Ekene Nworah, known on stage as Ekene Music, describes himself like this:
“I’m a guitarist, and I tell stories when I play.”
Ekene sees people as “citizens of the world” and his music centers on the shared humanity that connects us across borders, languages, and traditions.
The human condition is at the heart of the first Ekene & Friends Experience on Saturday, October 3 at the Monterey Museum of Art - La Mirada. The curated, live performance will feature Ekene and his band, plus three other artists who will all showcase their original music, from West African melodies to classical strings.
For Ekene, his story begins more than 7,000 miles away, in Nigeria.
KAZU’s Erika Mahoney interviewed him in KAZU’s Green Room.
Erika Mahoney (EM): Tell me a little bit about your childhood.
Ekene Nworah (EN): Oh, growing up in Nigeria, man. I grew up just like most kids will. We speak English in Nigeria, of course, and I went to school, Western kind of education. But, we had more community growing up. I lived in a town that was in east Nigeria, Onicha. And yeah, I remember the kids like it was yesterday.
EM: How old were you when you picked up a guitar?
EN: Oh my goodness, I think I was a teenager. I didn't start out with the guitar. My first intrigue was music, generally, and the embodiment of music. And then I had someone show me something on the organ in an Anglican church. I then met the first guitarist that wowed me, and I said, "This is my instrument." The instrument spoke to me because I was thinking, "What am I gonna play? The bass? What do I want to give my time to?" And the guitar called me, and I picked it.
EM: When you feel called by an instrument, does it come easy, the learning… of the instrument? Or did you still have to put in a lot of time to learn the chords and learn how to play?
EN: Yes. You have to always give time to something you love. So there's no way out of it. You can't escape it. Whether you're training to play classically or you're self-trained, if you love what you're doing, you have to give time to it. So the calling is one thing, then you get into the world that you are called, right? And then you have to explore that world, swim in it, make yourself better, share music with other people, learn from them, and, you know, it's a journey.
That journey brought Ekene to Monterey in 2017 when he began studying at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. And Ekene’s first impression of Monterey?
EN: Cold. It was cold.
EM: It's cold. I know everyone thinks well… California, it's gonna be warm and sunny. No. No, it's gray.
EN: And that kind of cold, I had not seen it before. I even wrote a song then. I said, "The sun is shining, but I cannot even see it."
EM: I wanna hear that one.
EN: But yeah, it's been, um... I've acclimatized. I love it. I see the newcomers now too in the cold, and, you know, it's, it's a beautiful place to be. Yeah.
EM: Would you say this is your home?
Ekene: I love Monterey. I love the history. I think I could call it home if I look at it from the health perspective. It's a beautiful topography or climate or whatever is happening here, the magic. I would feel so bad if I had to visit this place and I didn't live here.
So I think that we are citizens of the world, and I'm beginning to adjust and accept this place as home, my new home.
EM: How do you feel about the music scene locally?
I think that it is going to get better, like everything in the world. We keep trying to make things get better. I think that Monterey has a great potential. If you look back at the history of the place for the kind of concerts that have been hosted here, be it in the '60s or whenever, people still have that nostalgia of whatever has happened here, and the land never forgets. So I think that the land is pregnant, and it's up to us as artists to be a good midwife.
Ekene hopes the first-ever Ekene and Friends Experience is just the beginning of something new for Monterey’s music scene.
EN:The reason behind the show or why we are doing it is because we just thought that there needs to be a platform for original singer-songwriters to present their work on the peninsula, and so this is that bridge. We are starting it, and we hope that it's gonna become something strong. It's gonna be annually… the event, and this one is gonna be at the Monterey Museum of Art, La Mirada venue. We have artists that are performing four different acts, and we have artists coming out of town too to support the backing band. It's gonna be a night of just, um, fun and feeling your humanity.
EM: Recently, what has been your human experience? What are some things happening in your world that make you feel connected?
EN: I think I'm just going through fatherhood right now and finding out that it is less talked about in America, or in the world. So I really am privileged to be one. I have a beautiful three-year-old. I have a beautiful wife, too, full of soul. So it's beautiful to watch another human being grow and see the world they grow in and how we have kept or unkept it.
EM: Is there anything in parenting that is making you revisit or rethink parts of your own childhood and wanting to parent differently?
Well, I just, I admire the fact that I'm privileged to be there for my kid. I know that a lot of people are not there literally by time and we have to work. I still find it hard. So I think that I'm always thinking that, you know, society should always be thinking on how to create more time for parents to spend more time with their kids.
EM: Is there a lot of singing and music in your house?
EN: A lot of singing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
EM: I love that.
EN: We're a music house.
The Ekene & Friends Experience features Ekene alongside Nicola Reilly on violin, president & CEO of the Monterey Symphony; Azi Fedoui on guitar; and Erin with an E on guitar and bass.
Ekene’s band includes Casey Fraser on guitar, Sweesly Maak on keys, Seansi on guitar, and Ju Drum on drums.
It’s Saturday, October 3rd, at the Monterey Museum of Art’s La Mirada. Doors open at 5 p.m. with music from 6 to 9 p.m.