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Boosting the Music Industry
With my eyes wide open and my nose well-distended, I have been seeing and smelling what is happening in the music industry in Sikaman. My interest in the music industry is not the result of mere curiosity. Fact is that Kwame Alomele should have been a musician and not a journalist, “but God no gree.”
Small boys are young. And when I was small and young, I learnt to play the guitar. Seth Ansah of Site 21 who taught me how to manipulate the strings told me I was a fast learner. I said he was lying.
I figured he only wanted to flatter me, but within quite a short period of time I became a guitarist and my bosom friend Kofi Kokotako also learnt to become a dancer. Actually, if it hadn’t been for school, we’d have performed and made some money.
Earlier, I had learned to play the piano and organ and I also taught Seth a few lessons in the use of keyboards and later, the wahwah synthesiser. Certainly, I was on the sure steady way of becoming a musician.
I began dreaming and day-dreaming I was indeed a musician. I was Jimi Hendrix wiring 18 strings to great effects, the frenzied crowd cheering and cheering as I hit the stage. It was a youthful experience one needed to have.
In school, I used to disappear every afternoon only to materialise at the training place of the Supreme Dynamos Band just to watch them train. I used to cherish those moments.
Then one day I told my mother I wanted to be a musician. She was glad. She liked the music of the masters like Bach’s Jesu Joy Of Man’s Desiring, the Messiah by Handel and the wonderful masterpieces of Mozart and Beethoven. If I could be like any of them, she’d thank God.
“Go ahead, why not?” she encouraged me.
“I’m not saying I want to be a classical musician-o,” I explained. “I want to be like Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff.”
She simply asked me to go and report to my Dad the nonsense I was trying to spew. But of course, Dad wouldn’t come into a matter of this kind. He’d strangle me to death upon merely hearing the name of the great Bob Nestor Marley, the legendary reggae king.
I had to abandon the idea and stick to chemistry books. No fooling around! Man must become a medical doctor.
Since then, however, my heart has always been in music and, as afore-mentioned, I have followed the developments in the music industry. Luckily, I recently stumbled upon information that would be of value to music producers.
Ghana can now boast of having the MACKIE MIDI AUTOMATED RECORDING CONSOLE, arguably the best recording equipment worldwide. It is right here in Ghana. If good music is not properly recorded, it loses its quality.
It reminds me of what Kwame Korkorti once told me. “If you don’t spice the nicest chunks of meat, you don’t get the taste.” Of course, Korkorti is a man who doesn’t joke with his stomach and values the tongue that tastes food.
Yes, when I had the information that NANA BOAMAH of ARC STUDIOS, Tema, had just installed the expensive equipment, I traced my way to Community Eleven to catch a glimpse.
I was confronted by the most professional studio in town with 56 Channels of Mackie Recording Console, which won the BEST MIXER and the MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCT FOR THE YEAR AWARD, 1994 in the United States.
Nana Boamah was “hoarding” what I term as every musician’s delight — the best music mixer in America. Nana himself is a man you’ll like unless you’re a devil. He is unassuming, of fine personality and a good Christian as far as I know. The only thing I don’t know is whether or not he speaks in tongues. He attributes the progress of his work to the Almighty.
Nana is an Honoury Graduate in Sound Engineering, precisely a product of the SCHOOL OF SOUND ENGINEERING in the United States. Most of his works taken by Executive Producers and artistes outside the country for compact discs and cassette printing in different studios always recommend his mixes. An example is Kwadwo Akwaboah’s latest music for Isaac Taylor’s ROOT WORLD MUSIC.
I wanted a chat. In spite of what people say of Nana Boamah’s great works, he has never really been in the news.
“Nana, why don’t you get publicity for your contributions towards the improvement of the music industry?”
“In fact, I don’t like cheap popularity or publicity,” he said. “I always want to toil and work and through my good works I can achieve my popularity or publicity without asking for it.”
“So you mean you haven’t been advertising your studio?”
“No. Since it was established in 1988, I have not even done a single advert in the newspapers.”
“So how come your studio is known to all musicians?”
“That’s why I say the good works will advertise the studio by themselves without me asking for it.”
I now wanted to know why he had gone in for the highly expensive, almost prohibitive MACKIE CONSOLE.
“It is always good to go for the best in terms of sound quality. In fact, it has taken me two years looking for a mixing console which has got all the technical qualities that any professional worth his salt should have.”
I also wanted to know the contribution the ARC STUDIO has made towards the growth of the music industry.
“In fact, coming to Arc, one does not need to hire musical instruments because the studio is well-equipped with all kinds of instruments as you can see; all kinds of guitars, drum machines, sound modules.
“We don’t hire them to our customers; they use them for free just to help them cut costs. We also provide free professional engineering services including mixing and free computer programming. We also give professional advice on production free of charge. That is our modest contribution.”
