Drum & Bass don, commercial dance-floor controller, the powerhouse driving Dance Concept and one half of the team behind the formidable Souped Up, we are of course talking about Benny V. With an impressive career spanning decades, Benny V has established himself as a prominent DJ, producer and label owner and made a significant impact on the drum and bass scene.

Over the years his labels have become synonymous with cutting-edge releases, showcasing emerging talents and throwing biscuits into crowds at raves. Benny V’s spirit and passion for the music have propelled these labels to great success, earning him widespread acclaim and respect within the industry. Today he also opens up about the distinct identities of his labels and the importance of keeping them separate, employing a “don’t cross the streams” approach.

Benny V sheds light on his new drum and bass playlist initiative, aiming to provide transparency and support for labels within the genre. This community-driven playlist offers a platform for both established and emerging labels to gain exposure and connect with a wider audience. We also talk to Benny V about a topic close to his heart: the need for the drum and bass scene to address and call out homophobia. He emphasises the importance of standing against all forms of prejudice and fostering an inclusive environment for everyone involved in the music.

Delve into the life and insights of Benny V, an artist committed to pushing the boundaries of drum and bass while championing the values of diversity and authenticity.

Hey Benny! What have you been up to recently?

My life for the last four years or so has been chasing my tail and trying to get on top of things and never quite getting on top of things. Sometimes you have those days where you’ve been really productive and you’ve made a real dent in things and then when you log on the following day you’re like, “Oh my God, there’s so much more to do!”. I have a really exciting single coming out called Means Nothing which there has been a huge amount of interest in.

Do you work in the music industry full-time?

I work part-time outside of music. I do three days a week for a city firm, my other career was in finance in the city. I’m in a position now where I don’t need to work full-time outside of music any more, to be fair, I probably could give it up but there’s just something about having the added security because you never know. I recently spoke to other artists about multiple revenue streams because with music there are ups and downs and it’s great when you’re on top but there’s a very few select group of people that are smashing it just in music. I think that for any up-and-coming label owners, DJs, and producers, having multiple revenue streams is a sound piece of advice. It gives you a position of strength when you solely rely on the music, sometimes you’re pressured, and when you’re pressured you’re not as organic and natural with what you’re doing especially with your creativity. 

When you’re involved in other things you’ll also have other influences to feed your creativity.

Absolutely. I’ve been DJing professionally since I was 16. My first job was at my local ice rink, and it was a lot of fun. I didn’t just play what was jungle at that time, I played everything that was in the charts. And, then as time has gone on my DJ career has split and gone into two, very good, different directions and trajectories. I’ve played all of the top West End commercial clubs, Tiger Tiger, Piccadilly Institute, as a regular as well as a long standing residency at London’s largest weekly club, The Venue, and that’s completely separate from my drum and bass DJing career. At the same time moving forward with Souped Up and Dance Concept as well. In that sense, I’ve been very lucky and again, that’s another example of multiple revenue streams.

Do you play under the same name?

Yes and no. It’s not as important because, in commercial clubs, you are playing commercial club classics. It’s almost like there are a lot of DJs that can do the same thing. When you book Benny V to play drum and bass, only Benny V can do that thing. If you’re booked for a room and you’re specifically told, ‘We want some club classics in there,” There are probably a lot of DJs that can play that. But yes, they do often bill me as Benny V on there. 

Funnily enough, I recently played at Unit 7, which is a commercial venue, but they booked me alongside Vibe Chemistry. They ended up switching us from what was gonna be the side room into the main room, and it was a really interesting gig because they told me they wanted 70% drum and bass and 30%, not drum and bass. I had to gauge that because if I’m booked for a straight drum and bass event, I know what I’m playing, but if I’m playing in a commercial venue and who say they want drum and bass, but not all drum and bass I’m like, “All right, I’m gonna have to change up my set a little bit” 

I’ll be honest with you. The crowd wanted drum and bass, and I was really surprised because I thought that shows how much drum and bass has spread over the last few years. People say it’s back or whatever else, but it’s always been there. Like with anything, it has its peaks and troughs in how influential it is on culture and society and music as a whole, right now is one of its peaks.

Radio 1 and Kiss are saturated with drum and bass right now, And I think that gig was a really good sign of it. I could turn up to a commercial venue and I’m thinking. “Alright, I’ll play some DJ Fresh.” Which is wicked, but I was there and I could feel that they wanted more. When you’re DJing, that’s what you do, you’re reading it. “They want more. All right, let me go into my other folder.” I start playing stuff on Souped Up and Dance Concept and it’s going mad. I couldn’t believe I was in a commercial venue and they’re going mad for the proper underground stuff, but it’s a good thing. 

I feel like now, a lot of the commercial stuff has more of an underground edge to it anyway. Five or Six years ago when there was an odd tune that would get through they did really sound like they had more pop to them. But now, while the commercial stuff still isn’t as dark or whatever, I do think it’s got a little more grittiness to previous years.

