Benza and the art of motorcycle maintenance
Hailing from a musical family, Benza’s first musical dalliances were as far from psy-trance beats as imaginable. Early leanings towards the folk stylings of James Taylor and the progressive excesses of Yes, were soon followed by the then 14 year old Ben Rynderman’s catharsis into the possibilities of rock piano as demonstrated by the outlandishness and creativity of Elton John and Billy Joel respectively.
This path led the young Mr Rynderman to study not one but two music degrees and saw the young musician playing with a range of funk, jazz and rock bands until one day fate, in the way of a brotherly excursion, intervened; changing the young Mr. Rynderman’s musical fate forever. As the now Benza explains “I’d been away overseas for nine months, and came home. I was away listening to Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, I was right into that, not heavily into grunge, but that hard rock edge in the mid 90’s. I came home and my brother had started listening to electronica, and on the way home from the airport he said ‘We’re not going to see a live band on Saturday night, we’re going to see a DJ’. I was like ‘What? We’re going to watch a guy play records?’ and he said ‘Yeah, just come and have a look and see what you think.’ I was absolutely blown away, I’d never heard anything like it. From there I developed a real love for the sound. Then, as I tend to, within six months thought to myself “I have to make this. If I like this so much I want to do it, I want to build it’.”
Despite this new musical addition to his musical showbag; Benza still maintains a foot in both the electronic and more traditional band camps for the myriad of experiences it provides.
Benza explains “Its kind of hard to categorize one into their own bag. Playing jazz for me is a very cathartic experience. There are moments when you, I think anyone in any creative pursuit can tell you that there are moments where you’re genuinely involved in what your doing. You’re so involved that it becomes and ego free activity. Not to get wanky, but Buddhists talk about in terms of their mediation, whereby you’re so deeply involved in your activity, whatever that activity may be, that it’s a Zen thing as well, where it ceases to be you doing it. For me that’s what jazz is about. Jazz is about absolutely submerging myself in the moment, and dealing with the tools that I have as a musician, and making art with that on the fly. That’s an incredibly organic experience.
Playing rock and funk for me is almost the complete diametric opposite of that. In that it’s just balls-to-the-wall fun It’s about energy, passion and testosterone. Just rocking as hard as you possibly can. Not to mention making people happy with the music that you’re making. That applies to all of these genres.
Electronica oddly, probably sits somewhere in the middle. There’s that kinda Zen like aspect. Especially in production where you’ll spend a fifteen hour block in front of your computer and a set of monitors and you’re working so meticulously on one kick drum, or the sound of a high hat and the way that sits in a mix, or where a tracks going to go. Then there’s the performance of electronica which is somewhere between jazz and rock in its presentation. You’re intensely involved in what you’re playing and what you’re doing. You’re just rocking out, and making hundreds of people dance. That’s an incredible feeling”.
So without the backing of a live band, how does the now Benza decide how to move the audience to their own nirvana?
“Having three albums I try to keep pushing my live sets such that if people have heard the record, they’re not just going to come out and hear what they could’ve heard in their lounge room. So there’ll be remixes that I’ve made post-album and there’ll be new stuff that I’m working on. If I’m DJing then I’m a lot freer in what I can do. I’ll always try to play a couple of my own songs, cause I like them, but at the same time there’s so much music out there, and there’s so much music that’s be written that’s so much better than mine. I genuinely mean it, it’s an incredible opportunity to be able to play other people’s stuff cause you’re just like ‘Damn, I wish I could write like that’, and you get to put together a movement. It’s a journey. So what I try to do is start with a sound and manipulate that through two or three hours and end up somewhere completely different. That in it self is a hell of a lot of fun because I’m constantly surprising myself in the booth. I’ll be flipping through a CD book and just be going ‘Oh yeah!! That one!’ You know it’s a track I haven’t thought of for six months and it’ll just slot in exactly. It’s not even a conscious thing, the plan will develop as you’re doing it. In that sense, that’s where that Zen-like jazz improvisation come into it, because you’re building something as you make it and you never know what it’s going to be until you get there”.
All this spiritual speaking is enough to bring out the spiritual love in anyone, prompting this interviewer to ask the only pertinent question; simply, would the erstwhile Benza marry me? To whit came the only possible reply “I would genuinely love to, but I’ve got to head out for a gig”.
Enjoy him Australia, for you are a more tempting mistress than me.
