The Mix 062: Ben Westbeech

Ben Westbeech has just released his first album since 2011, ‘Everything Is Within You’. Written in the wake of pandemic-induced frustrations and amid concerns about the world moving backwards politically, the eight-track LP is a cathartic exhale, leaning into a vibe of golden positivity across its sun-drenched musical arrangements and soulful vocals.

It arrives under Ben Westbeech’s name, but reflects the move to a more collaborative way of working he has embraced in the intervening years between albums. “As I've matured as a producer and a songwriter I've become less like 'it's got to be all about me',” he reflects. “I'm much more in tune with making the music the best it can be — and that doesn't necessarily mean that I can do it all.” Initially conceived across five days at Defected’s London studio, and completed in Ibiza, a stacked roster of musicians have contributed: RAHH, Karen Harding, DAVIE, Obi Franky, Dames Brown, Nick Sheldon, Hot Toddy, Honey Dijon, Luke Solomon, Chris Penny and Mousse T. The result is a record that’s brimming with life.

Other life changes have influenced the mature sound and feel of this album, from becoming a father and living in Ibiza to dabbling in spiritual exploration and sobriety. Westbeech is someone who’s always been influenced by his surroundings. While living in Bristol he made jungle and drum ‘n’ bass, in London and Amsterdam he focused on his Breach project and produced a number of anthemic dancefloor hits in the early 2010s, such as ‘Jack’, ‘Everything You Never Had (We Had It All)’, ‘You Won't Find Love Again’ and ‘Fatherless’, while more recent projects have seen soul, funk and disco influence come to the fore via The Vision, a collaboration with KON, and now ‘Everything Is Within You’.

Westbeech hasn’t completely moved beyond moodier sonics though, revealing he’s back to work on new Breach music and was recently in Bristol making jungle with DJ Die and Bou. “I've never been able to make just one formulaic type of music,” he says. “All of these sounds that I grew up with and inspired the Breach records are back, it seems people are ready to hear it again.”

In the interview below, Ben Westbeech discusses channeling positivity into his new record and how dropping his ego has enabled him to make music that’s the best it can be. Check it out alongside his upbeat mix which blends classic and contemporary records, including some unreleased remixes.
 

The album’s been out for a couple of weeks now, how does it feel to have it out there and the reaction?

It's really nice. We did a Love Vinyl in store and loads of people came down and bought the LP, so that was nice to see, ‘cause it's always a bit funny when you're releasing, you think, Christ, is anybody even gonna turn up? We did some amazing shows at Glitterbox and people seem to know the music now. There's been so much love and support from people, and the positivity and hope has come through. People seem to get that from the album, which was really important for me making it.

You said there was “a lot of frustration in my soul when I was making the record”, which you flipped into positivity. How did those emotions influence what you were recording and how were you able to channel them into something positive?

Coming out of the COVID period, because we made the record two-and-a-half years ago, I was coming out The Vision project and that did really well, but then we couldn't perform it and there was frustrations around that. It felt like a new lease of life. I hadn't been doing much for a while, I didn't really know where to go and what to do, and then these sessions at Defected came up. I met RAHH and Nick Sheldon, I'd known Obi Franky for a while, and then DAVIE and Karen Harding came in, just in this five day period, and it all just became the vehicle for the album. Essentially it was writing sessions for other people, but then when they got the songs, they were too song-y almost — what they wanted was producers. I was like, OK, well let's make this into a different record. And it all just came together in a really easy way, it wasn't a difficult album to make.

I think the positivity helped with that because everyone was just hyped, and that was nice to see. As a producer/songwriter, to work with amazing collaborators has been really eye-opening for me. I've obviously worked with a lot of people and singers in my time, but it just seemed like the right people were thrown in the room together at the right time, and that's then formed really lovely friendships. I class these people as my family now.

So it came together easily in the studio, but there was also a more difficult emotional background to the music. Can you expand on that?