I remarked that with everything free including professional advice, the studio must be for charity. “It seems to me you are also a shareholder in the music industry.”
“Well, I am not a shareholder. I’m only trying to help up-and-coming musicians. Who knows whether one day, Ghana will produce another Michael Jackson? If we don’t encourage them with these free services, their talents will never come to light. Arc Studio is really for the people. We have to sacrifice for the people.”
“You say your studio has the biggest or largest tracks. What do you mean by that?”
Nana Boamah explained that tracks and channels are determined by the number of inputs and outputs that a mixer or recorder can take and come out at a given time. “At the moment, the mixer I’m using takes 68 inputs and during mix-down doubles up to 124 channels.”
Yes, Dr Mensah, a resident of the USA, has this to say of Nana Boamah’s work: “After wasting our time to get the best, we decided to compare our works with what you recorded on the date you sent to us, and saw that your mix was the best and we had to drop ours.”
Well, the music industry is being patronised by many young musicians and gospel singers. It goes without saying we need to improve the quality of the works to enable them become exportable commodities. The time is now.
So hail that day a Michael Jackson will be born in Sikaman and we shall have no problem making it BIG just like the Yanks made Michael Jackson big by their technical and moral support.
This article was first published on Saturday, December 17, 1997.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”. The Holy Bible (Psalm 53:1)
The greatest gift I ever received was the Bible, given to me by Mr Anyetei Sowah of BIBLE HOUSE on April 4, 1991. It saved my life. He was my mate in sixth form, and while some of us were easy-going, perpetually looking for adventure in town, he was a bit different and we all respected and admired him for his Godly ways, his mild manners, his wise counsel.
When I became a journalist, he paid me a visit and asked me to attend one of his plays which was staged at the Arts Centre. He performed in this magnificent drama and I recall the role of one character, Reverend Sozo Macumbe. As a reward for being present, Anyetei presented me with a gift – The Holy Bible. It was more than One Million Dollars.
Earlier, I had always wanted to possess one but found it extremely difficult to purchase although it was very cheap, about the equivalent of two bottles lager beer. I could buy several lagers for myself and friends and yet couldn’t bring myself to spending on a Bible.
When Anyetei brought me the wonderful gift, I confessed almost on my knees that if he hadn’t presented me with the Bible, I couldn’t have bought one for myself no matter how hard I tried. I then blamed the devil for my inability to spend on a Bible rather than on beer. Of course, everybody blames the devil, so why not Kwame Alomele.
The Bible I got made me quite religious and as I read through and prayed, I was able to veer from dangerous paths of temptation and self-destruction. It was also an opportunity for me to reminisce my born-again days of old when I drew very close to Christ until Satan tore me away and re-baptised me fully into sin.
I really did not know what happened to me at the time. I was strongly in the faith but suddenly Satan came round and presented the whole world to me in exchange for my soul. On the whole, it was not a bad deal and I accepted Satan’s offer. Man mon enjoy life, abi!
When Anyetei’s Bible came, I told myself, “Kwame, you’ll fall a thousand times and take the mandatory count like a battered boxer. But you won’t remain sprawled, in the name of Jesus! You’ll crawl, you’ll stagger but eventually rise above beer bottles and continue from where you left off. Halleluyah!”
Yeah, you’ve got to give God his due. If you are a Christian, be strong in the faith and don’t be a mere church-goer; if a Moslem, don’t fail to pray and read the Koran daily; if you’re a Buddhist, chant ‘Myoho renge kyo nam’ till your jaw breaks; and if you’re a follower of Krishna, chant ‘Hare Krishna Hare’ till you collapse. And if you want to follow the devil too, please go ahead and wind up in hell. And in hell, you’ll find yourself in the form of ‘human khebab, precisely ‘human suya’. Hare.
In any case, research has shown that religious persons rarely become neurotic or psychotic. A person who is in a grave financial distress but is religious would hardly commit suicide.
Aside all the divine benefits, there is a psychological consolation that with God all things are possible. This is not only psychological, but real.
Those who are religious and get gilted by their boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands or wives just laugh it off. They never get broken-hearted to the point of mental derangement.
After lamenting a day or two over the loss of her lover, a gilted girl who is truly religious would declare that “Jesus is now my boyfriend”. She would never go mourning for days, weeks, months and end up at the Psychiatric Hospital. No, not when Jesus has taken over the show.
Of late, I’ve come a bit closer to Jesus not because I’ve been gilted by a ‘babe’ or in financial distress; far from these. I have realised that a youngman must organise his life and your life can hardly be organised if you are not religious. Jesus is like a pillar of your life, just as Buddha or Krishna might be.
The Lord says, “When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm”. (Psalm 75:3).
