern Zone in the Abuja final where we won again out of the 22 artistes that took part in that show. At the finals in Lagos, we became the overall winners which made Benson and Hedges offer to launch our album.



When you declared your interest, did you know you would go that far?



Peter: Yes because we had all the strategies. When people started loving us as entertainers, we developed our strategy. The Jos event wasn’t really the challenge because we were known in Jos   as dancers. P-Square was already known then.  It was the Lagos final that was really the most competitive part but we still came tops.




Was that when you got the name of the group?



Paul: No, a friend of ours at the university called Richard gave us the name. We were assigned a room in the hostel and when we got there, we met him cleaning up and he was like, “You are brothers, twins, Peter and Paul.” He got confused and said, “Peter or Paul in fact P-Square, anyone can serve.”  That was how we got the name.



Describe that moment when they were named you winners of that talent hunt show?




Peter: It was very exciting and memorable but it didn’t come as a surprise after we performed; we were the last to perform out of the 38 bands on stage. The way the fans were screaming while we performed gave us the confidence.

 
I will say that the strategy we used when we got to Lagos was our dance performance. When we arrived Lagos, we were told that if you don’t sing in Yoruba and play the talking drum, you were not going anywhere. It was as if we were competing with Fuji artistes who were very popular there. But we used our dancing to confuse everybody when we performed our songs Kolo and My Life.   






P-Square did not exploit the success of winning that show, why?


Paul: We didn’t use the platform for a couple of reasons. Immediately after the show, the Federal Government came out with a hard policy on tobacco companies which banned them from placing adverts on radio, print or billboards, this came at the heels of our winning the competition and it really affected us.


Though in our first album, in the CD case, the Benson and Hedges logo was there, they couldn’t use our pictures because of the ban but had to use the pictures of our eyes instead. It was a very bad period for us. It came to a point where we had to just leave everything since it wasn’t their fault or ours. The money we were supposed to have won was given to our management team and they held on to it and later misused it.



What happened after that?


Paul: We had no option than to go back to school when the deal fell through. Benson and Hedges sponsored our album launch, Last Night, but we didn’t reap anything financially.




After that unfortunate predicament, you came out stronger, what metamorphosis did you pass through?


 
Paul: We passed through a lot of difficult situations; we were getting popular but there was no money to show for popularity; it was like a disease. We went through a lot of hard times and kept reading so many stories about Benson & Hedges giving us millions but yet we didn’t have anything, not even a car. We were still jumping Okada then but people thought we were made.

 
Peter: At a point, because of all thee false stories flying all over the place, we started having problems with our band. The popularity was there but the money wasn’t.



But the story changed with your next album, Get Squared.  What were those areas in music you saw and exploited that stood you out?

Paul: We saw that there was no need for us to belong to record labels; that gave us some amount of independence to do songs we wanted to do.  Our experience with Benson & Hedges saw us doing songs they forced us to do which were usually not our type of music which our fans didn’t like. We managed to get a car but ended up selling it again it along with some of our properties to be able to fund our next album. We made up mind that we would sell everything and put it in the album and if it doesn’t sell, we would give up music maybe take up our boots again. We took music seriously; we didn’t’ try to compete with anybody. The major strategy we used was our musical video because we saw that music videos were lacking in quality.

 

Your lyrics are as unique as your videos, what inspires them?



Paul: I write the songs and produce them. I approach music from a general perspective; I don’t see it as being for educated or uneducated people. I do music for everybody irrespective of your educational status. I can’t write songs in pure Queen’s English because I know that not everyone is educated. We had to come down to the basic level and break it down for everybody to understand and enjoy it. Our music does not have class; it is for kids, mothers, fathers, grand fathers and so on.

Your musical video brought some flavour into the industry, who amongst you came up with the concept?  

Peter: The concept is a collective thing between, me, Paul and Jude. In fact, we compete amongst ourselves who would bring the best idea. We work as a team and try to consolidate on the ideas we suggest.


Many music observers are of the opinion that your songs are not really original, that it always comes with an adaptation of something done by someone else. What are your reactions to that insinuation?  

 

Paul: I will make three comments. Firstly, they say P-Square don’t sound originally and readily point to Usher; they say we look like Usher and dance like him. Secondly, these music critics send us emails but yet our fans don’t complain. That makes me believe that the people behind these insinuations are our fellow colleagues.



Thirdly, there is no song in this life that comes out as original; there must be a connection somewhere. In three days after we released our last album, someone had already started complaining that P-Square had deviated from what they were known for. It’s no longer P-Square being copy cats.

Let me look at it this way; we copy and make a hell of money from it, you that is trying to be original has not sold your album to the extent P-Square has. P-Square the copy-cats has sold over 8 million copies of their album and you are still there trying to be a composer like Handel. Well, I wish them luck. We just released out last album, Game Over, and not up to six days later, it sold over a million. I don’t know what they are still saying.


