Ben Blazer

George da Soulchild, co-presenter of our weekly radio show, sent the following report about an interview with Ben Blazer, seated above with some of the young musicians he’s helping!

Renowned producer and songwriter Ben Kalulu fondly known as Ben Blazer has become one of Zambia’s biggest names in the music industry and has produced a number of artistes. The youthful ‘ music maker’ has produced prominent names in the likes of Petersen, Ephraim, Danny, JK, Uniq and more. The Weekend Post recently had a chat with Ben in the following interview:

What is your latest project?

Ans: Well I am working with four artistes namely J.O.B, BobbyEast, Franciar and Flexville. I produce these artistes and I decided to bring them together to form a crew. As for now I am focused on the four so that I can turn them into big stars, then I can incorporate artistes and I do not want to have many people on the click because at times you may find that you have many artistes but only a few have what it takes to be one.

From your own understanding, just explain something about music.

Ans: Music is not like accounts where you are given a formula and you have to solve it. You have to go to school and most importantly have the passion for it because there are times when we have our difficult times but passion always keeps you moving. Whether you admit it or not, music imbeds our daily life, weaving its beauty and emotion through our thoughts, activities and memories. So if you’re interested in music theory, music appreciation, Beethoven, Mozart, or other composers, artists and performers, we hope you’ll spend some time and learn from these music articles of note for all ages and tastes.

Talk about your relations with your artistes.

Ans: I love working with artistes because we are like family. We chat and throw jokes, if you have realized our songs are crazy this is because someone comes up with a word and another also adds up a word just like that. It keeps us moving.

Any music producers you have worked with?

Ans: I have worked with T.K has always inspired me I have worked with him. I have noticed that most Zambian ,musicians just release one song and that is it why? This is because they do not have enough resources to support their music, my advice to the people is that we should buy original albums for artistes so that we can still see and hear their music.

Do you think you now have more people recording at your studio?

Ans: (laughs) well, I can say I am better the way I am now compared to last time where people could pay less money, now they pay good money and there is an acceptable number of people.

Shed some light on your branch in Lusaka.

Ans: As you are aware we have opened a branch here to enable some artistes in Lusaka record from Ben Blazer studio. I have been receiving a number of people coming to the studio to record which is a good thing.

Your advice to other fellow producers?

Ans: If you have never taken a course in of music, you don’t know what you are missing out on. The radio will never sound the same to you again. Everything will seem much more rich, much more luminous, and much more important. A new song can reflect a new way of being, and a new way of imagining life in the world. This is what learning about music means to many of us.

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