I think the state of the world we're living in at the moment, we seem to be going backwards very quickly in a lot of places, to do with liberty, freedom and subjects like that. We were all feeling it at the time and that just came through lyrically and melodically on the record. 'Your Voice' is, to me, the most emotional part of the record. There was a lot of tears shed between us all when that was finally done; me and Nick were just crying in a car listening to it one day! I think that touches on the power that you have within to change situations and be proud of who you are, and not to get put off by any politicians' measures coming in to stop people being who they want to be. It was our protest against the oppression in the world.

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It's your first solo LP since 2011. What's changed for you in that time and why did now feel right for another full-length?

I think as I've matured as a producer and a songwriter and I've become less like 'it's got to be all about me'. It's the first record where I didn't have this sense of 'I need to jump on this for myself' all the time. I wanted to give people the opportunity to bring something amazing to the table. That's come from maybe dropping my ego a bit, and over the years becoming a bit less like 'I've got to sing on everything!'. For the first 10 years of my career it was like, ‘It's gotta be all about me’, but I think now I'm much more in tune with making the music the best it can be, and that doesn't necessarily mean that I can do it all.

How did the artists you collaborated with influence the final record? You've got RAHH, Karen Harding, DAVIE, Nick Sheldon and Obi Franky who you mentioned, there's also Dames Brown, and Honey Dijon, Luke Solomon, Chris Penny and Mousse T. helping on the production.

They [Honey Dijon, Luke Solomon and Chris Penny] wrote the chords for 'Times Are Changing', that came about on the first day of the sessions. I think I got flown in to write a record for Barbara Tucker, but then a few days before they were like 'This isn't happening, we need to throw some singers in there'. So [former Defected A&R] Adrienne Bookbinder got all these session musicians in. As soon as I met Holly [Quin-Ankrah, AKA RAHH] and we played that first instrumental, it just rolled straight away, me and Holly bouncing off each other, coming up with lyrics, melodies. Eerything I heard she was hearing straight away, which is quite rare as a songwriter and a producer to meet someone who's that in tune, and that quick, to get what you're on about and what you're hearing. And then from that with Nick Sheldon, we just worked as a little team, and it was amazing.

Obi wasn't in the sessions but I'd wanted to write with her for ages, because she'd deputised as a singer for Andreya Triana on The Vision live show [for Defected Virtual Festival]. Dames Brown I'd worked with on The Vision record and have a really wonderful relationship with them. When we were finishing off the tunes I thought they would sound perfect to back up Holly on these tunes. So I sent it over to them and straight away they were like 'Yeah we're really into this, let's do it', thank God! I got sent some videos of Moodymann recording them in Detroit. To have him involved in some way kind of legitimised it more for me, and made it into a really special record.

It feels very sun-drenched and soulful. The artwork was shot in Ibiza, has that location been a significant influence?

Yeah definitely. Anywhere you live is gonna affect the music you make. When I was in Bristol I was making jungle and drum 'n' bass, then in London I was making the Breach records, continued those in Amsterdam, and then made The Vision. I was surrounded by all different people and musical libraries all the time. Ibiza's a place where you can get away from everything a little bit and reflect on things. Having my son as well, just before I started making the record, had a lot to do with it, that taught me a lot of empathy and patience.

There’s the live sessions and performances aspect of the album. How does it feel to bring it to life in a performance sense?

Really, really liberating actually. Because I didn't get to form The Vision stuff [to an audience], so we also do some of The Vision records, and that's really lovely. I think that was one of the frustrations, that we couldn't do that live. To be able to honour the album in a live situation has been wicked. As much as I make music for myself, it's also part of the reward to see crowd reaction and people really enjoying it and singing the tunes back. We've got NT's Loft on June 5 where we're doing a live show. I think we'll see more of the hardcore fans at that one, where people know the songs even more.

You've also had Louie Vega and Josh Milan on remixes. How was hearing their interpretation?