100%. I think it has and except for one artist or two artists, most of the stuff maybe like 10 years ago that was crossing over was almost ‘pop and bass.’ I heard that term used a few times. Everyone has the right to make whatever they want, I never understand this criticism. I mentioned Fresh earlier, when ‘Gold Dust’ went into the charts and then ‘Hot Right Now,’ and people were saying, ‘Oh, DJ Fresh has sold out, he did it for the money,’ and it just made me laugh so much, the idea that DJ Fresh was doing something for the money. He did what he wanted to do. You can’t tell someone what they can make, right? Because that stifles their creativity. If someone decides they want to make some stuff that’s a bit more poppy now. Well, then that’s up to them, you can’t tell them to make the same stuff they were making 15 years ago because that’s the stuff that you like. It’s a very strange mindset. 

And then having said that, I think it’s the organic and natural modern drum and bass that’s got into the charts. It’s almost like we don’t need to make the pop stuff, it’s like we can have a bit of an underground vibe and feel to the track and it’s still sounding cool. One person who has absolutely nailed it from the 90s to today is Shy FX because Shy has got in the charts in three different decades. And all the tracks that he got in the charts are tunes that you could play in underground raves. Of course, there are Gods in the scene but I don’t think there’s anyone else who’s had that kind of longevity of being able to release music that hits the charts and is still credible and relevant in the underground. From ‘Original Nuttah’ to ‘Shake Your Body.’ To Lilly Allen and Stamina, In the not-too-distant past, Shy has absolutely murdered it.

Let’s talk about you for a bit. So you’ve got Dance Concept and Souped Up, is it just the two labels or have you got other imprints?

The two labels. There’s a classic 90s jump-up label that’s been asking me for a while to help resurrect them. It’s one of the best jump-up labels from the 90s and I want to. I just haven’t got the time yet. So watch this space on that one. It’s there for when I’m ready. The owner of the label is always knocking at my door saying “‘Benny, you ready yet?” But if I’m gonna do it, I’ve got to do it right.

With Souped Up I’m just hanging on by the tailcoats, it’s crazy. Dance Concept is doing great as well, one has pushed the other one along. It’s great to have the two different brands doing so well. I’m flattered that people like the music. I love the scene and the music and I’m glad that other people do the same.

Is it hard to flip between the two labels when you’re working, because they’re quite different, in terms of musical style and branding wise? They’ve got distinctly different energies…

It’s really easy and completely seamless but they are very different and it’s intentional to keep them different. There’s a term that Serum and I use. Well, I use and now Serum agrees, which is we ‘don’t cross the streams’. It’s a reference to the original Ghostbusters and it basically means that you shouldn’t combine things. Keep the two things separate because they stay strong. A good example of not crossing the streams is I don’t book Serum anymore for Dance Concept nights. It would be merging the labels a bit too much. 

So to answer your question, it’s seamless because I’ve been doing both for so long and I understand the sort of identity of both. Even when it comes to posting the socials, without even thinking I do one style for Souped Up and I do a different style for Dance Concept.

Did you create each style or did they develop organically?

It’s a bit mad because they’re so different. Not necessarily the music or even the branding but just the tone of social media posts. With Dance Concept I wanted all the posts to be to the point. And then with Souped Up it was almost the polar opposite. I thought ‘Let’s flip it rather than be so serious, let’s be comical and take the mickey out of ourselves. A lot of the banter that Serum and I had when we first met was really good anyway, so it just felt natural to continue that banter with the branding of the label. 

People pick up if things are authentic or not and I think people picked up on that early. The style and the branding were very authentic. We always have a laugh and make fun and we were just lucky that people were buying into it. Because a lot of labels are really “cool” and that’s all good. But they wouldn’t want to do anything silly at all whereas we were like now let’s just do everything silly.

That’s what I love about Souped Up. It’s just such a breath of fresh air because. From the artwork and animations to biscuits in crowds- it’s just really fun. I think drum and bass is fun, you’re meant to have fun at raves so it was so refreshing. I think that’s why people have gravitated towards it so much. People love you, you guys are smashing it!

Thank you. I appreciate you saying that. I mean to us, we’re still aspiring to be as big as the labels that we grew up listening to. So when we hear people say things like that we sometimes have to pinch ourselves. Because in our heads we’re like ‘Yeah, but we’re not as big as XY or Z because they’re the labels we grew up listening to. But in reality, the attention we get and the amount of promoters that want to put on nights, how well the music does and the love we receive is just insane. It’s funny how it just came about so naturally. Like, when Serum was throwing biscuits, we put out a post to see if anyone could smuggle biscuits into the rave. It’s all so random and we have a good laugh and it all just works.

Can you tell us about your drum and bass playlist?

