Pastor Love

There has always been a misconception about who a true musician is and in Ghana, many have mistaken mere singers to be musicians and such people gain all the hype and celebrity status to the detriment of the real experts who do almost all the background work.

Ghanaian music experts and the media pay more attention to artistes and singers because their faces appear on screens and their voices are heard on air as the owners of a musical work but it has been proven that many of the so-called musicians have little or no knowledge about the art and technicalities involved in making music.  

A survey conducted by Christian Journal indicated that though most hiplife musicians write their own songs, they leave the major part of the work (that is, composition, programming and other technical aspects) to the sound engineers and this disqualifies them as true musicians. The studies further showed that in the gospel music industry, there are more singers than real musicians because a chunk of them are used as voices on albums which were composed and generally worked on by other people.

 The main question here is that, why aren’t the hidden faces behind the greatest hits in the country not searched for and given their due commendations? One of such background icons who has been behind the success of some of Ghana’s greatest gospel musicians is music composer and producer Pastor Hammond Love.

  This man can be described as the main anchor behind the success of one of Ghana’s popular gospel musicians, Christiana Love. “Apart from Christiana’s first album, all other subsequent works were wrote and produced by me” said Pastor Love who doubles as the pretty gospel artiste’s husband.

His latest work resulted in a neat collaboration between Christiana Love and Kwaku Gyasi, for whom he composed and produced the album with the hit song “Ade Akye Abia” which is now receiving massive airplay. “ I realized that hiplife artistes collaborate beautifully to release hits and I wondered why that was lacking in the gospel terrain and that is why I chose Christie and Kwaku Gyasi for my new work” he said.

Pastor Love, who is the CEO of Love Music Productions, discovered his musical talent when he was a toddler and according to him, he loved music so much that he would stay glued to his parents radio set listening to music.

He said he had attempted singing but realized his voice was horrible and that deterred him from pursuing music for a long time. However, his musical talent was revived eight years ago when he started writing down any musical idea that came to his mind while he was a Pastor at the Liberty House Chapel in Kumasi. “I heard songs in my head and I would quickly jot them down but I did not know how to arrange them for serious use by singers.”

 A year later, Christiana Love and a group came ministering at the Liberty House Chapel and Pastor Love said he fell in love with her there and then. “ I saw that she would make a great life companion and partner in my music ministration. By God’s grace, she has been and still is all I envisaged and prayed for.”  Pastor Love’s musical talent and gift have been complemented by his wife Christiana Love whose hits were all composed, arranged and produced by him.

Apart from Christiana Love, Pastor Love, who mastered his art at the House of Music studios under the tutelage of ace gospel artiste Osuani Afrifa, has composed songs for other great artistes like Maame Joyce of “Yesu To Me Aboaden” fame, Deborah Antwi (Boa Me Yesu), the late Rev. Bishop Michael Osei Bonsu as well as highlife artistes Pat Thomas and Kofi Nti. “ The songs I compose are either gospel or inspirational secular songs which help expand the kingdom of God or have a positive impact on people’s lives and my doors are always open to help any musician who needs help be it gospel or secular” said Pastor Love.

“ I think that events like the Ghana Music Awards and the industry’s gurus need to recognize the tedious efforts that music composers and producers put into making an artiste’s work successful and reward us accordingly because without us, there is no music” said the overseer of the Life House Miracle Chapel.

By Jonathan Thompson

 www.mycjonline.com

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