Bassist,
Producer
& Sound Engineer
ABOUT
If you were in the Nigerian Music scenes in the 90's, Femi Sanya is a name you would have heard of
as he was producing and playing the bass guitar behind afro-juju music pioneer, Sir Shina Peters and other prominent artists at the time. Soon after, an international tour landed him in the United States where he went on to tour as the bassist behind musical legends such as O.J Ekemode, Victor Essiet, Lucky Dube and Ohio Players just to name a few. It was during his touring days in the early 2000s that he met Janelia Adetokunbo McNair, a Nigerian-American singer, and together they formed the afrobeats/world fusion band Janeliasoul of which he is currently the music director and bass guitarist.
Femi Sanya is a dynamic musician and multifaceted artist; from leading his own traditional Yoruba juju music band at Nigerian parties in the United States, to perfecting his craft as a music producer of several music genres to include gospel, funk, reggae and world music; as well as producing various independent and local artists in his home studio. In addition to being a bassist, he is proficient in other musical instruments such as keyboards, guitar and drums and is often referred to as a "One-man Band" in the Nigerian-American music circle. Femi Sanya is a certified sound engineer, he owns a sound company and has been doing sound reinforcement installation and maintenance for many churches, event venues and organizations in the DMV area to date.
His two latest projects are Xtracurricular Organization (XO), a 501(c)(3) organization that provides free music education to inner city youth and the hot new single 'Bedroom Magician'. Femi Sanya puts his juju music vibes and recording artist talents on full display in this song which he also produced and his third vocal collaboration with Janeliasoul. On this track, he also plays what has been called a wicked bass solo by his peers. Femi said "it is not common for the bass guitarist to take a solo in an afrobeats or amapiano track. However, I do it on stage all the time, I consider myself an innovator and it's time we bring that to the studio and the streets." As the single continues to gain momentum in the afrobeats world, Femi Sanya is rehearsing Janelisoul band for their next tour where you can catch him performing live with the rest of the band.
"Femi is a easy to work with at all levels. He is a teacher, he simplifies things no matter hard or technical you think it is"
Niyi Oluyinka