Nigerian singer-songwriter Mich Straaw joins Music Custodian for an intimate conversation exploring creativity, surrender, faith, integrity and the making of Beautiful Hearts.
From the Editor
Every so often, Music Custodian encounters conversations that resist being reduced to promotional interviews.
This was one of them.
What began as a discussion around Beautiful Hearts gradually evolved into a thoughtful reflection on creativity, surrender, faith and the quiet discipline required to build a meaningful artistic life.
Rather than edit Mich Straaw’s reflections into shorter soundbites, we chose to preserve the pace of the conversation as faithfully as possible.
Because some stories deserve room to breathe.
— Jordan Abiola Bolade
About Beautiful Hearts
Release
Beautiful Hearts
Artist
Mich Straaw
Genre
Alternative Soul / Afro-Indie / Singer-Songwriter
Listen Below
Some artists spend years trying to make music fit into their lives.
For Mich Straaw, music quietly reshaped his life instead.
Long before audiences began discovering his work, before more than seventy records and before he found himself reflecting on grey hairs appearing in his beard, music had already begun carving out a path that he never intended to follow.
He speaks about surrender almost more than success.
About integrity before popularity.
About love before achievement.
About allowing songs to reveal themselves instead of forcing them into existence.
Our conversation began casually, as most conversations between old friends often do, before naturally unfolding into something much deeper. We spoke about childhood, grief, creativity, artistic identity, spirituality, legacy, and the quiet discipline required to continue creating long after the excitement of beginning has faded.
What followed wasn’t simply a conversation about a new record.
It became a meditation on becoming.
Conversation Snapshot
Guest: Mich Straaw
Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Occasion: Beautiful Hearts
Themes: Creativity • Faith • Identity • Love • Legacy • Surrender • Songwriting
Read Time: 18–22 minutes
Before Music
Music Custodian: Before the music, who was Mich Straaw?
Mich Straaw:
Before music, I was just a quiet kid.
Very introverted. Very shy.
I loved playing whenever I had the opportunity because I was always very scared of my mum. Unless somebody gave permission, I was mostly inside my own head, imagining different worlds.
Cowboy films. Indian films. Just creating scenarios in my imagination.
Looking back now, I realise I was already living creatively long before I knew creativity would become my career.
Mich Straaw, Custodian Conversations.
“My voice didn’t find me. My voice found me.”
Growing Up With Music
Music Custodian: You’ve spoken about being raised by your mother and how she introduced you to a wide range of music. Looking back now, how much of today’s artist was formed during those years?
Mich Straaw: I don’t think I realised how much those moments mattered. Music was simply always there.
Nobody thought I could sing. Nobody was grooming me to become an artist. The music was simply part of the room. Like good food. Like home.
There were periods where we didn’t have much. There were days we barely had food, but somehow the music was always present.
Looking back now, I realise those were deposits I couldn’t understand at the time.
When Music Became Unavoidable
Music Custodian: Was there a moment when music stopped being something you loved and became something you knew you had to pursue?
Mich Straaw: Around 2015 or 2016. I’d returned to Nigeria after living in the UK for almost eight years.
I didn’t come back with excitement. I came back because life required it. I’d always loved listening to music. My playlists were obsessive. I cared about album artwork, metadata, sequencing.
Then DJing expanded that love. Electronic music. House. Progressive sounds.
By 2016, music became the only real thing I had left. Everything else felt uncertain. Music didn’t.
“Sometimes you don’t create songs. Sometimes songs choose to arrive through you.”
“Music Found Me”
Music Custodian: Many artists spend years searching for their voice. When did you finally discover yours?
Mich Straaw: If I’m being honest…
My voice found me.
My very first song, Yours Sincerely, was never meant to come out.
A friend heard it and said:
“Don’t release this. I want this song for myself.”
That was the first time I saw somebody genuinely treasure something I’d created.
It encouraged me to keep going.
When I came into music, I came with complete surrender.
I didn’t arrive saying,
“This is exactly who I want to become.”
I simply said:
“Since you’ve chosen me, lead me.”
That’s still how I make music today.
The songs tell me when they’re ready.