It was an honour. I've known Louie for many years. When he brought Josh in and did those two Soul Fusion remixes it blew it up, almost, to a much bigger point than I think the original would have done, especially on the dancefloor. I just got a video of Masters At Work playing it last night, so that was really lovely. Louie cut acetates of it to go and play at Amsterdam Dance Event and sent us all the footage of that. It's just been a pleasure for someone like him to get behind it. You know, you can pay those guys a lot of money to do remixes and you'll just get a remix and they won't talk about it, but Louie's been very vocal about how much he loves it. That, to me, is amazing, he's obviously one of the greatest to do it and still do it

The music is quite different to what you made as Breach, where you had club anthems such as ‘Jack’ and ‘Everything You Never Had (We Had It All)’. How do you look back on that music now?

I still love it. I'm actually just starting to make Breach records again after having quite a period off it. I think I needed to get away from clubland for a bit. I toured really extensively so I kind of got to a point where I wasn't really enjoying it so much anymore, and had to take a step back and stop gigging, and get into a more creative space again. Now I'm at the point where I'm making a bunch of Breach records at the moment, and I'm quite excited to get back into that to be honest. It's fun, and I think how music is going now, that bassier music is becoming a lot more interesting to people again. Jungle is back, and all of these sounds that I grew up with and inspired the Breach records, it seems people are ready to hear it again.

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How does it feel to have those different outlets with Breach and Ben Westbeech, and be able to explore different sides of yourself?

I've never been able to make just one music [style], I'm always trying to push myself. I think my musical ear changes quite a lot, so it depends on what I'm listening to. I tend to get obsessed with certain artists and then just listen to them for six months solely [laughs]. At the moment I'm into really psychedelic folk and old soul records, and would like to do a project along that sort of area as well.

It can be quite taxing sometimes because you don't know quite where to put things. I think with how people intake music, they want something where 'that's that' and they know what they’re going to get. If you change too much you can really lose your audience. Though I've tended to be very lucky when I've changed with different projects, they seem to get accepted quite easily. It's a strange one, because if you make aliases your workload becomes bigger and you can't just concentrate on one thing all the time. You compartmentalise all the bits and go 'I'll put my hat on for this'. I've just been in Bristol working with DJ Die and Bou making jungle again, so I can go and put these hats on and get into that mode of music. It's kind of like being an actor in a way, you have to just get into a different role.

You often hear from multi-genre DJs that their career suffers from not being able to be put in a box. I guess aliases are a way around that.

I think it's the only way around it unless you want to lose your audience, because people do tend to just like one thing that you do, and then that's it [laughs]. It's frustrating sometimes!

Can you tell us about your mix?

It’s been a pleasure to put this mix together for Mixmag. A magazine I have been following since its conception. It showcases some of the new unreleased remixes from my album and some classics from Paul Johnson and Mousse T. and some newer pieces from Makèz and Athens of the North who will be releasing a 45 version of ‘All In You’ featuring Obi Franky. I hope you enjoy it! Get ready to get bumpin'!

'Everything Is Within You' is out now via Glitterbox, get it here; Ben Westbeech plays NT's Loft on June 5

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Editor & Digital Director, follow him on Twitter

Tracklist:
Paul Johnson – Follow This Beat
Ben Westbeech feat. RAHH & Dames Brown – Do Me Right (Crackazat Mana’s Dub)
Quincy Jones – Stomp (Mousse T´s Ultimate Stomper)
Ben Westbeech feat. RAHH – Times Are Changing (Takin’ It Back Dub)
Prince – 17 Days (East Coast Love Affair Mix)
Ben Westbeech feat. RAHH – Whatever Is Missing In You (ECLA Remix)
Makèz – Love You More (Mr. G's Endlessly in Love Dub)
Afronaut & WheelUP – Oi! (Naut’s Bruk Rican-struction)
Jerome O, DJ Reg, Rahaan – Lost In The Message
Kashmi – Roe Koe (Vocal Mix)
Jazzy & Ankhoï - Closer To The Floor (Breach remix)