Five Questions With Tonye

We had the opportunity to have a chat with Vancouver based artist, Tonye during our newest Five Questions With. Find out all about this up & coming artist, who has also been recently signed to 604 Records and has her debut single, “Villain” coming out on February 10, 2017, so stay tuned for that!

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Tonye and I am a Vancouver based Singer, Songwriter and and instrumentalist . I was born in London, England, to first generation African immigrant parents (Nigeria and Zimbabwe). My family relocated to small town Canada when I was 12 years old, and almost immediately, we were welcomed by the kind and generous souls of the towns we moved to. Moving from the UK, to small towns like Prince Albert, SK, Dawson Creek, BC, – and then packing it all in for the big city thrills of Vancouver, really gave me a unique perspective on the diversity of this incredible country and its people!

Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.

My musical and writing style is simple – I GOTTA GROOVE! I grew up listening to R&B, Funk, Soul, Jazz, and more, all courtesy of my amazing Father and his record collection – and all my diverse musical influences from Michael Jackson, Chaka Khan, Prince, Megadeth –  have crept into my own style a lot. My new single, Villain is a funky and fun-filled journey through the confusion of relationship absolutely wrong – but you gotta keep going back for more! Ladies I know you feel me!

Seriously though – my close friend and fellow artist graciously built me a beautiful recording space so I can record from home – and it’s been amazing being free and comfortable I’m my home while practicing my art.

Do you have any upcoming shows? For someone who has yet to see you live, how would you explain your live performance?

I’ve got some great shows coming up in the next little bit including the Song & Surf Festival at Big Fish Lodge in Port Renfrew, BC (Saturday Feb 11 @ 4PM), I will also be appearing at the Black Arts Expo in Toronto, and then back to Vancouver for the “Together We Can” fundraiser at Imperial Vancouver on March 5th

If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?

If I could suggest any song for someone to hear – I would say this. Open your phone, go to your calendar, set a reminder for February 10th and when the alarm sounds, head straight to www.tonyemusic.com! You’ll hear my fresh new single, as well as rummage through the rest of my catalogue.

Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so who are your current favourite Canadian bands/ artists?

OH GOD. WHERE DO I START……..Definitely my all time favourite Vancouver band is Star Captains, but I also LOVE POMO, Yukon Blonde, Fake Shark, Colin Janz and Half Moon Run. Musical heroes of mine who have transplanted to Vancouver include Shaun Verreault and Dutch Robinson, but it’s the prairies that provide us magical talent like Royal Canoe, Grand Analog and The Bros Landreth (Joey Landreth in particular). Back to Vancouver for a sec – I love my hiphop and R&B so I have to salute three of my favourite Vancouver MC/Producers – Cityreal & Brevner – and the unique mammal known as Moka Only.

West Coast Is The best COASSSSSSST.

Connect with Tonye:
Website
Facebook
Twitter