Benny Sings Keeps ’70s Inspired Soft Pop Fun & Fresh With Kenny Beats Produced ‘Young Hearts’ (INTERVIEW)

Benny Sings never needs a reason to make music, bringing reason into a session with him in any capacity may be futile. His creativity doesn’t rely on bells and whistles, he finds direction within himself and filters his ideas through his interpretation of the outside world. Sings’ career has always been about minimalism, his discography is filled with exactly what he finds fit for each moment, nothing more and nothing less.

Sings debuted back in 2003 with Champagne People, an album that had Sings playing and recording every last note from the comfort of his home studio. This lack of professional input on the LP gave it this warm, lush sound that we now attribute to the bedroom pop artists of today, although back then the idea of home recordings was not as charming as the internet age has championed them to be. Sings was simply capitalizing on his situation, a young hopeful who has yet to discover himself and the range of colorful music and intimacy that laid dormant deep in his mind. 

Sings, now well into his 40s with three kids to watch over, has always found solace in taking his interest to the most extreme. He was born in Amsterdam as Tim van Berkestijn back in 1977, since a young age he would immediately surrender himself to whatever caught his attention. From picking up jazz young to throwing himself headfirst into skateboard culture, this dedication to what’s in front of him shows the meditative approach to life that shines through his music. Whimsical piano melodies are paired with poetically gentle lyrics that detail his relationship with the world around him. Despite his unwavering dedication to the craft, Sings doesn’t seem to take himself all that seriously. His open-mindedness allows him to be vulnerable, every song released enters your earphones with hesitation and shyness that makes Sings sound even more genuine. 

We find ourselves only a few days away from the latest chapter in Sings’ story. His new album, Young Hearts is set to be released on March 24 via Stones Throw Records. Sings teamed up with the ever-prolific and highly regarded producer Kenny Beats who lent his own bright, borderless world to the ten songs that make up the new LP. The unlikely duo combined forces to piece together an album that captures fleeting memories and transports you back to those emotions while still being present and in control. You can tell these songs were crafted with a blinding joy, Beats and Sings created playful songs that come off as aloof and carefree while still housing meticulously crafted rhythms that feel alive. Young Hearts is a melodic exploration into Sings’ memory bank of love and how his definition of emotion has shifted and changed since he first attempted to put his feelings to music. The help of Beats and his tireless innovation provided the perfect edge to keep these songs from appearing too sugary, proving their innate, effortless chemistry over and over again. 

Glide had the absolute pleasure of hopping on a Zoom call with Benny Sings to discuss the making of Young Hearts, his views on love, and his career so far. Check out our full conversation below: 

What was your childhood like? Did you grow up listening to music? 

Music was very big when I was young, I listened to the vinyl records my parents had. It was the 70s and 80s, cassettes too of course. That included Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, The Beatles, Billy Preston, and all that kind of stuff. 

What was the first instrument you learned to play? Did you use that same instrument to write your first songs? 

It was the clarinet, it was the 80s and I wanted to play the saxophone because I was a big George Michael fan. I loved those awesome saxophone solos. When we went to the saxophone shop they said my hands were too small so I had to start out with the clarinet, it was a bit of a bummer I have to say. I had a great [clarinet] teacher, very jazzy, who taught me how to improvise. It was a lot of fun. It was at a school with a teacher so it was about reading music. There are still some teeth marks on my clarinet from the frustration and anger so it wasn’t all great. 

So you still have that same clarinet, do you get attached to the instruments you collect? 

No, I’m super non-materialistic so I don’t get attached to anything. I do still have the same clarinet because I didn’t throw it out which makes sense to me. I’ve got my Fender Telecaster in combination with the Roland Jazz Chorus amp. I’ve got a beautiful piano, a nice drum kit, and a good Fender jazz bass from ‘77, the year I was born. That’s it, I don’t need any more. 

There is a lot of hip-hop influence in your early work, you were even in a hip-hop group at some point. When did you start listening to rap and how do you feel the genre has influenced you the most? 

