Temitope Olabode

Musician

I was born in the town of Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria where I lived up till 2012. I had my primary, secondary and tertiary education in Nigeria, bagging myself a chemical engineering graduate degree from the prestigious Ladoke Akintola
University of Technology, Oyo State Nigeria. I worked briefly at PZ Cussons PLC before coming to Swansea University to study an MSc Chemical Engineering degree in 2012. I currently work with the Prison Service, a decision I made and always happy I made after several failed attempts in the engineering industry. Right from the age of 5, I have developed a great passion for music, starting out as a drummer, then moving on to the piano and vocals later on. The works of Aaron Neville and Kim Burrell inspire me the most due to my love for jazz music. Growing up in Nigeria is a great benefit as a musician as there is this trend within musicians to always learn to play every style of music. We take most of the time learning the
western contemporary music, and African music comes inbuilt in our systems, as such my versatility as a musician which helped me work with diverse bands in Swansea, from gospel to African and jazz groups, as both a vocalist, pianist and
music director.

I have been the music director and pianist of the Victory choir which is a gospel choir in Swansea since 2012. The choir has been an ever-present performer at the Black History Month celebration events in Wales amongst other events. Also since
2012 due to my love for afro-jazz, I am also working with the prestigious Jazzy Africana band owned by Gbubemi Amas, while also working with several other jazz groups in Swansea on a part-time basis. Having started work in a prison in 2018, I
started the busking team within my prison where prisoners can play some music on the hallways while others go to different activities, this project helped us to achieve the in-house music records which now functions properly as a music centre for
prisoners. Due to the lockdown, I have just launched my home recording studio which is now up and running. This is helping me to work on my own compositions which will be out in a short while, also making soundtracks and producing several other
musicians and vocalists whose works I will be uploading as well. I have currently started with my gospel choir and it has been a surreal journey getting to record people even when they cannot physically come into the studio. I am also working
on video productions, as such I produce the music and create the video. I am hoping the piece of music I send out from my music kitchen will be a source of inspiration and hope to everyone out there.