Not the other way around.
Beautiful Hearts
Music Custodian: What sparked Beautiful Hearts?
Mich Straaw: A melody.
It was a download.
I was in church when the melody arrived.
I voice-noted it immediately.
Later that evening I opened my equipment, found the chords that matched what I’d heard in my head and simply followed it.
“I thought I was writing love songs. Looking back now, I realise God was already speaking to me.”
The words came afterwards.
I didn’t write the song.
The song unfolded.
It took about three hours from beginning to end.
Production.
Writing.
Vocals.
Everything.
Sometimes you don’t create songs.
Sometimes songs choose to arrive through you.
“The Song Sounded Good… But It Didn’t Sound God.”
Perhaps the most revealing part of Mich’s creative process came when describing how he almost over-produced the record.
He laughs while remembering it.
“I kept trying different vocal takes”.
Different arrangements.
Different layers.
It sounded good.
But it didn’t sound God.
Eventually I deleted everything.
Left the simplest version.
That was the record.”
It’s an extraordinary reflection on restraint – one that says as much about maturity as it does musicianship.
“The song sounded good, but it didn’t sound God.”
On Faith
One of the most moving moments during our conversation came when Mich reflected on how he only recently realised Christ had quietly been speaking through songs he’d written years earlier.
“I thought I was writing love songs.
Looking back now…
I wasn’t.
Those songs were letters to myself.
They were conversations God was already having with me before I understood what they meant.”
He pauses.
Then smiles.
“When people ask me how I’ve survived this long…
I genuinely cannot explain it.
Every other thing kept closing.
The music never did.”
The Weight of Time
Mich recently wrote about noticing grey hairs appearing in his beard.
Rather than seeing them as signs of age, he sees them as evidence.
Evidence of endurance.
“I’ve realised the truest thing a person can ever become is themselves. Not the version created by scarcity. Not the version shaped by expectations. Your actual self. Money changes your circumstances. Integrity builds your foundation.”
“Integrity may not pay the way you want it to pay, but it gives you something money never can.”
Surrender
Throughout our conversation one word kept resurfacing.
Surrender.
Not resignation.
Not defeat.
Surrender.
Mich believes every meaningful creative life eventually reaches a point where force no longer works.
“You surrender to the melody.
You surrender to the words.
You surrender to the thing calling you.
Without surrender…
I don’t think I would still be here.”
Legacy
Music Custodian: What does legacy mean to you today?
Mich doesn’t hesitate.
“Leaving your best on the table.”
Not awards.
Not numbers.
Not status.
Simply leaving everything you were capable of creating behind for somebody else to encounter.
Eventually he adds something quieter.
“I just hope people remember love.
And grace.”
“Leaving your best on the table—that’s legacy.”
Rapid Fire With Mich Straaw
One Album That Has Changed Your Life
Rage Against the Machines. I think there’s the one album where there’s a burning guy on the cover.
One Lesson Faith Has Taught You
Peace.
One Thing Younger Mich Straaw Would Be Proud Of Today
Boldness.
One Thing Older Mich Straaw Is Still Learning
Learning itself.
One Word That Describes Beautiful Hearts
LOVE.
One Thing The World Needs More Of Right Now
Grace.
If You Could Leave Readers With One Thought?
Be true to yourself. The truest thing a person can ever do is be true to themselves.
“My voice didn’t find me. My voice found me.”
MUSIC CUSTODIAN’S CLOSING REFLECTION
There are artists who chase moments. Then there are artists who patiently build bodies of work capable of surviving them.
Speaking with Mich Straaw feels less like interviewing a musician and more like listening to someone document the slow work of becoming.
His latest single, Beautiful Hearts, may have inspired this conversation, but it ultimately became something much larger: an exploration of surrender, purpose, faith, integrity and the unseen forces that quietly shape a creative life.
In an era where speed is often mistaken for progress and visibility for impact, Mich offers a different proposition – that the most meaningful careers are rarely rushed, and that sometimes the greatest act an artist can perform is simply remaining faithful to the work.
That philosophy may never dominate headlines.
But if this conversation is any indication, it just might outlast them.