It was in the early-to-mid-90s when I became familiar with hip-hop. I was an adolescent skater and when you were a skater back then you had two choices, punk or hip-hop. I played a little punk myself but I was totally into hip-hop. It started out with De La Soul and The Roots then the late 90s came and it was Lauryn Hill and of course Pharell Williams, who is also a huge influence so it was really big for me. 

What was it like transitioning from being in a band to releasing solo material? 

Those were all in my hometown with my high school friends who I’m still close with today, but they weren’t musicians. I was the one writing songs and doing everything, we got older and they didn’t want to be in a band anymore. I just didn’t have those musical peers and I looked for them and tried to make music with other people but it never did what I wanted to do. I started to sing for myself over my beats because there was no one around. 

What were those early recording sessions like? 

I was making a lot of bedroom pop stuff but that didn’t really exist back then, it hadn’t evolved and there wasn’t even really internet yet. I did this weird study that involved electronic music so I had the equipment to record at home. I just made the albums sitting on my bed basically, that was in the late 90s and early 2000s. 

Photo by Pierre Zylstra

How do you feel you’ve grown since those early releases? 

I believe in the 10,000-hour theory, I notice that with songwriting you just get better the more you do it. It comes easier to me to write a song, back in the day when I was making that first album I’d be struggling with a song for months and months and I just didn’t feel like what the chorus was or what the verse was. There was no comprehension of the theory yet and now that’s all very transparent to me. I wouldn’t say that makes your art better or anything, art doesn’t follow those rules, unfortunately. Art just happens wherever you least expect it but it makes it easier to write a song so that’s where I’ve evolved, soundwise and my technical skills have evolved a lot as well. 

What has been the biggest change in your personal life and has that affected the music you create? 

I’m a dad of three kids now. When I started out I was in a really shitty place which was kind of beautiful, I was just writing about the life I hoped to have. Those early songs were so full of despair, hope, and longing but the music is still the same I guess. Now it’s more based on my actual life, singing about how I love my wife and all of that. Back then it was more about how I would love my future wife and how I hoped to be able to love someone. 

How do you feel you’ve changed the most since becoming a dad? 

I became more confident as a human being. You get this huge assignment and responsibility that gives you this ultra focus on doing something good because you have to take care of this family. You’re going in a different mode working-wise, it’s not like it inspires me in a way where I’m writing about my kids or becoming softer or anything like that, you’re just more focused on working your ass off. It’s nice to write with that newfound confidence. 

How would you define love and how has it played a role in your life? 

When I was young, love was about longing and not getting anything. That’s how I taught myself what love was, putting people on a pedestal and not being able to reach someone, and eventually just being rejected. Love was pain, it was something you don’t get. It’s real crazy that if you experience that for a long time when you actually receive love, it’s confusing. You’re not used to that feeling, you’re used to something that’s unreachable and doesn’t want you. If that turns around you might not recognize it as love at first. That’s been a shift in my life now, having true love in my life. It’s so different from the love in a lot of love songs which is about being overwhelmed and intoxicated, this love is way more real and easy. My wife is sitting across from me so I have to weigh every word now but it’s romantic in a different kind of way. It’s just two people sitting on a couch, choosing each other. 

What is the most vulnerable song you’ve released? 

It’s probably from the early days, I was such a mess. “We Ain’t Going Nowhere” was one of those songs, that was me writing about all those nights being in clubs looking for love. Everyone is hooking up then there’s me on my bike alone, going back to my house and just writing about that. “We Ain’t Going Nowhere” is meant like this is a shit show. 

What went into the decision to sign with Stones Throw Records? 

