A lot to live for

>> The future looks brighter for
Montreal musician Voyce*

Long time coming: Voyce*

By GERARD DEE

It’s been a long road for local singer Voyce*, aka Stephen Ngoka. The McGill electrical engineering graduate has had music—in his case, R&B with an acoustic touch—on his mind ever since leaving his native Nigeria to move to Canada some seven years ago. It was a life-altering decision.

“In Nigeria, I would have just focused on my school and not really thought it was possible to do music,” explains Ngoka, “because in Nigeria musicians don’t really make any money. When I came here, I saw the possibilities. If it wasn’t for coming to Canada and meeting the people that I met, I probably would have let the dream go.”

The dream threatened to turn into a nightmare prior to Ngoka’s first full-length recording, Prelude to Redemption, two years ago. Although two of his songs, “Summer’s Day” and “Sweetie Was a Fake,” had gotten airplay on a couple of local radio stations, he wasn’t happy with the direction his music career was taking. In addition, personal issues were threatening to overwhelm him.

“At that time, I was really depressed, I was having problems with my family, problems at home, school was stressing me out, I had a lot of dark feelings and I wanted to get it out. So I recorded this album, and I put some of the songs on MySpace.”

That album included the song “Take a Pill,” which candidly explored the topic of suicide. “It was really hard for me to write that song. But in the end, I felt that the only way I could get over anything was to just talk about it, and if I couldn’t talk about it, I could sing about it. So I wrote the song ‘Take a Pill,’ which talks about someone who tries to kill himself, and then once he does it he realizes that it was a mistake.

“It’s actually something that happened to me. I tried to kill myself a long time ago, and it was only when I had done it that I said to myself, wow, why am I doing this, maybe things are hard now but I should be grateful for the things in my life.”

Thankfully, Ngoka’s suicide attempt failed. Since then, things have gotten considerably better. His second album, 2007’s Second Trip to Space, and his most recent effort, Acts of Faith, are both more on the positive tip than his debut. And the song “Far Too Long,” included on Acts of Faith, netted him the top prize in the Mix 96 Radiostar writing competition.

“‘Far Too Long’ was about how I’ve been doing this for such a long time, how these people in the industry don’t know anything about you but they tend to say, we know what we’re going to do with you. ‘Far Too Long’ is saying I can do this on my own.”

Ultimately, Ngoka, who also produces a number of local artists, would like to do it on his own full time. But for now his day job still helps pay the bills. “I got a job in engineering, but for me, music is where I really want to be. I’m a Gemini, I love doing both things, but music really resonates strongly with me. It’s my great passion.”

With Kaleena Jay, Nikole Kaye, Mad-i-son,
Leesa Mackey, Donsmoove and more at
Jello Bar tonight, Thursday, March 27, 9 p.m.