Benjamin Hill recently caught up with one of the biggest names in dubstep for a chat exclusively for The Wrap Up. Introducing Benga...
TWU: The ‘Night’ track that you did with Coki was one the first dubstep tracks to break through on to the mainstream circuit, even being played on Radio 1. Did you ever anticipate how big and important that song could be for dubstep and for UK music in general?
Benga: No, not at all. To be honest, when we first wrote the song we were just trying to write something different to what was going on at the time in the dubstep scene. I guess when you write music you never go out to try and change the face of music at all.
TWU: Your second album ‘Diary Of An Afro Warrior’ received praise from everyone from all areas of the music scene. Are you nervous about making a follow-up album due to the success of the last one?
Benga: I’m not nervous at all, because I didn’t even fluke that album. Even now I’m writing songs for it and I can write everything again and just break it down, write things that are similar to that album, but still completely different at the same time and hopefully just take things to the next level within my music. Basically I want to write some heavy dubstep bangers that will be going off in clubs for some time.
TWU: You don’t seem to have a set style with your productions and they seem to go from heavy bass club bangers such as ‘Benga's Off His Head’ to the more reggae influenced ‘The Judgement’ which you made with Skream. Is it hard following a set style, or do you prefer to mix up it?
Benga: I think it’s really easy to follow a set style. It’s like if I want to write for my DJ sets it’s easy for me to tear it up. I just open up my presets and write really empty drums so I know it’s going to off in a dance. When it comes to writing music it’s hard, because you have to write everything creatively all the time and you need that arena sound fixed on to your tracks, as they’re going to played through club systems.
TWU: Skream and yourself seem to have the perfect partnership when playing live and also from the productions on your tracks too. Would you ever consider doing a Vs album or anything like that?
Benga: We did think about doing a mix/mash up album, but it has come to the point where time is of the essence. With the Magnetic Man album it was pretty hard, because after a month it all got a bit much as we’re mainly used to writing on our own. I think something might happen in the future with us, but at the moment, as in this year, we’re both concentrating on touring and releasing our albums. I wouldn’t ever count us out for doing it.
TWU: You were recently in America spreading the sound of dubstep. How do you think the scene is developing over there?
Benga: America, well, you know it's just one of those places. I’ve been over there a few times and I played at Shy Fx’s dance at a club called ‘Bang, Bang’ and to be honest a lot of people didn’t know the rhythm section, which kind of makes it hard to dance especially with dubstep. Don’t get me wrong, certain songs went off which you would expect but they wouldn’t understand anything that was a bit ‘different’ sounding. Having said that, this year I played in Miami at a festival called ‘Ultra’ and a lot more songs went down better like ‘Baltimore Clap,’ which is a song of mine that is a bit different in the sense that they have grew to understand the songs and the scene a lot more over there now and are looking beyond just the big tracks.
TWU: Dubstep seems to be one of the only music scenes in the UK at the moment where it has crossed over to mainstream success, yet still remaining strong within the underground. Do you think dubstep seems to get overlooked sometimes when it comes to obtaining press coverage in the mainstream publications and radio shows?
Benga: When it comes down things like that it comes down to certain types of people. There are people that are just late getting into the underground music scene, the haters, and then there are people who are just scared to try something different. Like, it comes down to it that the people giving credit to the scene in general, they’re the ones that had the guts in the first place because most of the time it just takes a DJ or promoter to not be scared of putting on a dubstep act. But I’m not surprised it’s taking this long for the scene in general to get some recognition. It’s mainly down to all the haters to be honest, the ones who don’t want it to cross over.
TWU: Lastly, what can we expect from Benga for the rest of this year?
Benga: Big plans. I'm looking to get the Magnetic Man album out there, which is going to be huge and then also planning on getting my own album out this year too. That is something which I’m really looking forward to because everyone else seems to be putting out albums, so I want to put mine out there and see what people make of it and the progression from the last one to the new one.
Stay up to date with Benga on MySpace and Twitter
Words: Benjamin Hill
Online editing: Joseph 'JP' Patterson
