RJ Benjamin

It seems another lifetime ago, I was struggling to find my sound, my place in the music & myself in general. I tried for a long time to convince myself I was comfortable with me & my life & the way I was living it but I was lying to myself. It took a few life changing moments to push into the direction I find my life & my music has gone into & those moments shook my world & grew me up!

Heading towards 30 years of age, I have accepted & embraced responsibility in my life. I used to run away from it but at the same time was never really comfortable jumping from party to party smiling falsely, dancing to music I didn’t like. The new me parties when I have a reason to celebrate, to music that moves me & with people that I feel I resonate with.

I fell in love with a girl who has a child. From the onset, it never scared me. I knew I could do it & maybe even needed the responsibility of a mini-family to test myself. So far so good, I certainly have a lot to learn about bringing up a child but I’m learning something new everyday. On some other level, it seems as though I steered my life in a direction that would prepare me for my own blood child.

& then come’s my music. I’ve always been, & always thought of myself as a very good bitter songwriter. Bad things happen & I write & I write. I still think I’m a better sad love song-writer than a happy one. The happy one’s are rare gems & when I write them, I try my best to un-cheesy-fy them as much as I can.

I’ve never been one for the “Heal the world” type song. & yet, a few years back I wrote along with Slikour, Dreamer. Dreamer was a massive hit on several big national stations & specifically in Joburg. Change The world was written slap bang in the middle of what will go down in my life as the worst moment I have ever experienced. Out of that I somehow didn’t write about that horrible experience but instead what came out was a song of hope & change for the future. Change the world has from I can see struck a chord with South Africa like no other song I have ever written! But wait for it, there is more to come. I’ve penned some songs due for release soon of the same nature.

I will never stop writing love songs. As an R&B/soul/funk/jazz artist that will always be my style but I certainly think the universe has shown me that a little positivity can go a long way, most times a lot further than my bitter songs. I think considering what has just happened in the US, the now global financial recession & in South Africa, our own political controversy we all need a little, no….a lot of hope & positivity…funny, that just reminded me of another positive song of mine, Say Yeah!