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Sleeve Notes: Benga on Chapter II

Earlier this month saw the release of local lad turned international dupstep star, Benga, release his second long player: Chapter II. Reflecting that the ideas the tracks are built on are second time around workings of Benga’s initial ideas that have been influenced in a big part by the dynamics he experienced between the music and the crowd on his recent tours, the album, for him, is about being in a certain time and place. As he states in the release notes: “I thought the record was finished but I could see what was missing from it. Watching 15,000 people go crazy in an arena to ‘Choose 1’, there was no better feeling in the world. Writing a record is about being in a particular time and place. That’s what Chapter II is.” And much as there is a story to a finished album there are stories behind each of the tracks, so Benga has kindly supplied us with this track by track personal account of the story of the tunes that make up Chapter II. For fans of the record it’s that perfect way of getting closer to the music and for those who haven’t, be sure to invoke your click reflex taking which’ll take you directly to his record store before he joins us to headline Room One with Youngman a week on Friday. Benga on Chapter II Yellow Towards the end of making the record I had 30 or more songs. This was what was missing – the undeniable opener. I knew I needed a song to raise the tempo and kick it off. I didn’t know that I was going to start the record at drum and bass tempo but when I did it, it felt right. It felt like going back to the beginning of what I wanted to do with the record. This whole thing about being Benga, not just being a dubstep artist had to start coming out. Yellow nailed it. Smile ‘Charlie XCX wrote the lyric and sang it. I heard the hook and loved it instantly. In terms of the melody and where it was going everything about it made sense. Charlie can’t be any older than 20 but she’s mad pro. She’d knock out great harmonies first take. I toured with her in Australia and she’s a great girl, another piece of the puzzle. My manager said “I don’t think you know what you’ve made here.” I don’t change a lot of the structure of songs for vocalists. I‘ve always just wrote in a way that suits vocals being on top.’ Click and Tap Part of what my favourite albums do really well is not just having the bangers, so putting this track here became part of the plan. A great album has to have clever music that sends you outside the box. Putting Click and Tap at this point of the album means the listener can go somewhere else. When you do a track like this it encourages you to go a bit deeper. It’s head music. Forefather Kano wanted me to do his album and we ended up picking out some tunes to inspire it. I’d written the instrumental for Forefather on tour and told him “you need to go old school.” It’s a reference and homage to things that inspired us both. Do the dance-floor smashes rather than things people would expect. He came back to me with the lyric, about where we come from. He’s a genius lyricist. I’ve known Kano for years, one of the best. I Will Never Change This was the first track I wrote for the record. It’s funny because when I say I Will Never Change you might think I’m talking about my music but it’s actually about my goals and where I’m trying to get to. I talk about this vision. I’ve veered from it so many times and that song is a statement of me going back to my original thoughts and saying I should drive this, I shouldn’t let anyone drive it for me. I might end up with something completely wrong but it sounds emotional to me. Sometimes it’s musical madness. But that’s what will make me a Timbaland or a Dre. You’ll know a Benga record because it doesn’t sound like anybody else’s version of what is right. Choose One It’s a smash. I toured with Youngman who I met through the drum and bass don, Adam F. I was always a big fan and saw him at a show and Youngman was his MC. I instantly thought this guy’s up there. He had everything you want in a frontman. That night we hung out, had jokes, I’d bought a new watch and put in under my bed, paranoid after a mad one. I left it in the hotel and he asked me “where’s the watch?” and saved it for me. We toured together and became best friends. I could hear where he needed to be as an artist. Every song we’ve written is about something that happened on tour. It’s about us fighting over a girl. It’s gaming. He won. He deserved to. There’s No Soul This is my reference to music nowadays. When I sit down and do something like this I might take in influences, and there is a bit of Detroit in there, but it’s just about playing chords and making them work for how I feel. It’s hard for me to put my finger on what soul in a record is. if it moves me, then its soulful. Higher This was written with a songwriter I’ve worked with a lot and that I love to work with. We went in the studio and wrote six or seven songs together. The first songwriter I ever worked with was on I Need Air. I signed my publishing deal and all the people at the label thought I would be the UK guy. I started to realise I had to slow down and concentrate on the writing side of things. It took me a long time to realise it but I ended up getting to a place where I could write a song like Higher. To Hell and Back This is about me doing something I might’ve done at the start, back in 2007. It’s a glimpse back to the old dance-floor tracks. I always thought this record could be massive. It needed something to place me back to my roots, to let the listener know where I came from. High Speed P-Money is the man, a great rapper. He smashes it, we put the vocoder on him, it works. Lyrically, hooks, he’s a genius and I know I’ll always work with him, even when I’m producing Lil Wayne albums. Am I going to do that? 100%. We’re going to take this record to America. Chapter II: To Inspire ‘This was knocked into shape on tour, where some of the craziest ideas happen. You come off stage hyped and need to channel that adrenaline. Laying down a track’s a good way of doing it. If I get it down it’s always completely out there. The only connecting fact of this record is that it’s me doing it. The way I produce is slightly mad.’ Running Young sent me a vocal. I just put the vocal through a vocoder and started playing. It was important for me to sound fresh. The beat structures and the bass are important but I write lots of hooks and they’re what shape my sound. Great songs, mental sounds, big bass and groovin’ drums. That always drives the song, even when the drums are simple, the movement of it. Waiting I wrote that with Daniel Ledinski and rudi, who I think are amazing songwriters. Daniel really gets my crazy music. I have to be quite particular with songwriters. I’m not correct musically, so people have to adjust and tap into that. I walked in with a beat which they loved, they told me to leave and I was walking around London they laid down a vocal. The same vocal recorded in that day hasn’t been touched. War Zone Sam Frank is a legend musically. There is no-one else like him. I love his crazy chords and how beautiful they always sound. He is another songwriter that totally gets my crazy music, he is set for big things. For more info and tickets check our listings here.
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