An 8-year-old boy from Chicago is going viral for his exceptional music producing skills.
Miles Bonham, known online as @milesmusickid, was challenged to produce a brand-new musical backing to Britney Spears’ iconic hit “Toxic,” without ever having heard the original track.
In a clip on TikTok, young Bonham listened to Spears’s isolated vocal track for the first time.
With no instrumental clues to guide him, the prodigious producer crafted an entirely new sonic landscape from scratch, layering chords, building synthesized sounds and programming drums.
“This means that… Miles had to guess the chords that musically fit the vocals and choose the right instruments and sounds that would create the musical ‘vibe’ he envisioned from hearing only the vocals,” Bonham’s parents told Newsweek.
What happened next stunned internet users. Bonham created his own music using advanced sound design software, including Serum, a tool more commonly used by professional audio engineers.
His parents, who did not share their names, explained that Bonham started by designing instruments from scratch and used effects like reverb and compression to finish the mix.
“Miles is usually a perfectionist when it comes to completing his original tracks, but since this project was a fun challenge, he didn’t spend more than 90 minutes working on it,” they said.
Bonham’s love for music started when he was around 15 months old. “He was always fascinated with music and developed a very advanced taste of music before reaching age two,” his parents told Newsweek.
At age four, he picked up a second-hand guitar and started teaching himself. By five, he was recording multitrack songs using professional software.
Now, Bonham is considered the world’s youngest professional music producer. He first drew global attention at age five, when videos of him producing full multitrack songs and playing up to eight instruments went viral.
Since then, the “rising global musical phenomenon”—as described by his parents— has become a fixture in music circles, praised by music legends like Pharrell Williams, Lenny Kravitz, Charlie Puth and Mark Ronson.
Bonham’s clip has gone viral on TikTok, amassing over 21 million views on the platform. Users were blown away by the young boy’s talent, with many calling him a musical genius.
“From one artist to another, trust us when we tell you that he is unbelievably talented,” one user wrote.
“Bro is literally gonna [sic] be the next Benny Blanco,” another said.
But for the Bonhams, comparisons don’t matter. “As parents, we want both of our kids to be well-adjusted, to follow their passions, and to define success and happiness on their own terms,” they told Newsweek.
And for Bonham? “In the future, he intends to be both an artist who performs his own music, as well as a producer and songwriter who helps other musical artists create their best work,” they said.
Read the full article here
