Benga - Chapter Two

Ten years ago, age 14, the afro-haired producer the world now knows as Benga, went to his first club, FWD>> at London’s now defunct Velvet Rooms, the night widely acknowledged for founding the bassy UK garage hybrid, dubstep. Having put in years of labour in the music industry, Benga, now age 24, is a leading light in the rising global dubstep movement alongside his childhood friend, Skream. He's also one third of Magnetic Man (with Skream and Artwork), produced songs for Katy B and just days away from finishing his new album out early 2012. Benga was kind enough last week to take some time away from the studio to chat with Thomas Nall for Pulse about this so called dubstep that especially this year has been getting the masses excited. 





Pulse: How are you, what’s been happening lately? Benga: Good good, just sitting up here in the studio finishing off my album.

I heard it’s coming out soon, do you have a release date? Well, it’s around April. Our first single should be in February, sorry WILL be in February (laughs).

Do you have a name for it yet? I’m thinking of calling it Chapter Two.

Obviously growing up with dubstep you have seen its explosion of popularity. What do you think of the scene today and the varying styles of so-called dubstep? I love it, I guess like the good thing for me is the fact that I can go anywhere and hear different styles of the music or the genre and there’ll be people there that like my music.

You guys recently came out to Australia for Parklife as Magnetic Man, and your playing with Skream for the Field Day and Summadayz festivals soon, are you looking forward to playing again in Australia so soon? Yeah definitely, touring as Magnetic Man that was one of the most exciting tours we’ve ever done. Definitely one of the best, I can’t wait to come back after the album comes out in England.

How do you see Australian fans reception of your music and dubstep in general to, say, England or Europe? Every single one of the dates we played in Australia was amazing, it was ridiculous. People knew all the words [to our Magnetic Man tracks] it was a lot like London.

You just released a split EP Any Steppers, with Skream, it’s not like anything I’ve heard from you, can you give us a bit of a run down the sort of sound you were looking for? Any Steppers kind of reminds me of a rock tune. It’s quite steppin’, it’s different because I always have mad energy to my drums and loads of movement whereas this one is kind of like half-step and just rock and roll.

Apart from doing solo stuff, you also often do work with Skream and you also team up with Artwork to form Magnetic Man. Do you enjoying having different combinations of music creation? What does it allow you to do? I guess, you work differently when you work with other people so when we do a Magnetic Man record its different, like, someone will jump in and do drums and someone will jump in and do a bass line and whatever so you kind of end up with a different sound to what you would normally do. It’s refreshing.

You’ve been releasing dubstep for almost a decade now, how do you keep coming up with fresh music? Do you find it harder to push the boundaries within the genre? Sometimes, I guess it’s like it takes time. You have to spend a lot of time in the studio messing around, I guess the key at the moment is the sound you need to get that kind of punchy-ness and fat-ness. You have to get the right sound and mess around with how punchy it sounds in the mix, which takes a little bit longer I guess. But no I wouldn’t say it’s a harder process, just a longer process.

Who are the up and coming musicians you are really admiring? At the moment I’m really into Dream he’s just been out to Australia, also into Guest, Instra:Mental, I couldn’t really leave him out because I like his sound,  guess that’s it from me for the minute.

Is it mostly guys from England that your looking too or do you find that there’s a lot more from all around the world? There’s a lot of producers around the world that are good but at the minute the ones that I think are pushing the boundaries are two UK guys so I’ve got to leave it to them.

What do you guys think of bro step from the US? I know that you have mentioned that it dubstep in America is increasing in popularity, even though it’s a very different scene than in the UK? Yeah, this is the thing right, the live shows in North America now days I just cant believe it, its so big. Skream and I have done a tour of the states, and we’ve done a Magnetic Man tour and played to gigs of like 8,000 and 10,000 people in places like LA. We’ve done some really big gigs out there that would be kind of hard to do here [England], but it’s a bit different I guess.

What’s it like touring and playing with a longtime mate (Skream)?  It’s the best thing because it’s just like your having a laugh the whole time. It’s just like you feel a lot more at home, back chilling with your friends, and that’s how you act.

Good luck with the album! Thanks,  it’s so crazy I think I’m about five or six days away from finishing it. So you guys will be hearing that when I come out [to Australia].

Win tickets to Field Day here

Win tickets to Summadayz here

Listen to Benga on Pulse Radio