Undiscovered Band Of The Month: Benu

Filter is proud to announce our final Discover The Undiscovered artist of 2008, meet Benu. Originally, Benu started out with the task of making hip-hop beats for his good friend and Day Blues emcee, Rob Wilcox, who loved to rap but had no beats. After years of producing hip-hop beats, he found a love for the genre and decided to release his solo project with much more diversity and freedom, Beautiful Usuals. A strange mix of ancient jazz samples, hip-hop and moody electronica, Benu's music takes you through a sound scape that is both futuristic and antique.

myspace.com/benuarts
benuarts.com

Who are your main influences?
Blockhead, Prefuse 73, Aphex Twin, El-P, Ant and RJD2

How did you meet?
Since I am solo act, this question doesn't apply but since I have so many collaborators I can elaborate a little. One of the major contributors, Jamuel Saxon, was very instrumental in helping develop several of the tracks. We met when I was in college and he was visiting from Vegas. I was in my dorm room bumping beats annoyingly loud and he poked his head in and we started working together for years to follow. Brizz I went to preschool with and Threadbare Revolution is a friend from my hometown as well.

What is your biggest achievement as a band to date?
I would say the production of "The album" by Day Blues. Also my new EP.

Where did the band name originate?
Honestly, I don't exactly remember. For a long time I went by the name POP, because the rappers I was producing for thought I was kind of like a fatherly figure. People always say I'm kinda like an old man. The name Benu just came out of Rob Wilcox's mouth randomly when we were brainstorming for a new alias for me. Just liked how it sounded. And just so you know it's pronounced ben-oo not ben-yoo. Obvisously it's related to my birth name, Benjamin. Wish there was a cooler story.

Favorite Bands?
Wow. Hard question. Blockhead, Buck 65, MF Doom, El-P, Cryptic One, Badly Drawn Boy, Dr. Dog, Sea Wolf, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Elliot Smith and many more...

Plans to Tour?
Because my music is purely laptop created, I haven't really gotten to this stage yet. I see it more as a creation in time and very different than the live music a band plays. I'm not a DJ and many of my songs, especially on this EP, have been rescued for old files that I don't have the original sources for. In short, no plans as of now.

Plans for next release?
Yes. There will be a full length soon. On the new album, "untitled" as of today, my plan is to have more vocals and collaborate with other musicians for a wider variety of style and depth

Bonus free streaming song: "Nothing Left"

Comments

[Darren Pearson]

Great album! Especially like "Cat got your tongue" & "Gone like the moon" at dawn"