Benny Pitcher talks to us about his new Rebirth EP

Benny Pitcher July 2023

Benny: Good afternoon, and thanks for giving me such a great opportunity to tell Paper, your audience and the readers of Zone Magazine about me as an artist, my work, and the music production processes I employ in the recording studio.

Paper: Hi Benny, many thanks for chatting with us at Paper and dropping such an ace release with your Rebirth release. Lots of energy in both tracks which sound very
familiar in their style yet also really unique. Were there any specific influences you had in mind when making the tracks?

Benny: Yep, with you, I have already released three tracks, “Transatlantic Motion”; inside Wild Army Vol.6 and the EP “Rebirth”, including “Lips Like Roses”; and “So Good”. As you may have noticed, all these musical compositions are filled with soulful sound and vibe with an admixture of electronics. I love combining them together. These tracks were created in the spring, so the expectation of summer was one of the factors.

Paper: Is there a process you have when producing, or does it change from track to track?

Benny: At first, I often start going through jazz seventh chords (due to my musical presentation), which, in my opinion, give an intellectual sound, the general atmosphere of the track. When I cook a musical dish, speaking in the language of cooking, I often start with a chord sequence, going over it on the synthesizer according to the mood. And then I hang bass, drum lines, and additional nuances (trumpet, horn, brass, funk guitar). But there are cases when a vocal sample is taken as a starting point when writing a track. That’s exactly what happened in “Rebirth”.

Paper: Do you follow a specific workflow in the studio, and what is your set-up? Any specific go-to plug-ins or instruments?

Benny: My home studio is located in a country house with a view of the garden, and there, looking out the window, I work with sound images, all processing of which takes place in FL Studio. There are favourite VSTi, including Nexus, Sylenth, Omnisphere, Monopoly, Alchemy and others; VST: Valhalla, Hdelay, OTT, Izotope Ozone, all of Waves and more. And also I often practice playing the piano.

Paper: Away from the hectic world of dance music, what other artists or genres do you like to listen to?

Benny: I grew up listening to music of different genres and absorbed all these trends. Broken rhythms from Chemical Brothers, fabulous atmosphere and journey to another dimension together Underworld, magnificent harmonies and lyrics from George Michael, Jamiroquai and Simply Red, a clear groove from House music, as well as sampling from Daft Punk pioneers, all this allowed me to realize and mix all my feelings and emotions into my eclectic style. There are interesting solutions and techniques in every musical genre. I have quite a large collection of music in various genres, from where I have drawn and am drawing inspiration. I’ve been listening to Darius, Disclosure, Black Coffee, SG Lewis, Lovebirds and many others.

Paper: Lastly, do you have a favourite studio snack you will always tuck into when working on music?

Benny: (Laughs). Of course, milk and oatmeal cookies.

Check out the Rebirth EP by Benny Pitcher out now on Paper: HERE.

Interview by Chris Massey

The Wild Kiwi Army Vol. 7

If you thought the Kiwis were a friendly, genial bunch then think again, The Wild Army has gone down under to rob, steal, conquer and plunder.

Max Maxwell’s Always Right In goes in with some bouncing big room house made to be heard on a big rig. Squelching bass, spoken word, smooth production and a breakdown for peak time as the delayed synths wonk out.

Marcos Alonso’s remix ups the wobble and squelch but makes it a more heads-down affair. Proper nailed down, deep house music that delivers.

Nick Munday goes techno with acid bass, arpeggiated arps, MPC drums and a whole heap of machine soul. One for the heads, the dancers and the ravers.

Marcos’ Piece Of The Puzzle is subterranean house music that wobbles, burbles and slides along, driven by rhythm guitar. Synth melodies, SFX vocal snippets and smooth production go late night.

Paper artist Kennedy takes Piece of the Puzzle, keeping things low and slow but adding a bit of extra fizz. Warped vocals take things leftfield.

 

Anthony Mansfield – Tidy sleaze right there

Inland Knights – Great stuff

Harri (Sub Club) – Liking, will play and support

Aldrin Zouk – Tasty package of deep cuts. Thanks!

 

BUY  / STREAM

 

The Wild Army Vol. 4

The army are back and its as wild as ever, with Volume 4 packing another 4 cuts from some of the newest Paper family members.

Martin Wold starts the party with a slice of Balearic disco pie on ‘Elixir’, a funk packed, hypnotic groover that has summer all over it.

The Secret Soul Society heads to the Transylvanian disco with ‘Dracula Meets The Five Sinners’, a looped up edited piece of disco brilliance. Funky & infectious in equal measures.

Jahn Solo gets in a contender for ‘mega end of the night tune’ with ‘Til The Night Closes In’, a chopped up rework of an Exile yacht rock banger.

Boblebad strip it back and keeps things understated but hot as heck on Frustrasjon, a tweaky & quirky bit of electro goodness. Sparse and atmospheric but with bags of soul and a haunting vocal stab.

Hot Toddy: “Secret Society’s cheeky mash up is pretty cool!”

Massey: “Big all over! Martin Wold just tips it for me though…amazing stuff!”

Pablo Contraband: “Great package – will play on my show!”

Fingerman: “Varied bunch of lovely tunes!”

