Celebrating 20 years of Benny Sings | New Day - video Dailymotion

CNN Philippines

Dutch musician and songwriter Benny Sings was in Manila last week as part of his Asia tour.  New Day host Christine Jacob-Sandejas sat down with him as he celebrates his 20th year in the industry and looked back at the songs that have defined his career.  He also shared his thoughts on his newest album, 'Young Hearts' and how his music has changed through time.  Visit our website for more #NewsYouCanTrust: https://www.cnnphilippines.com/  Follow our social media pages:  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CNNPhilippines • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cnnphilippines/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/cnnphilippines

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00:00 I don't think it has evolved that much. I mean I pretty much like what I like, you

00:06 know, so it stays the same a bit, but I think the songwriting, the quality of

00:11 the songwriting just evolved a lot. So the songs on Champagne People

00:16 are just very, very clunky. I'm just trying out like how does this work, you

00:23 know, and with the last I mean I'm able to tell more of a story or

00:32 something like that. But you have also seemed to be able to accumulate fans

00:36 from way back when, when you were starting, to new fans. Would you need to

00:41 adjust the music? No, so the fun thing is that like maybe five to ten years ago

00:50 suddenly my kind of music, which was pretty soft and like gooey maybe,

00:56 and that music came into vogue or something, you know. So it was for

01:05 me like a surprise. I was always like a misunderstood artist and no one

01:09 got it. Like what's he doing? Is he like making Disney music? It's like

01:14 odd for an indie artist, you know. And then all of a sudden this Bedroom Pop

01:18 came and all of a sudden I was like a grandfather of Bedroom Pop, you

01:26 know. So that was a total surprise to me. You were just way ahead of your time. I

01:30 mean you knew that this would happen without people even knowing that there

01:35 was such a thing as Bedroom Pop and you fiercely defended it. I mean so much so

01:39 that you pretty much stuck to your guns without deviating and trying new things.

01:44 And people are saying that it's pretty gooey. Yeah, I can't help it. I mean it's

01:51 not that I was thinking about trends or anything like that. It's just like I'm

01:55 trying to find music that resonates for me and with my voice, my specific voice.

02:00 And it always lands on this romantic kind of soft lullabies with a hip-hop

02:08 like influence underneath it, you know. There's not a lot of you out there that

02:14 have this title or respect from your fellow musicians. How does that

02:20 make you feel? And what makes a musician's musician? How does one become one? Can we join the elite group of musicians?

02:29 It's like a comedian's comic, you know. It's like someone that never seems to

02:38 reach the big, big, huge crowd, you know. But all your fellow

02:47 musicians, in my case, hear what I'm doing. They get you. Yeah, and it's a

02:57 beautiful place to be because you don't have to deal with all the fame stuff

03:02 and all that, you know. And you still can have a career and just make

03:08 music for a living. Was there a turning point in your 20-year career that it

03:15 just kind of made sense, like an "aha" moment? Was there ever a point that said...

03:20 Maybe four to five years ago? Yeah, that it all started to make sense.

03:26 The rooms that I was in, I saw people singing along to my music

03:32 and stuff. And I really felt like it started to resonate. Do you have like a

03:37 mantra, philosophy or anything that allows you to stay grounded? Because

03:43 where you're at, I mean, it's easy. Well, so far to you, you haven't been swayed

03:49 left or right. But it is easy to shift or the trend is going

03:55 this way, you know. Maybe we should try this way. Do you have a certain mantra?

03:58 Yeah, I think the mantra is make a lot, make as much as you can and

04:07 stick to your plan. That's the thing because you see a lot of people

04:13 in those 20 years that their plans were constantly changing and those are all

04:20 gone now. You have this simple, organic type songwriting style. I mean, it just

04:31 hits. You don't have 20 million words out on a paper. You just have a

04:35 few and sometimes you just keep saying them over and over. But they

04:39 seem to hit home. Tell me about that, about your songwriting style, maybe

04:45 inspirations and how did you come to that sort of formula, if there is one?

04:51 I think what's important for me in music is that it doesn't become too rational

04:58 or too much in your head. I never tend to feel that kind of music with

05:04 my heart, that music that has a ton of ideas in it. So I think for me

05:12 music is an act of the subconscious a lot. And the

05:18 subconscious, we don't know what happens there. So you just have to

05:21 trust on whatever you go through, hearing something. But how do you do your

05:27 collabs? How do you choose? Is it the same sound? No, it's just like you

05:37 choose from your gut. I have to say my manager is also a big

05:44 part of my building my career and he comes up with all sorts of ideas and we

05:50 talk about it together and then we choose wisely. Was there ever a song

05:56 maybe that you thought should have happened but didn't happen in terms of

06:02 the public? Yeah, like Big Brown Eyes. It didn't happen? Well it did happen but way later.

06:11 So when I released it nothing happened even I showed it to my friends.

06:16 I was like yeah well it's a nice song and I thought like but this is it.

06:20 This is like for me the most emotional song I wrote.

06:26 And then later it creeped up in 10 years time and after 10 years it

06:32 suddenly became my most streamed song. So that's really weird without radio no one

06:38 even like talking to me saying they like the song. You just saw the numbers like

06:42 creep up very slowly. Young Hearts is your latest album and it is out. Maybe a

06:49 little bit about that inspiration or is there a certain theme? Well I worked with

06:54 Kenny Beats. Yeah. That was like the big thing for me. Pajamas is good.

06:59 Thank you. So for me that was a totally different experience to work with a

07:05 producer because normally I produce myself. And that was so much fun

07:11 and it was so much easier to write. And it was just like I didn't need

07:16 to explain anything to Kenny. He just gets what a certain artist is about and

07:23 then pumps it up another notch. And you don't have to do anything. You just

07:27 sit there. That was really a beautiful experience.

Celebrating 20 years of Benny Sings | New Day

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