Stones Throw was huge for me, I’m a big J Dilla fan. He was one of the producers that got me into making music as I do now. I listened to a lot of hip-hop but I always loved these choruses where they would put the hook from old records in because what Dilla did a lot was sample blue-eyed soul and yacht rock. I didn’t know that at the time, I was just a hip-hop fan. I wanted to make hip-hop but skip the verses and the raps and make a verse that’s just as hooky as the chorus. That’s how I made my first album and critics wrote “this is kind of like yacht rock and blue-eyed soul” so then I dove into that. I recognized all these samples that Dilla used, that was funny to me. When we got the call from Stones Throw, it was so full circle for me.

One of your first releases through the label was the Santa Barbara EP, a collection of covers you recorded. What inspires you to cover a song? 

I’ve never been a cover guy. When I started joining bands in the 90s covers were looked down upon, it was the grunge period. When I signed to Stones Throw, they told me about this fun thing they do when they sign someone new where the artist records a cover so the fans can get to know the artist better. It was Stones Throw and I was getting older and getting rid of all those do’s and don’ts so I figured why not. I sent them my version of “Passionfruit” by Drake, it felt perfect because it’s a weird song, and not a lot of people were into it. I felt like I could give the song another interpretation and explain the song to people who might not like the song, you really do it with a mission. 

I’ve heard the new album is influenced by yacht rock, were you listening to a lot of that genre when working on Young Hearts? Do you tend to listen to a lot of music during the recording process? 

For some of the songs on Young Hearts, I would say there was some inspiration from other albums, but not every song. There were a few songs that we were listening to Toto and stuff like that, really freaking out about how good they were and how to make that kind of music. It’s also just making music so you’re putting on a beat and pressing chords, it’s not all that rational. It has a structure in a way where we just make beats and make chords over that to get the instrumental then just sing along to it and see what pops up. It’s just gibberish then you figure out some words and meanings. 

Do you need that instrumental base to start writing or are you able to sit down and write whenever? 

I’ve never been a lyrical writer, I’ve always been an instrumentalist and producer. I think a lot of songwriters write like this but what you do is you just start to play music, someone starts to strum a guitar and I play a beat. Then you just mumble, and you get into this subconscious zone where stuff just comes out and simultaneously you’re listening and thinking then you’re like “wait, that can work ”. All of a sudden, there’s a word that strikes me for this song and I go from there. 

How did Kenny Beats end up producing Young Hearts

I did a song with Mac Demarco and he and Kenny Beats are friends. Demarco was at his house and he played the song for him. Immediately Kenny said, “I’m going to work with this guy”, that’s just how Kenny works. I got a message on Instagram from him then we talked on Zoom and we just decided to go for it. I didn’t know the guy at all, and I didn’t know if I could trust him but it was totally the real deal. I was so blessed to be there to experience his studio and his house and all those people there. Everyone from Thundercat to Demarco and all the other people, it was such a great vibe and experience. 

Do you think having that trust in collaborators like Kenny makes for better music? 

No, I don’t think art follows any rules. It would’ve been a great world if you were a great person and had your technical skills down and worked hard you’d make great art, that’s just not the case. Art does what it wants, it’s unpredictable. If you want to make a nice life, you choose to work with the people you like but that doesn’t promise good art, unfortunately. 

How long did the recording process take? 

It was a couple of weeks. There was one week with Kenny, one week with me alone at the piano in Amsterdam, and one week with my writing partner Adam. I did one more week with a whole band, so four weeks of making a million songs, and those were spread out over a few months. Then there were two months of working with Kenny online, just sending stuff back and forth. It was a great working relationship, it felt really effortless. Collaboration can be frustrating, people can be dominant and not have the exact same vision but with Kenny, two words were enough. He really understood what Benny Sings was about and that was a really great experience. 

Any favorite memories from the recording process? 

It was really special to be in Los Angeles at Kenny’s house. I’m just a dutch guy from the 80s, the USA is still the promise country, and I’ve been deeply influenced by American culture starting with Sesame Street and A-Team, all of that stuff. To be at a place where I can experience that culture for myself is really special. 

Were there conversations about the direction of the album before you started recording it? 

