Image credit: Sander Coers

You may know music producer and director Bastian Benjamin from his live performance at Eurosonic Noorderslag in 2018, and more recently the Valkhof Festival and Popronde in 2019. If you missed out, do not fret as the IDM musician has shared his latest music video and single ‘Concrete’. The new video is sure to give you an idea of the energy and passion that this young artist puts out into his performances; from his attention to detail with direction for the emotive ‘Concrete’ music video, as well as the chilling social commentary on the single.

We find out what inspires Bastian Benjamin’s music below.

What inspires you?

I get inspired by walking in the forest and listening to the sound of nature.

Did the chaos and anarchy happening right now; from Black Lives Matter to the global pandemic influence your new single?

The single was made before the pandemic and Black Live Matter. But the video clip on the other hand is indeed partly influenced by the Black Lives Matter movement. The BLM movement and the video clips have common ground in the fact that one must learn to understand and accept the other side of the story.

At what point in your life did you have that moment where you said to yourself “This is it. This is the type of music I want to create?”

It was quite recently that I realized how much satisfaction it brought me to just create music without it needing to be bound to a specific genre. I think it was around the time that I started working together with artists from other disciplines.

Most underrated piece of equipment / software?

Making recordings with your smartphone

Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, what do you prefer?

They are both amazing. But I think creating new things will always be number one for me.

What’s the weirdest or most amazing reaction you’ve had to your music?

I find it amazing when people create art with my music. One time, a person sent me a video of 20 dancers doing a complete choreography to one of my tracks.

Where is dance music going?

The borders between genres are already almost gone. I think that this ‘genre-less’ music will break out of the underground and mix with the mainstream. Even more, than it’s doing right now.

All-time favourite album?

Massive Attack – Mezzanine

You previously mentioned this powerful statement, “If you only accept your own world, you’ll end up in strange places that you can never escape from.” Do you think that one will live an unhappy life if they only accept their world? 

Great question.

When everyone is only accepting their world. There will also be people who won’t be accepting your world. And I think happiness partly comes from being able to share it with one another. With that in mind, we can only live a truly happy life when we accept each other’s world. 

What have you got in the pipeline for the near future?

My album ‘Two Truths’ will come out on December 4th. I’m working on combining my sound with vocals and for after the album.

Follow Bastian Benjamin:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Soundcloud – Youtube – Instagram – Spotify