Being involved in the studio is a dream come true for me. As a kid playing a variety of instruments, I always dreamed of being the front man of my own band. Growing up in the U.S. and heavily influenced by bands like the Jackson 5 and Earth, Wind and Fire, I spen much of my youth playing in school based marching bands and orchestras which meant I got a taste of what it was like to be on stage.

One of the highlights of my young career was the point when I was selected to become a member of the pep band. In any ways, a pep band is an act and many would characterise it as a precursor to most bands that end up on the American Music scene. I was surrounded at that point by a group of friends who had similar objectives and were talented. What we probably lacked was a little confidence.

When I went off to University on a music scholarship, the expectation was that the band idea would continue to flourish. I participated in the collegiate versions of the marching and orchestra bands but at some point, I slide away from the pursuit of music as a career. At that point it was computers and GIRLS that captured my attention.

I never gave up on my creative aspects though and when we started strategizing about the studio, I saw an opportunity to combine some of the accumulated skils I had developed. Basically, we wanted to create a top notch studio, in Ethiopia, that forged a modern conception of Ethiopian music with a robust marketing and promotion strategy. In many ways, it is technology that plays the most critical role in our approach. We offer a very modular concept of how we work and a dynamic relationship with our artists.

People often ask me where do I receive creative inspirations from. This is a very complex question to deal with but in addition to reflecting on social history, change and the plight of African peoples worldwide, I would also think that my inspirations come through life as a medium itself. Sometimes, just sitting and talking with friends over coffee is enough to inspire me to come up with ideas.

Now, I am not the musical talent that I always hoped to be. It is fair to suggest that I contribute very little to the studio in that regard. Yonas and Alem are very heavy on working with the artist to bring out the music that's inside of them and Yonas handles most of the engineering. I tend to write the scripts, i.e., I am good at tracking the artist and preparing the artist for commercial success. My good ear for music allows me to comment on the kinds of material that both matches an Artist's voice and may be marketable to an audience.

At Millennium, another important component to our Creative Visions is one that built around the objective to be as fair and honest in how we work. We try to keep the protection of the artist's interests at the foundation of what we do. Anyway who enters a contract with us will find the contract to be very flexible, leaning by far in favor of the artist.

Growth for us is important but what is far more significant to us is the ability to produce quality products and to do so in such a way that we set new standards of integrity in the way labels operate. We expect to move quickly into major media formats such as film but have decided to get to that point when we get to it.

Of course, humility will continue to carry us a long way and we always look forward to hearing from friends and contributors like you to assist us in further shaping this into a positive adventure. Please share any ideas you have with us and we have you enjoy our offerings as they become available.