Femi’s musical journey has always been about getting closer to the truth—not just the truth of sound, but of self. The Congers, NY native began with humble roots, playing piano in church, where music wasn’t just performance, it was purpose. That early foundation planted something deeper in him—an understanding that melody and meaning should move together. For years, he worked under the alias Frank Pierce, crafting tracks that garnered attention and acclaim. But eventually, something shifted. The music he was making felt too honest, too close to his core to be housed under a name that wasn’t his own. So he dropped the stage name, embraced the one given to him—Femi, short for Oluwafemi—and started again, this time with nothing but authenticity at the helm.
Since that transformation, Femi’s work has only deepened. Collaborating with UK-based label Lilly Era, he released a handful of singles that hinted at the emotional clarity and sonic texture he was developing. Now, with his debut EP 2020 on the horizon, he’s opening the vault of songs long stored away, waiting for their moment to be heard. Each one, a reflection not just of who he was when he wrote it, but of who he’s becoming.
His latest single, “More or Less,” lives in that tender, liminal space between holding on and letting go. It’s not a breakup song in the traditional sense—it’s more mature than that. This is a song about love that chooses discomfort over selfishness, distance over damage. In it, Femi confronts the painful paradox that sometimes, the most loving thing you can do is walk away. The lyric “If all I have to do is more than loving you, and all I have to lose is less than losing you…” doesn’t shout—it whispers. And in that whisper lies a kind of quiet courage, the kind that understands boundaries not as walls, but as care in disguise.
What Femi manages to do with “More or Less” is offer us an emotional honesty that feels rare. It’s subtle without being soft, strong without being loud. He taps into a universal ache—the desire to love someone right, even if that means from afar—and scores it with soulful production that sits somewhere between intimacy and restraint. It’s a track that lingers long after the last note, asking the listener to consider love in its most selfless form.
If this is the direction Femi is heading with 2020, then listeners are in for something profoundly personal. Not just an artist revealing himself through music, but a human showing us that the most impactful songs don’t always arrive with fanfare. Sometimes, they just sit with you, quietly, until you’re ready to hear them. Are you?
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