Tomisin Akinwunmi is making lucid lemons
Tomisin created a planet of her own, and we're just visitors.
In the third installment of our interview series, cultural curator and experiential designer Tomisin Akinwunmi speaks about transforming creative passions into a business and the impact of leveraging her technology and design background to improve accessibility and transparency in Nigeria’s music industry.
Tomisin Akinwunmi has always been bullish about chasing her dreams.
In her second year of A-Levels in the UK, she started putting together what would become the first iteration of Lucid Lemons, a welcoming space where emerging artists and their fans could commune and find like-minded individuals brought together by the high blood pressure of wrong decisions and booze.
Before Lucid Lemons, she popularly ran a blog on Twitter (now known as X) where she says that she ‘put her friends on’, by sharing Limewire links and weighty MP3s of artists, DJs, and producers that she had grown up with.
She became a patron saint for underground acts, and in the first year of her Product Design degree, she realised that her passion was becoming all-consuming and all-encompassing, leading her to make a judgment call to focus on her dreams full-time.
This meant spending her summer holidays working with friends, navigating approvals and road safety around Muri Okunola Park in the Victoria Island area of Lagos State, all in pursuit of her desire to ensure that good music wasn’t overlooked. The first event, named Lemon Curd, was initially intended to be an open mic event, but people soon caught wind of what she was doing, and the entire night transformed into an unmissable production.
As the size and scope of her dreams and ambitions grew bigger, and more people came down yearly to celebrate with Lucid Lemons and learn about music acts they had never seen before, or had only vaguely heard of, she also found people along her journey ‘whose lives had also been taken up by the industry,’ as she tells it. This made it easier to navigate the naysayers and gatekeepers who were unhappy that a woman was beginning to wield her own power in the music space, all with the help of her friend and loved ones.
Now, as she celebrates over a decade of experience as an event curator, a music programmer, and a product designer, she’s looking back at where it all started and posing questions about the future of the creative ecosystem in Nigeria. “It is so key to evolve—you can’t hold on to the idea that things will stay the same,” she says.
Read an excerpt from our interview and listen to the full episode below.
On turning passion into opportunity.
"I didn’t start Lucid Lemons thinking, ‘oh, I want to make a music company.’ I wanted to be a product designer, but helping people through Lucid Lemons became a passion that overtook my whole life, and I fell in love with it."
On the guilt that comes with choosing a new path
“It's like, but this is not what I was planning, it's such a scary thing. I won’t say that I dealt with it in the best way. It wasn't easy, especially in my first two years. I'm doing something completely different. I had a lot of guilt because I allowed what I was doing to overtake my life in a way that I lost a lot of things. I didn't do very well in my university because I was too busy focusing on this.”
On finding people who believe in your craft
"Finding others whose lives had also been taken up by the industry made it easier. Talking to people who started in banking or architecture but ended up in music helped me realize I wasn’t alone, especially when our parents didn’t understand."
On embracing change and new seasons
"It is so key to evolve—you can’t hold on to the idea that things will stay the same. I was stuck for a long time in the creative industry, feeling like I had lost my balance."
On mastering your craft
“During COVID, I did Godwin Tom's Music Business Africa Academy course. I did grants with the British Council, it’s an entire course to get a grant. I made sure I continued learning to ensure that I'm not stuck in 2015 or 2018 Lucid Lemons. I need to make sure that I'm also moving with the fact that our entire lives have changed now, and things have to be different.”
On the importance of keeping a schedule
“I'm like the biggest champion in the world for Notion, it has completely changed the way I do everything. My entire brain is on Notion. From my personal life—like what day am I going to see my grandma, what am I bringing her—to my business meetings, scheduling meetings with my team, and keeping up to date on my finances, everything is on my Notion."
On staying true to your values
“I’ve had to do a lot of different things because I know I need to make ends meet, and I know that I need to take care of myself. I have people that I'm paying. At the same time, I just try and make sure that I align myself with people and projects and things that I believe in."
On building your own titles
"Today, I changed my bio. It was ‘Patron Saint of the Culture’ for years, but someone called me a ‘culture architect,’ and I liked it—I took it. Labeling myself is hard because I do everything, so I give myself my own titles. They might sound braggadocious, but that’s how I choose to address myself."
On the reality of running a business at a young age
"I was 18 years old and managing people that were twice my age and sometimes way younger than me. It was a lot to manage human beings and to manage a company and a social brand, while also trying hard to remain anonymous.”
On the realities young women face in the industry
"Coming into the industry as a woman was extremely tough. It was like I was new fish to fry. For some reason, you find yourself in those kinds of positions, and even as a junior member of staff in organisations that are bigger than just that Nigerian company, your voice is not heard."
On the intersection of tech and music
"I believe that we need to start using tech in the way that it is available to us. For some reason, in Nigeria, we are still very behind. People don't know there are things you can use tech to do and simplify your workflow. I feel there are so many tools available out there. Use the tech available."
On the importance of community
"I’m very, very big on community and that trade-by-barter mentality. I’m going to help you, and my expectation—which may be naïve—is that you help me too. I do my best to ensure that if I see you putting in work, I will support you wherever you are in the world and hope that somehow, through you, I’m able to make links that make pushing my guys out to you easier."
Famous last words
"I’m just a disruptor—that’s my own game in this whole thing. I don’t care for the clout; I don’t care to be known. I’m not here for any of that. I care about the music industry. I care that my parents and people listened to me at some point, and there are people out there in Lagos, Nigeria, and in Africa who need someone to hear them. I’m happy to be that person. I’m happy to be the voice. I don’t mind being your megaphone."
Listen to the full interview below and head to our Instagram (@tellitourway) to learn more about Tomisin Akinwunmi.
Tomisin, your fans dey! wishing you and Lucid Lemons all the best. <3
What a brilliant read 🌺