If you come to learn that people like mystic writer LOBSANG RAMPA have turned over a new page in life doubled-up. He was an occultist and one of his and is now a born-again Christian, then it is time man famous books which is now very infamous is ‘THE THIRD EYE’. I have read it three times over.
Before Mr Rampa came into the Christian fold, he apologised to the world for having deceived people with his writings and led them away from the path of righteousness.
I fellowship at the E. P. CHURCH OF GHANA at Tema. It is regarded as a renegade wing of the E.P.CHURCH. When they broke away, I was furious with them and called them good-for-nothing devil-inspired idiots.
Today, that is where I meet Jesus for a chat. And that is where my younger brother Edward Alomele, a latter-day convert, does business with Christ.
In fact, when churches split, it is only an opportunity for the word to spread further. So the two churches are now far apart and doing the work of God to spread the good news further and further. They need not be antagonistic to each other after all. Isn’t it?
And it came to pass that last Sunday when I walked into the synagogue I espied Diana Akiwumi sitting on the dais. Not sure if it was her, I looked out for her husband; they are almost always together.
And lo and behold, there was the Reverend Samuel Akiwumi perching beside his superstar wife. They were our guests. Today be today, I said.
As expected, Lady Diana led the praise and worship. It was an inspiring ecclesiastical blitz as the lady songbird with a musical call took the congregation through an explosive spiritual extravaganza. I was completely overwhelmed with joy and if it hadn’t been for my weight I would have executed the monkey-dance Kwame Korkorti taught me years ago.
When it came to delivering the word, it was no other than Evangelist Samuel Akiwumi. I never knew he was such a vibrant preacher man. He delivered the sermon with total conviction and power and the congregation nodded and nodded with satisfaction. Basing his sermon on Chronicles 2 Chapter 20, he urged us to rely exclusively on God in times of trouble.
After the service I cornered the Europe-bound duo and asked them about the AKIWUMI GOSPEL MINISTRIES.
This article was first published on Saturday, July 22, 1995
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If God grants us the grace to live long like our parents, I am of the firm conviction that we shall hear a lot of interesting things. Discipline in schools, especially at the Senior High School level, has become a hot topic for discussion in the country in recent times.
I recall Achimota School, a few years ago, being in the news for insisting that a Rasta-haired student, who had just gained admission, must cut his hair before being admitted. This generated a heated national debate, and the parents of the student decided to go to court. The Ministry of Education eventually intervened for the student to be admitted, and the court later ruled that he could not be prevented based on religious grounds. Interestingly, the teenager recently completed the school with no disciplinary issues — and on top of that, had 8 As.
A few days ago, a Minister stirred up another debate in the education space by announcing that regulations governing short hair in schools must be strictly enforced to ensure discipline and character formation. But I fail to see how cutting one’s hair short ensures morality.
In the past, students in second-cycle institutions were required to keep their hair short. Many of these boys later became men, completed universities, entered politics, and ended up in Parliament as Members of Parliament (MPs) representing their respective constituencies. At that time, the fashion in vogue among men was short hair, and in many cases, completely shaved heads, popularly called “Sakora.” One would therefore assume that these men would be morally upright.
Surprise, surprise! During the previous government, it came out that some MPs had dishonestly received double salaries. One then begins to wonder — what correlation, therefore, exists between short hair and right conduct? If short hair has anything to do with character formation, then something went very, very wrong somewhere.
Frankly, I fail to see the correlation between short hair and moral uprightness. I once lived in an area notorious for wee (marijuana) smoking, yet I never smoked wee. Character formation, in my opinion, depends largely on the individual — not on whether they have long or short hair.
What happens when a child is forced to pretend to be obedient and morally upright in school, only to go to university after three years in SHS? Even those of us who went through Sixth Form before university had our challenges — how much more those who spend only three years in SHS?
Some argue that in the army, soldiers cut their hair short and that’s why they are disciplined. I find this reasoning absurd because in countries like the United States, Canada, and across Europe, students do not cut their hair short, yet their societies are disciplined. They do not litter their streets, corruption is frowned upon, and their MPs do not take double salaries. That’s not to say they are angels, but on the whole, they eschew anti-social behaviour and are patriotic citizens.
A look at the Public Accounts Committee sittings proves my point beyond reasonable doubt. Most of the people engaged in misconduct had their hair cut short in various Senior High Schools, yet they turned out to be unpatriotic citizens.
I am sure that the man who a court of competent jurisdiction ruled had unlawfully taken GH¢51 million from the state of Ghana also observed the short-hair rule while in secondary school — and yet, he swindled the nation.
Food for thought. God bless.
NB: Change Kotoka International Airport to Kofi Baako International Airport.
BY LAUD KISSI-MENSAH
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