Billy Scurry: “Great bunch of tracks. The Secret Soul Society got me running for me shoulder pads.. LOVE it!!”

 

Get it on Juno / Traxsource / Beatport

 

 

The Wild Army Vol.2

The EP series returns with more outlaws from San Francisco, Mexico, Japan, Portugal and err, Nottingham causing havoc on dance floors worldwide.

Mr Tea is back, this time remixing Praus and he’s turned in a deep house, space disco banger. Tribal drums, analogue B-line and heavy atmospherics result in a 4am melon twister of a track.

Tokyo resident R-04’s ‘Kanbanwa’ is 4.38 of perfectly formed deep disco garage. Heavy beats blend with synth jams to make way for the popping bass played by Mike Watt of Minutemen and The Stooges fame. That’s right, as in Iggy Pop.

For Torn Sail’s Treasure, Tiago follows up his epic Birds remix on Claremont 56 with balearic headlights turned to full beam. A nagging synth bass bounces along as organ, effected vocals and live drums create a mood that’s just lovely.

Finally, Picotropico takes things deep with stripped back house track ‘Oslove’ that uses samples, percussion and drums to take us deep into the jungle. Halfway through, things pick as the pulsing bass starts to drive a perfect blend of early doors / late night house music.

Bill Brewster: “Really like the Tiago remix!”

DJ Rocca: “Oslove is great!”

Sean Johnston (ALFOS) : “Some crackers on here but the Praus is really doing it for me the most!”

Fingerman: “Some lovely balearic moments here!”

Chris Massey: “Kanban Wa is absolute killer but that Tiago remix is aces!!!”

James Rod: “Full support!!!”

Robot 84: “quality tunes as always, lovin the balearic downtempo tune by Torn Sail”

 

Juno              Beatport                Traxsource

 

The Wild Army Q & A

We asked the mercenaries and outlaws of The Wild Army a few questions.

If you had to join an army, which one would it be?

Mr. Tea – The Army of Dreamers (ask Kate Bush).
Benjamin Eh (Ben Arnold) – The Salvation Army.
Leca Lecara – Wild Army.
Leon Sweet – Vinyl Rotator & Button Flicker – Rebel Alliance Special Forces, with Chewy by my side.

What’s the wildest night you’ve ever had out?

Mr Tea – A night that ended with an orgy with the entire cast and crew of Lord Of The Rings still in costume.
Benjamin Eh – A night out with the Salvation Army at Amnesia, 1983. I still have the trombone burns.
Leca – Must be some of them good old rave nights back in the days. Used to go proper out of hands.
Leon Sweet – Ha! I’ll save that for my memoirs 

Favourite monster flick?

Mr Tea – The Thing. Easily.
Benjamin Eh – Jaws II.
Leca – Godzilla. Insane special effects!
Leon Sweet – Jaws, that dead dude in the bottom of the boat made me jump so fuckin’ hard I kneed myself in the face and cut my lip watching that film as a kid.

What bit of studio gear are you currently rocking the hardest at the moment?

Mr Tea – I just picked up a rare Soviet Synthesizer called the Opus. Pics to come.
Benjamin Eh – The Korg Minilogue.
Leca – Riding my beloved Elektron Trinity rack, Octa, Rytm & A-4.
Leon Sweet – Maschine Studio, Fifth Mode was produced entirely on it.

 

 

HEAR THE WILD ARMY VOL 1 HERE

 

 

The Wild Army Vol. 1

Juno   Beatport    Traxsource

The Wild Army is a new EP series by renegades, outliers, mercenaries taking house music to it’s deepest corners.

Mr Tea is first out the blocks with History of the Future. It’s deep and hypnotic, swings like a mother and has psychedelia written in to its DNA.

Leon Sweet is back with a bullet and he’s better than ever. Fifth Mode is a broken beat, synth driven head-mangler with a filtered 303 hitting the bullseye.

Manchester house music correspondent Ben Arnold AKA Benjamin Eh goes old school. Stripped back NYC beats, nagging bass, analogue synths, tight percussion and pads keep it swinging.

Finally, Bergen’s Leca is on a roll at the moment. His crisp production ties together an acid B-line, trippy vocals and some of that Norwegian space disco dust they put in their tea.

Prepare yourself, The Wild Army are here!

Hot Toddy – Nice EP. Mr Tea track is ace. proper tripped out journey.

Fingerman – Nice! Great to see Leon back in the ring. Gwan son! Yessmate :)

Anthony Mansfield – Feelin’ the slink of Mr. Tea!

Sean Johnston (ALFOS) – B-People! Yes, Mate!

Neil Diablo – History of the Future has some nice heavy loopy house vibes. That Benjamin eh track is well deep and tasty and Leca goes proper wonky. Good EP.

Chris Massey – Pffft! MASSIVE all over. Plenty to get stuck into here.

Pathaan – All great tracks but FIFTH MODE is the ONE !

George Summers (Midnight Riot) – It’s Leon Sweet for me but all are ace.

Gareth Sommerville (Athens of the North) – ‘History of the Future’ and ‘B-People’ are doing it for me.

Aldrin Zouk – Diggin’ Fifth Mode. Thanks!

James Rod – Cream!!!!!