RUNDU – Tweuya Nelumbu a sound technician in charge of the state-of-the-art recording studio at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) here, is urging youths in the two regions of Kavango to utilise the recording studio to the maximum as it has been built to assist artist in the regions and beyond.
“It’s important that they do, we have realised that youths are mostly in need of recording services and some don’t know that the ministry have built a state-of-the-art studio here in Rundu,” Nelumbu says. The studio is in the MICT regional office for Kavango East, and it’s located in Eugene Kakukuru Road in Rundu, next to the new Nored regional office. It was inaugurated in May this year by the ICT Minister, Stanley Simataa.”Yes we are getting artists in and most of the artists that have recorded here are mostly good at singing in their different vernacular languages and I’m impressed by the way they have been expressing themselves artistically, that’s one of the thing that I have noticed in most artists that came through since we opened the studio,” Nelumbu adds.
To get access to the recording studio one needs to get to the MICT office building and fill in a booking form and do some payments which will depend on the recording time needed. “After making a booking, we take you on a tour of the facility, and induct you on the rules. We offer vocal and band recording, mixing and mastering of music and we also do sound for films and can record radio productions like jingles, radio drama and so on,” Nelumbu informs.
Since the studio have been opened, it has recorded more than 20 songs. “Considering that many people are not making use of social media, which is the platform we have been using to make awareness of our existence, we received a low turnout and again we realised that there is a lack of music education from the production point of view and music business and many artists that have been here are not registered with Nascam (Namibian Society of Composers and Authors of Music) and so on. That is why we are also planning to have a workshop for artists to equip them with what they need to know as artists.”