Daniel Adjei is the Chief Operating Officer of the now famous Hush Hush Studios based in the heart of Accra , Ghana, fast becoming one of the busiest music recording studios in West Africa because of the traffic of musicians from far and near who seek the smooth quality sounds which ooze out of the studio equipment.
He speaks of his immediate plans, music in Africa, his new artiste, Mzbel who is warming up to explode and more.
? Music for me is a very interesting hobby even though it is also a profession. In my formative years, I played the guitar as a hobby and enjoyed music with a great passion. Having lived in the United States for many years, I found out that the quality of sound that we hear in Africa as compared with what we hear elsewhere, were incomparable. So we decided to come to Africa with the best machines and equipment that we could find and that is how Hush Hush Studios came into being. It was just a decision to replicate what we have in the United States in Ghana as well. In fact, there are two studios in Ghana, Studio A and B owned by the three of us, my nephew, my cousin and my humble self. We are so passionate about clean sound that we decided to go the extra mile to set up Hush Hush Africa which set us back to the tune of millions. We are two years old and it seems like a decade.
When we first set up, it was difficult for people to realise what we are all about. Some of them felt we were too costly without realising the quality of equipment we have put in place. When we reduced cost, they came in droves and when they realised our quality, they were hooked. Just name any big star in Ghana and he has come here to record and even from Nigeria as well.
There is a promising Nigerian superstar named Zeluwa Matata who is set to make waves in no distant time. His album was recorded here. He first came to record a jingle for the re-election of President Obasanjo and his vice, Atiku Abubakar which said great things about his talents.
That jingle really touched the entire people who worked on it. So you see, Hush Hush is not only for Ghanaians but for every one in Africa and I strongly believe we have what it takes to compare with any other studio elsewhere in the world. What makes me think that we have one of the best studios in the world is that we use a mastering system called Proteus which is used by several notable studios in the world. Michael Jackson is also one of the musicians that work with proteus.
?Apart from allowing artistes make use of our studios, we also are at the verge of releasing a new sensational artiste called Mzbel whose album is set to be released. We have concluded work on her album and we believe she is a star. She has all the qualities of a musician in the making. Her album contains likely hit tracks like African Boy, Awose me, Menye me saa, Living without you,etc and she could write the songs, sing and rap them and dance like a cone. This is our major project this year.
It is unfortunate that Ghana is not doing enough to put their artistes on world map even though other countries have artistes on the world map. Ghana music is not following tradition. They now do more of computerized music which was not our way originally. Technology has changed.
Like I am interested in music so much as to set up a studio, I used to play guitar, enough to back myself up. In Mzbel?s album, I did back- ups.