Some of the biggest playlists on Apple Music, Amazon and Spotify are run and curated by someone faceless, you don’t know who’s running and who’s curating it and as a label owner, you might not quite understand why some tracks are selected. When I was first thinking about this, with label tracks and some of my personal Benny V releases, there’ve been circumstances where I’ve pitched one track from an EP and it got ignored, but then a completely different track from the EP gets on ‘Massive Drum & Bass’ or something. And I’m like, great, I’m happy, but why? You didn’t take the one I pitched but you took a different one, which is good, but I just didn’t understand. I don’t think there’s that clarity and I don’t think artists and labels truly understand, and there’s no one to reach out to for that clarity. It’s almost like “Let’s just do this and just hope for the best” So I thought, ” Well, how can we remove any of the ambiguity?”

And that’s where the idea of the playlist came from. We don’t ask labels to submit a track to us, we ask them what track they want to add to the list and it is guaranteed to be included. And as a community, we just help ourselves. We spread awareness of the playlist, the playlist gains followers, and the more followers the playlist has the more streams your track will get. It’s self-perpetuating in a positive and helpful way.

The playlist has launched now, but the door’s not closed. That’s another important thing, there have to be certain criteria, for example, how many releases you’ve had, how long you’ve been running for, but there might be a label that only started six months ago, but why in six months, can’t that label now be part of the playlist? There shouldn’t be a closed door, there should be the ability for new labels to come in. The guys that help me run the playlist are under instructions that if new labels do reach out to acknowledge their request. Not Every label can be added because there are so many labels in drum and bass at the moment. But everything will be reviewed all the time. it’s not a close shop because that would be the opposite of the ethos of what we wanted.

How many labels are included in the playlist?

It’s like a suck it and see at the moment. We’re just moving along and working out what works best and we’ll green-line it as we go along. Another good thing about our playlist is that it doesn’t just have to be new tracks. Say there’s one of the legendary labels and they’re going to release a ‘best of’ album, they can throw in a curveball from the 90s and add it to the playlist. That’s the beauty of it, we’re not rigid, and as it goes along we’re just evolving it.

This sounds good. How can people get in touch?

Get in touch via the Dance Concept socials. 

What you’ve got coming up that you want to shout about?

For me personally, it’s been a really good year. The last year and a bit I’ve concentrated more on the labels and obviously, I’ve still had releases, but this year I’m gonna concentrate on Benny V. This year I’m releasing on labels that as a kid, I’ve been pinching myself to be releasing on. I’ve got a massive new single called ‘Means Nothing’ out on Suburban Base alongside UK Garage legend K-Warren & Rudimental’s vocalist Thomas Jules. There’s an Exile mix too which is great. The Better Worlds EP with K Jah came out recently on Dance Concept & I had a collab with Trex on Doc Scott’s 31 Records & a release with Deekline on Jungle Cakes.  We also have a massive co-lab on Souped Up from Teddy Killerz & Mozey called ‘Break My Heart.’ Trust me, this one is bonkers!

When do you find the time to actually sit and produce tracks when you’ve got so much going on?

That is the magic question. I don’t know…with coffee? Yeah, with coffee and no sleep. That’s how I function, it is a crazy balance. I try to put aside one day a week for the studio, which is Thursday, it doesn’t matter what else is going on, I pause and make music for a day. Knowing it’s always Thursdays means it’s easier when I’m collabing with people. When people ask if I want to come down I can look in my diaries and check what Thursday I’m free. That’s how I try to have a bit of structure. The label works as and when it needs to, it’s the same with DJing. I’m very busy but I can’t complain. 

You look very happy.

This is the thing. I don’t understand when people in our industry complain. But being lucky enough to do the things that they want to do is amazing. This isn’t a criticism, it’s just an observation, when you end up doing what you want to do, it’s still a job and it makes you so tired so naturally you start complaining. I just have to remind myself, “No, but this is what I want to do. So stop complaining Ben.”

What should we be talking about in the scene at the moment that we’re not talking about?

Okay, I’ve got one. I’ve said this before on quite a few occasions. I think we should be talking about how homophobia doesn’t get called out as much in our scene. In house music, you couldn’t get away with being homophobic. It’s almost like drum and bass is a bit behind everyone else. For me and my background and my personal beliefs I always find it a little bit frustrating when people pick and choose what bigotry they want to stand up to. 

That doesn’t mean that I’m saying everyone has to stand up and do things they don’t want to do. But if you look at your socials now and then you’ll see certain things dated, clearly offensive terminology used, and no one calls it out and I think “You can’t talk like that anymore.” It has improved a lot and especially with the new producers and the new kids that come in through. Raving in the 90s, certain terminology was very common. The younger generations think differently and stand for what’s right. Of course, we all want to stand up to racism and things like that. But we should also stand up to any kind of prejudiced behaviour towards a group of people. 

I’ve put this on my socials before and I know that it’s gonna be unpopular with people that I even consider my friends, and this mad thing. Sometimes you’ve got to say things that people aren’t gonna like and some of the people that aren’t gonna like it are people that you like. In life, nothing is black and white. Everything is grey, everyone has an opinion, everyone has a stance. You have to have a level of empathy to understand their stance but that’s just how I feel. And I’m glad that we have made progress. I still think there’s a way to go.

Listen To Means Nothing Here