We talked about how I felt stuck with my records, every record I made was in my realm. I wanted Young Hearts to be more out there and reach more people, that was the first conversation with Kenny over Zoom. He was so confident he just said “of course, I can do that. I can give you that extra slap that makes it bounce and pop more”. He totally did that so it turned out really cool.  

Do you see yourself recording an album with a sole producer again? Did this experience change your views on that at all? 

It would be a blast to work with Kenny again but I wouldn’t say I’m on a path to working with a million different producers. It was a great experience but I’m looking forward to being behind the piano on my own again. Who knows what the future brings, Young Hearts feels like the last big idea to work with one producer and every album has a big idea behind it but I think I’m done with that. I’m just going to see what comes my way and go with the flow, I’m looking forward to that. 

What was it like putting together this tracklist? 

We made maybe 50 songs or something like that, well maybe 70. For me, it’s always clear which songs to choose and I was lucky enough that Kenny just let me choose. It’s very personal, the people I work with have totally different choices but I always just go with the songs I love the most. Then they’re not finished yet so then you have to finish them which is always the hardest thing, to capture the magic and keep it magical without it becoming too over-rationalized, that’s the hard work. The thing with me is that I might be too quick to consider a song completed, I don’t dwell on songs. I just finish them real quick but then I hear about Mark Ronson working on a song for three years and all I can think is just, “wow”. I can’t imagine working on a song that doesn’t do it for you yet but still believing in it for years. For me, it’s clear if a song doesn’t have it so I just throw it out and if it does have it it’s very easy to write it, it writes itself. I could maybe learn something from Ronson though. 

How did you decide on the title Young Hearts

It was just something that came out of my mouth when I was making the first song, I really don’t know where that came from at all. I just blurted it out and when you blurt something out like that, a story comes to your heart. Then you need some kind of arc so I thought about adolescence gone wrong. 

Can you talk about the single “My World”? Does travel help inspire you at all? 

I’m not a traveling person at all. That song isn’t from a personal perspective, I was just trying to find a song that feels innocent. This made me think about the good old days, the 70s. People were traveling around the world and feeling excited about that. I’m very much a stay-at-home kind of guy, of course, I feel fortunate to go on tours and travel but the song is not about that. It’s about nostalgia, about a time that’s gone. 

Did having kids change your views on touring? 

It got better, way better. I was such a mess, just anxious and I didn’t like to adventure and I didn’t like performing at all honestly. Now that I have a family and confidence from them, it’s just fun now because I also got used to it more, nowadays it’s so much better to go on tour. It’s difficult to leave home but man, it is good to be away for a while. 

You’ve brought up confidence a few times, was there a key moment where you noticed that shift in self-assuredness? 

It was pretty seamless. A moment that was special for me was John Mayer liking a song of mine, which got me an enormous boost. He’s like a prototype songwriter, he’s a big influence on every songwriter. He just makes songs that are so classic and mine were so weird and glued together and for him to say they were good songs made me feel like I was welcomed into the songwriter’s guild. After that, I can’t deny it anymore. I’m not some schmuck, I can really write a song. Before I found this confidence, writing was a drag. It was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, and still is, it’s not easy writing songs. It was particularly hard when you really have no idea if you were good or not, you start asking stuff like “should I even be doing this, what the fuck am I doing?” and that was constant for the first 10 years of my professional life. 

What keeps you interested in recording after all these years? 

I just love this life of providing for my family by making stuff I hope people will like, it’s a very beautiful thing. I’ll keep being inspired because I still love music, every new song that hits you inspires me to make music myself. “Take A Chance” by Domi & JD Beck was the last song that really struck me, especially since the chorus is just so good. It was one of those moments where I had to ask myself “how do these chords work, why is this so beautiful?”. I find inspiration in deconstructing these musical moments that touch me.  

Is there something you hope people take away from the album? 

It’s not about real meaning, it’s just a feeling. I hope people enjoy it and feel good listening to the album, that’s it. 

Related Content

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter