George Kalua, the six-year-old music producer

There are some plain truths that people cannot argue about. One such truth is there would be no recorded music without a producer.

Producers, often overlooked, are an integral part of the recording process and play a crucial role in the music business.

Love or loathe them, but every person who nurses ambitions of becoming a musician will have to meet a music producer one day.

But, when that day comes, imagine walking into a studio to record your music and you meet a six-year-old boy who happens to be the producer in that studio. Amazing?

George Kalua, a Standard One pupil at Vocational Primary School in Chilobwe Township in Blantyre, is that six-year-old producer you are likely to meet when you walk into Stephen Kalua’s studio in Chilobwe.

The young boy is nurturing himself into a producer and might turn out to be one of the next big producers in the country and beyond.

In an interview George’s father, Stephen Kalua, who is also a music producer, said the little boy is familiar with several production softwares such as Frooty Loops, Cubase, Nuendo and Reason.

The older Kalua said his son started showing interest in the art when he was as young as two.

“When he was a baby, I used to babysit him a lot when his mother was doing household chores and I could always carry him on my lap when working in the studio.

“One day when he was two years old and I was carrying him as usual, he moved his hand and grabbed the mouse, opened the files and mimicked what I was earlier doing. He destroyed some of the work I had done, but I was too amazed by what he had done,” said Kalua.

That was the beginning of George’s interest in music production as, since then, he could not just sit on his father’s lap like he used to do in the past.

He would use each opportunity to grab the mouse from his father’s hand and do whatever he could manage to do.

At six, George, who is familiar with other musical instruments such as the keyboard, is able to take an artist’s song, listen to and sample it and put his own tempo according to how he has understood it.

Unlike kids his age, George spends most of his time after classes in his father’s studio.

“As soon as he knocks off from school and he is not tired, he goes straight to the studio and starts working on different tempos so that when I come home, he should have something to show me,” said the proud father.

The child, who spends as much as five hours on the computer working on music, is able to come up with a beat without being told what to do.

And although George spends most of his time in his father’s studio, he does not let his academics suffer because of his interest as he is a star performer in his Standard One class.

During the previous academic term, George managed to score 100 percent in all the subjects except in Bible Knowledge in which he scored 70 percent.

His parents also make sure he has time to do his homework.

His father says he has no problem with George following his footsteps and he allows him to explore the music producer’s world, but when he is old and able decide on his career, fine and good.

“We are proud of George and he is a blessing to the family. We try as much as we can to encourage him in what he is doing as well as in his academics,” said Kalua.