A CONVERSATION WITH... mudi sama
Missed Reading and Leeds 2025? We got your back with our 13 artists to watch. Next up is Mudi Sama, a Nigerian-British artist who’s exploring complex themes through indie rock. Listen to his latest EP, Will I Make It Out Alive? now!
Hi, my name is Mudi Sama. I'm a Black indie rock alternative artist. British-born and I'm from Nigeria. I moved here when I was 17 and I've been here for 9 years. I wanna keep making rock music for as long as I live, you know? That's it. Please listen to my EP that just came out two weeks ago: Will I Make It Out Alive? That's how I'd like to introduce myself. Oh, and I'm a music lover.
What drew you to rock music?
This is funny. FIFA. I know a lot of people say it, but FIFA. It was FIFA 2004 and my mom had come to the UK and got me a PS2. She bought FIFA with it, which was the only game I wanted. On the game, there were The Stone Roses, Radiohead, and bands like that. It was so interesting, so I went on a deep dive from there. After Radiohead came Block Party and Kid Cudi. And Kid Cudi dropped this album, Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven, which is my favourite album of all time. He also dropped this album with Dot Da Genius called WZRD, which I have as a tattoo. That’s when rock became a thing for me. By the time this happened, I moved here. And then I met this guy who introduced me to the Chili Peppers. After the Chili Peppers, I knew I wanted to make music. It’s a bit messy, but stay with me for it.
Are there any other ways that you feel like your culture, your identity, and/or your upbringing show up in your music? Do you see them as separate?
I don't want to keep them separate. Not at all, it’s100% part of me. It comes out more with how I pronounce words. My accent’s mixed with my Nigerian accent, for the most part. Sometimes I'll just say things differently, and then the producer I work with, Jamie Randall, will say, ‘We're just gonna leave it like that, because that’s how you say it anyway.’
I would love to share more of my culture and my music moving forward because I feel like sometimes I get a bit derivative of what’s come before, which every rock artist does. I want to be a bit less derivative. I feel like my culture and things I love about where I'm from will come out more in my future music.
But right now, that the heart in it is where we’re at right now. And my heart is Nigerian. Coming from Nigeria, you saw Linkin Park and things like that on TV. We had MTV and this thing called Trace, but it was mostly pop tunes. You had to really search to get rock music so it was harder back then. That's why I can't give a full answer. I feel like I'm still trying to reach for something that felt so far away from me for so long.
When people listen to your music, what do you want them to get from it?
Oh, easy. What I'm trying to pass across is that you're not the only person who's feeling this. In ‘End Of The World’, the lyrics are simple. Do you ever feel these things? If you ever feel any of these things, then here I am. I feel these things. It’s perfectly fine if you don’t feel these things. Same thing with ‘Jealous Type.’ I'm not a jealous type. I hate that I'm the jealous type. I shouldn't be like this. But I am this way, you know? I take a lot of influence from grunge lyrics in music when it comes to my lyrics. Very short songs, sparse lyrics, and very straight to the point. Sometimes people classify that as not being a good writer, but to me, that’s the best thing ever. People can find something to relate to.
What’s a lyric or verse that you’re most proud of in your songs?
‘Ten’, which is my favourite song of mine right now. It’s one off my latest project, look at me doing promo. It starts with ‘I get happy for a day, then I burn out. Feeling sick and washed away, life’s a doghouse.’ If anything could encapsulate my life, all you need is those 4. Every time you do something to get better, it gets better, then something else comes, and it’s like ‘woah, life is a doghouse.’
Even though I wrote that two years ago, people still message me to say they love it or they’re listening to it, so I listen to it again. And nothing’s changed, I'm still cooked.
Speaking of favourite songs: we do a thing at festivals called ‘Smash, Marry, Kill’ for your own songs.
I’d smash ‘Bad Life’, because it sounds like music that I'd want to make for the rest of my life. It has grunge, pop elements, shoegaze elements, and there’s a ton of things I did on there that I don’t think I stuck the landing on. But it's my first EP, so I've got a lot of time to do better next time. ‘Bad Life’ is like a world that I love. I’d marry ‘End Of The World’ because you marry someone who wants to keep you going. You want to keep them going. And a song telling me whatever I'm going through is not the end of the world, that I can keep going, that I’m gonna be alright? That’s the song I’d need to marry. When times are tough, you’re gonna need that.
I’d kill ‘Let Go’ because I wrote that at a time when I wasn't sure about relationships. I had situationships, I had things, I had people I was seeing. Because sometimes, you end up falling for someone and they end up falling for you. When you're with them after a while, you realise what you like and don’t like about them. You realise what doesn’t work, but you love them so much and you stick around longer than you’re supposed to. It's hard to let go. I don’t think I portrayed that feeling good enough in that song, looking back now.
That was one of my first ones that I wrote. I can hear it, because I wouldn't do that now with all the things I'm writing now. I wouldn't just do me that way. Everything was so simple.
And I wouldn't do that now. Now it needs to be weirder. There's a certain element of weirdness that rock stars have and ‘Let Go’ doesn't have that. But it does have a nice guitar part and it does have some nice vocals.
What is the question you wish you got asked in interviews but haven't?
What's my favourite fashion brand? I'm so into fashion, and yet no one’s ever asked me. It's always Martine Rose. She's a Black British designer who makes things that highlight Black culture. But at the same time, she’s tapping into her Britishness in it. It shows we are not separate. We are all one. I wish I had more things by her.
A question that got left for you by South Arcade was where your name came from. Like is it your artist name, a play on your personal name, or something different?
My name is Mudiaga. And Sama is from my love for anime.
So, my mom and siblings call me Mudi. Back in Nigeria, I was called Felix. That's my dad's name and it’s on my passport as well. When I came to the UK and I didn’t want to be called that anymore, so I changed to Mudiaga, which is the first name on my passport anyway. Sama is from Naruto, which was my favourite anime at the time, and there's this sensei called Jiraiya in it. You call your teacher ‘sama’ and I liked that. I had it been my Instagram name for so long and now I just roll with it. I love it.
What’s a question you’d leave for the next artist?
If you could learn any language and speak it fluently, what would it be? It’d be Spanish for me, because I am learning it right now. Estoy muy cansado.
Finally, what's a moment of joy you've experienced so far that you'd really like to share?
Hearing the first chord from my guitarist at any gig we play. We’ve played nine gigs so far. He plays an F# to start because we do an intro from Nirvana’s ‘Breed’. We ripped that off because the first note of my first song of the set is also an F#. We play their riff and then go straight into ‘Safehouse’. Hearing the drone of the F chord, then my drummer clicking in the back, and getting the 1234 in my in-ears, and then we're in.