1. What's your name, what do you do and a fun fact about yourself?
My name is Shalom Ononuju
I work in digital design and UX
I don't eat prawns in fried rice
I used to binge k-dramas
2. How did your journey as a creative start?
I was spending time with God with questions and repentance if I'm honest and I felt some songs coming to my spirit. I didn't know how to approach songwriting and production and I felt should just connect with some creative communities and just be obedient to God. That's how I came across The Twelfth Collective songwriting event last year on instagram and decided to sign up.
3. Who are some of your influences as a creative?
I would definitely say contemporary worship and 90's worship music like Don Moen, Keith Staten, Alvin Slaughter as well as some of my other main favourites Jeremy Riddle, Steffany Gretzinger, Harvest.
4. Tell us about your new music release? What's the vision behind it and the story behind the song?
My newest and first release "So Deserving" comes from a journey of moving from religion to the gospel and understanding what purpose really means as a Christian - which is seeing who Jesus is. After living for what I could do whether it's work in church or at a job company I felt God leading me to rest in my faith in the gospel and do the work of the gospel. The song comes from the motivation to know what I already have in Christ and to live for it.
i was in the early stages of finally letting go and letting God's gospel shape my spiritual walk and my focus and that's where this song came from. Quiet times of frustration and confusion with life turned to a focus on Jesus and a conviction.
5. How did you find the writing, recording, and post production process ?
It was a huge learning curve and it really taught me patience and faith. I am new to songwriting, production and mixing and it was a time where my disposable income was taken up by unexpected but necessary (and once in a lifetime) costs. I also wanted to have a work life balance but had to accept that there was a healthy need to sit down and persevere towards the purpose of creating the atmosphere that I believe the name of Jesus in a song could have. It was really enjoyable but had a lot of steps to it. To summarise, I had to figure out my process creatively and resourcefully - and I just did my best. I started with a voice note, then I made a google document of lyrics and chords that I used an AI chord tool to figure out (I don't play by ear fluently). Then I got Ableton software to learn to produce my music whilst buying the rest of the equipment month by month, after deciding to produce it fully myself I learned to compose and layer instruments. Finally, the toughest part was learning how to mix the song to sound good with some helpful tips from a producer friend of mine who gave me some initial lessons. After some months I could handle mixing the first version. Some days I thought I would never finish but God was pushing me on!
6. Did you ever deal with doubt it fear whilst on this creative journey ?
For sure, I didn't think I could have something good enough to produce, I feared that it would be really bad and people would smile and say it was good but never listen to it. Also financially I wasn't certain of whether my strategy to produce and mix it myself would pay off, since I hadn't released anything I had no proof that it was cost effective until I could say I had done it and its good enough and gets the atmosphere across well. I would get frustrated and doubtful. In those times I would have to rely on God's voice and he would give me wisdom and comforting prophecies like " In 2 weeks it will sound good" when I was in a rut, His voice really kept me going and owe it all to Him!
If you are dealing with DOUBT as a creative please click the link here to our Instagram and go through the praying creative series to stir up your faith!
7. How did you ensure to keep God the centre of it all ?
It was really a work in my heart that God did, where I had to practice obeying him to sit down and do something. I continually struggled to understand. Significantly, keeping God at the centre was in the dialogue and sensitivity to his heart for the music directing how I directed it. I had to surrender my priorities to God. That looked like stopping to pray or ask God questions, but most of all worshipping and cutting out any bits that did not encourage the existing flow that he invited me into when I was given the song. Stopping when I was working to remember that worship was the key thing and worshipping to figure out where the song should go was all that I really needed. To give my heart to God and not what I thought would be cool or show cool skills. Personally it was choosing moments of spontaneous worship and a music composition that created the atmosphere of surrender over what my flesh would have wanted - which wouldn't have satisfied me or anyone else.
8. What advice would you give to someone who also wants to release and write music or start a creative project but doesn't know where or how to start?
My advice would be first to work out your song in practice and go as far as you can with your vision which is really His. So it might look like spending time (with God ideally) to write out your song in a document and try to sing or play some chords and build it up as much as you can. It's important to know where you want to go with a song and to take responsibility for that journey doing it with the Lord.
Secondly, it's beautiful to work with others and learn from teachers. Just make sure you endeavour to do it with clarity and know what you're asking for. It's good to have seasoned people around you, just know that they are not mind readers!
When it comes to finances and time, be persistent and flexible. You don't need to have everything at once to make progress. On the contrary, progress is about showing up, not how much money you spend. The more you practice the more you can practice spending money on projects wisely and get the best bang for your buck for making songs. Practically, if you want to write and produce, get the equipment for composition and save for what you need to mix. One step at a beautiful time. Use free plugins and tips as much as you can. Patience is key. Don't give up and let the Holy Spirit be your company and comforter!
9. What can we expect to see from you in the future?
More music on the gospel! I'll be releasing a song on His righteousness soon, hopefully this month!
10. Where can we find your music?
Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube under "Elohimsong", you'll usually see it featuring Shalom!
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