Paul: Whatever people might say, they are entitled to their opinion. What I know is that P-Square does good music. What they are pointing at that Peter’s resemblance to Usher makes us copy cats. Now I ask, should he then go and do a plastic surgery to make him look different?  When we came out with Get Squared, they said we copied; we released Game Over and it’s now a different story; they are now complaining that P-Square didn’t copy but did a different thing from what they are known for. What else do they want us to do?   



In your last album, you had tracks that talk about societal ills, what informed this new dimension?


Paul: I think what pushed us where the fans. Apart from the fact they commend us, they also tell us to use our music and portray the ills the society in general suffer from. And in a larger sense, it was a worthy thing to do; we listen to our fans. Our fans are yearning that we talk about corruption and other vices in our society and that is what we did.

What kind of PMAN would you want to associate with?



Paul: I am looking forward to that PMAN that would hold elections and the president would be voted for by musicians in a very transparent polls. You can’t be doing elections and the musicians will not be involved.


One admirable thing about P-Square is your ability to keep off controversies and scandals unlike other artistes, how do you   achieve that?  

 

Paul: We know where we are coming from; we did not grow up in Lagos, We spent virtually all our lives in Jos; we are just three years old in Lagos. Where we are from, there are a lot of things we don’t do like they do in Lagos. We try to avoid those things that we used to read about people in Lagos during the days we were in Jos. We know the family we come from; we came a long way that was very rough and we don’t intend to forget that.

Paul: One unusual thing about P-Square is that we don’t hang out; anytime you come to our house you will find us. We made sure we had everything that might take us out inside the house; we have our studio, our gym and everything we need right here. You can only get scandals when you hang out too much.

How religious is P-Square?



Peter: We are very very religious; we are Catholics. Our mother is a minister and we don’t joke with the word of God. The problem we have now is that we distract people whenever we go to church.

Paul: For example, when we were still residing at Illupeju, we had to start going to night mass instead of morning mass because of the attention we create in people but yet they always turn to look at us. Due to this problem, we find it hard to attend our friend’s weddings because we usually become the centre of attraction and it isn’t fair to the celebrants.

Talking about wedding now, are you guys into a relationship and when is it likely you may walk down the altar.



Peter: We are in relationships but we are not really ready to walk down the altar.


Paul: No, I am not ready now.



We have seen music stars trying their hands in acting, setting up clothing labels and so on,  is  P-Square likely to follow suit?  


Peter: P-Square for now is all about music. We would like to go into all that but we want to focus on our music now.

Are you saying if you are given a role in a top Nollywood movie, you wouldn’t think about it?



Paul: They have been coming and I am not interested. First of all I will like to say that Nollywood needs to step up on their game when it comes to the quality of movies they do. I know they are portraying the culture but it seems they are not moving to the next level. Music in Nigeria has gone up to a level, some Nigerian musicians have won top international awards, Nollywood should follow suit because they have the potential.


How do you give back to the society in terms of charity, are you thinking about setting up a foundation?



Peter, I am very scary of foundations due to the fact that some people use it to get money from government. We help people passionately. There are times we will see someone on TV who needs help, we call the station and get the details and go meet the person personally. It’s just we don’t want to make noise about all these because it is a thing of the mind.



What advice do you have for up coming artistes?

Paul: Be passionate about what you are doing; don’t go into it because of the money but because of the passion.

Peter: Love what you are doing and money will come.



You appear different these days unlike in the past, what is the reason?   

Paul: I started growing on dreads to make people able to distinguish between the two of us.



Out of all the awards you have gotten, which one stands out?

Paul: We have had numerous awards but the one that we are very passionate about is the one that came from one nursery school. They called us not to perform but to collect the award. What marvelled us was that they performed all our songs on stage.


Your mother said that her earlier dreams were for one of you to become a reverend father and the other a doctor, would you guys realize this dream for her?  



Peter: We don’t know. They say man proposes and God disposes. I don’t really know.

Paul: Yes, she always tells me that I will be a reverend father but I don’t know.


She also mentioned longing to do a song together with you, will you oblige her yearning?



l: Yes we will do it but we will not do it as P-Square, it may have to be with Bro. Peter and Paul.

 

As football lovers which clubs are your  favourite?



Peter: Chelsea because na there Mikel dey.



Special Thanks to Ahaoma Kanu

Photo Source Weekendride TV3 Cable
weekendride_tv3@yahoo.com

They sure have come a long way. keep it up guys.

i wish i could marry both of them

Do people still listen to P Square? i thought they died or something. . .

P-square drawing by google rated Nigerian best Artist and lagos reknown portrait artist (Ayeola Ayodeji Awizzy)