I just finished reading one of my pre-clinical courses when my next door neighbour, David, came into my room. He was a first year student in the department of architecture.
None of my roommates were around but it was not unusual for him to badge in. He usually comes to borrow one item or the other from us.
"I have a song Grat, I want to go to the studio and record it" David told me.
David had previously let me know that he was into music before coming to the university and as a matter of fact he has recorded one song already.
"When do you want to go and where is the studio?" I asked interested. I too wanted to sing, I had my song book filled with lyrics and rhymes but I never thought of going to the studio to record any.
"That's actually why I came to meet you, I don't know many places in this town and I know you grew up here". David responded.
"I don't know any studio particularly but I know an area where we would definitely find a studio", I answered.
That afternoon we went and found a studio but it was expensive, "we charge ₦10,000 per session", the receptionist had said.
"We want to speak with the producer", David requested.
After bargaining, the producer agreed to do it for ₦8,000 so we paid and David recorded his song. Honestly, I was surprised at how good he was, his performance was nice for a first year student, I didn't expect him to be that good. I would have thought the song was by a professional if not that I was there when the magic was made.
Even the producer commended him "you are really talented and I am happy you were able to record the song at first attempt unlike most musicians that come here".
"The next thing we need to do is to promote the song", the producer announced as we were preparing to leave.
"How much for the song promotion?" David asked.
"We have three packages" the producer began, "The small one is ₦50,000 while the medium pack will cost you ₦150,000 and the super pack goes for ₦500,000", he added.
I was tempted to ask him the contents of the various packages but David shrugged, he was not interested in the promotion.
"I knew that would be the range of price, I just wanted to get the song off my mind" David said, "I am not thinking of promotion now".
At that instant, I quickly put my budding music dreams to death. I couldn't even afford the initial payment for recording not to talk of promoting the song.
I then realised how financially demanding and stressful music is, even for talented people.
A new aspiration came to mind then.
"Dave, what if we have our own studio and help young artists to record songs and promote at reduced or no costs then we can share in the profits of the song?" I asked.
"That's what we call record labels, it's not cheap to start one because of the cost of musical equipments and partnership with social media influencers to promote a song" David explained from experience.
"I understand, but what if we have ours?" I asked persistently for him to see my point.
"It would be cool, but..." David began trying to give me an excuse.
"No buts", I interrupted "let's work towards it".
David and I began to save money for the plan, we opened a savings account on piggyvest each and we put in some money every day or week as was possible.
About five months after we started saving, David came to me, he needed to buy a special pen for his architectural designs, the pen would cost ₦42,000.
"Which pen costs ₦42,000?" I queried angrily, not believing my ears.
"It's an architectural pen", he tried to explain to me.
David wanted to let me know out of courtesy that he needed to withdraw from his savings towards our goal because of his school work.
We checked to see how much we had saved. In my account, I had ₦53,800 while Dave had ₦57,000.
We were disappointed, it was obvious that going at that pace, we would be establishing our studio in eight years, barring the effects of inflation on cost of instruments.
Dave withdrew his money and I decided to withdraw mine too, I needed my money too, I was just managing to get by. That was how our savings saved us while our dreams had to take a backseat.
And with that, our dreams came to a stop pause.
I still have this goal in mind and I will bring it to life within the shortest possible time as finances permit
All images are mine
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