Hello, I Am Dwin, the Stoic
Edwin Madu is the Editor in Chief at Zikoko. His musical alter ego, Dwin, the Stoic, is a singer-songwriter and composer based in Lagos. In this edition of Hello I Am, he discusses the origin story of Go With Me.
I love talking about Go With Me because it’s one of those songs that could have been something entirely different. When I first wrote that song, it was with the same melody but a very different theme. It was originally called “Wings” and it started with the same lines, “Are you asleep? Are you awake? There’s a feeling I can’t shake.” I recorded the guitars to this original version. It was a very sad song, by the way. It was a song about two birds; one of them ups and leaves, and the other one sings a chorus that ends with the line, “But how can you fly when you clipped my wings?”
The night before I was to do a proper recording of Wings, I looked at the song and thought, “No, let’s try a happy song this time. Let’s write about travelling.” This was in 2018 and I’d done a trip to Ouida. By the time the song dropped in April 2019, I had done another trip to Rwanda. My wanderlust around this period was at an all-time high and I was in love. It felt like the perfect song to write. So, I sat with the lyrics to Wings and decided to keep the first three lines. But instead of being an intro to a song about hurt and betrayal, I figured it would be good to frame it like you were disturbing your lover’s sleep, but for a good cause - to tell them how much you love them and would love to see the world with them. I listened to the recording of the guitars over and over and just let the words flow.
A lot of songs go through this process where they are one thing at first, and then they become another thing along the way. It’s no biggy. A part of me thinks I may just still make Wings so people can see what can happen with a song.
The pre-chorus was interesting for me because it felt very personal. I did dream aloud and want to see the world, but I got older and the world has been a mess and bills have started to stress me. So I’d say this part came straight from my heart.
I wrote the entire song in about an hour and then recorded the next day.
Go With Me was also a statement of sorts. I love to write ballads. I think they allow me to tell my most vivid stories. But I didn’t want to be only known as the guy whose music you could cry to. Don’t get me wrong, a chunk of my music still leans more towards melancholy, but I knew that wasn’t all there was to me as an artist. My first album was aptly titled “Heavy Heart” and I absolutely love the project because I’d always wanted to hear songs about those things we feel but never talk about - from questions to God to dealing with death and heartbreak. But Go With Me was a departure from those themes. And just for the record, music coming from me will be a healthy mix of happy and sad going forward.
Interestingly, Go With Me wasn’t supposed to be all these things. I was working on writing for my band’s debut album, and releasing Go With Me was supposed to buy me some time while I finished the project (which eventually came out in 2020, it’s called The Cost Of Our Lives by Ignis Brothers). But then it went so far, and introduced the rest of my music to new fans. I remember being worried that the song would tank and nobody would care because it was scheduled to drop on the same day Beyonce’s Homecoming was released on Netflix. I should say here that this was not intentional. You usually schedule releases weeks in advance and it’s a hard thing to change on short notice. But the song dropped and while people did talk about the absolute wonder that was Homecoming, they still found time for me and my happy song.
Apart from being my most streamed song on Spotify, I love that people tie happy memories to it as well. You mentioned playing it in Ubers with your friends, and it totally warms my heart because that is precisely the context in which I want this song to be sung. With love, and on the move.
You can listen to Go With Me here, and Dwin, the Stoic’s latest single, Streets, here.
This is so inspiring!