Dwin, The Stoic Writes Songs Made For More Than Your Headphones

Dwin, The Stoic (Dwin) writes songs that could easily be mistaken for lines from a book. Over the years, he’s given us stories that reflect reality, emotions, and a visual world that stays long after the music stops.

It makes sense, then, that his music has found a home in film and television. From Skinny Girl in Transit and Far From Home to Disney’s MADU and, most recently, the Zikoko Life Series. Dwin’s songs have repeatedly found their way onto our screens.

For him, the relationship between music and film is more than just finding a convenient placement. ‘A song can elevate a film’, he says, ‘but a film can also give a song a new meaning for its audience’. In this article, Dwin tells Zikoko about the storytelling philosophy behind his music. Seeing “Beside Me” and “Time Is Money” in the Zikoko Life Series. Dwin, The Stoic, believes stories can make unfamiliar experiences feel deeply personal.

Glad to have you back with us, Dwin. What inspired the lyrics of “Beside Me”?

I wrote the song to simulate how a person might feel at the end of a fight with their partner. Particularly, thinking of the things you wish you’d said. The song starts with “I say to you these words unspoken,” and from those first lines, there is tension implied. To say words that were unspoken means you didn’t want to say them, but you also regret not saying them.

That’s why I really love the use of it in the film Before We Fall Asleep. The moment it was used in is what “Beside Me” was made for. Two lovers share a tense moment and then get a chance to come back together. In the story of the album, they don’t go back to each other, but I’m glad they do in the film.

Did you draw from your own experiences when writing the song?

When I play my music for people, I often hear, “I’ve never felt this thing that you’re describing, but I feel the heaviness.” I have a background in writing fiction, and my lyrics work the same way as any good story. It transports you somewhere else and makes you feel something that you may not have been feeling.

I try to do that when I write too. The tension in the song is not something I have to feel. In fact, when I feel tense, I’m not in the mood to write songs. Overall, I don’t rely only on my experiences while writing songs. I think that would make my music very limited.

“Time is Money” also featured in* A Happy Ending. *How did you feel about both Placements?

Excited. I mean, I’m an Igbo boy, and making “Time Is Money” was very intentional. The character in the Master of Ballads album is very close to me. He’s also an Igbo boy. “Steady” is a song that’s sung entirely in Igbo on that album; “Ifunaya’m” is also on that album.

People often say that Igbo people like money. The character in Time is Money plays into that. He’s likening the time that he thinks is being wasted by the girl he’s chasing to something precious to him, which happens to be money. But he’s also letting her know that the comparison is not to make her feel bad or to inspire guilt. It’s playful. It’s a man going up to the woman he likes and telling her, “Hey, I know you have options, but let me be the one. You’re happy here. Why are we wasting time?”

I love the placement in the film because the scene is set in a bar. People are eating, drinking beer, and it feels very apt for what I imagine for “Time Is Money.” It’s also fitting because the characters are very Igbo.

Despite their differences, what connects “Beside Me” and “Time Is Money”?

“Beside Me” and “Time is Money” are opposites. On one hand, someone is saying, “I couldn’t say the things I wanted to. Now you’ve gone, and I feel bad. I’m sorry, I can’t do this life without you beside me.” On the other hand, someone else is saying, “Hey, talk fast o, if not I will do this life without you”. But then, he’s jesting. In a way where there’s an unspoken ‘ I love you.’ In both cases, the underlying feeling is love, expressed in different ways.

I love the placement of both songs because it captures what I’m trying to make of the music I put on my catalogue. The tagline of my record label, St Claire Records, is ‘Making your life’s soundtrack.’ This speaks to that.

We agree that these songs have been placed perfectly

Yes, they have.

But if you could pick two other songs to replace them, which ones would they be?

The scene where A Happy Ending uses “Time Is Money” shows people drinking, eating, and having fun. I’d replace it with “I Go Nowhere” because it’s the kind of song that you listen to, bop your head, and just have a nice time.

For “Beside Me”, I think “Hold Me Now”. The song says, “There’s much we can worry our heads about, but all I know is here and now”. After the fight, when Tola comes back, Nazo says to him, “It’s hard. You know, this thing is hard,” And the only thing they can say to each other is “we’ll figure this out.” They hold each other, and in that moment they’re good. So I think it’s very fitting.

Is composing music specifically for films something you would be interested in going forward?

Almost every song I’ve written has had some sort of visual story attached to it. And because I have set out to put the story into song, it influences the kind of words I use. Take “Time Is Money,” for example. The playfulness is in the way the words are said. There’s a line where the song says, in Igbo, “Awam Guy”. The best way I can translate that is ‘You’re doing guy for me’. Saying ‘You’re ignoring me’ would not fit because that’s not really what I’m saying. The songs are already strong stories by themselves. I think that is why they work so well for films.

With a film, you must tell a story, and you have to have some sort of coherence or cohesion. In terms of “in this scene, this person says this while the other person says that.” So when a song is brought in, it needs to serve that same purpose. My first film placement happened a few months after the release of my first album. The people working on Season 5 of Skinny Girl in Transit used about eight songs from the 13-track album. That clued me into the fact that I make songs that work well with films. I’ve been leaning into it since then.

How do you feel about seeing stories that you helped bring to Big Cabal on screen and still being part of the storytelling process?

Excited.

In my letter announcing that I would be leaving, I said that what I love most about Zikoko is that they do important work. As people, we get stuck when we think that something in life is happening only to us. James Baldwin expressed this in the best way when he said, ‘I thought my pain was unprecedented in this world until I read a book’. We become a more understanding society when we start to read more stories. That idea is why I’m excited about the work Zikoko does. The fact that we can still collaborate on telling stories in different ways is great. Someone has to hold up a mirror to society, and Zikoko does that.

How have you seen that happen?

Take LGBTQ+ rights for example, Zikoko publishes stories about queer people, and there will always be outrage. But as someone who has been on the back end, I have seen people’s opinions almost change in real time. By the time you’ve read three stories about someone who you believe you’re nothing like. You realize they too have a parent who’s in the hospital. And they can’t really make enough money to get them out of there. They also have a lover who’s cheating on them; it doesn’t matter the gender, it does something to how you think. We start to see that even though we are dealing with life differently, we’re all still dealing with life.

I was able to take the role at Zikoko because I’m passionate about storytelling, and that hasn’t changed. Now, someone who has listened to a song like “Beside Me” may never have felt the tension in the song. But when they feel it, they’ll remember the song and probably go back to it. I’ve had people say that they didn’t understand a particular song until they heard it live, had something happen to them, or saw something that made its meaning hit. Some people will appreciate “Beside Me” more when they see it in this film. It’s why I’m happy to collaborate. I think we should all be working together in some way.

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