Nouveau Africana - A Magazine For The New African Woman

Rhian Benson is a singer and songwriter. On the verge of success, shehas been compared to the likes of Lauryn Hill, Sade, Seal and Jill Scott. Her music like her person is distinguishable by its beauty and variety. Born in Ghana, she has lived in India, England, and the US. She attended the prestigious London School of Economics and then Harvard. Due to her mother’s illness, she returned to England to care for her and shortly after rekindled her artistic flame. She is set to become one of the true artists of our time. She has a new CD titled Gold coast, a nod to her native land. Listen to clips and check her out at www.rhianbenson.com and BET, she hosted a Sunday show called Gold coast and her video for “Say how I feel” is currently in rotation. Uche Ajene interviewed Rhian back in March 2003 for Nouveau Africana.

RB: Well I’m a singer and a songwriter. I hail from Ghana, and my mother is from Wales and this is my first album. I haven’t been doing this for very long but it’s a very exciting process for me.

NA: I’ve listened to some of your music. It’s really good. It’s a mix of jazz with an afro-centric vibe. How has your heritage has influenced your creative process?

RB: Hugely actually, my father’s family was pretty musical. His father before him was a great jazz musician in the 50’s in Ghana. He was a pianist and a saxophonist. He wrote pretty prolifically, he was one of the prominent composers in Ghana at that time. I have an uncle who has been a highlife singer and an uncle who is a record producer, so I feel like I’m carrying the flag down to the next generation. The jazz influence definitely comes from my grandfather and my dad also, he had a lot of jazz on vinyl and we’d be subjected to it every Sunday, in hindsight that was probably what formed my musical taste

NA: Africans sometimes tend to steer their children towards more traditional professions. How did your parents react when you switched from finance to the music industry?

RB: Disbelief, they were shocked and they couldn’t understand why. Aside from the fact you said, the musicians in my father’s family were very aware of how difficult it was to make a living as a musician.
So they saw no need to go down a path where there were no securities, so it took some time to win them over. But when they saw how serious I was about it and how determined I was to get things going; there are many obstacles when you’re coming out as a new artist and I’ve stuck with it and they admire that, so now they are very supportive, but it was difficult in the beginning.

RB: About 3 years, more like two and a half.

NA: Music was healing therapy when you moved back to England; is it still therapeutic for you?

RB: Absolutely, definitely. It gets crazy sometimes and I just go into my little study and close the door, get on the keyboard and just tinker away. Writing poetry was what I first started out doing and I still will go to that and sometimes it’ll go into a song. It’s extractable. Writing, it’s such a great way of expressing yourself, it’s a great way of outpouring. You can work through problems on paper, even if they aren’t worked out in reality. You can come to some kind of closure, through writing about it and that’s what
I’ve taken from the music that I’ve loved over the years, people expressing universal things that we all go through from their own perspective.

NA: From your lyrics it seems as though you focus on personal/emotional issues. What inspires you to keep it so real?

RB: I don’t write everyday and a lot of folks say you do especially if you’re a songwriter; but I generally write when I have something to say, or when I’ve been through something. I find that things that are in my head the most are things that are sort of personal. And that’s kind of what the songs are about. It’s personal in a way that I feel that other people will relate to though. There’s actually a song on the EP, it’s called “Stealing my peace of mind” and it’s about 9/11, when that disaster happened. I’m sure there were a ton of songs about when that happened. I went through a period of shock after that; then I felt some defiance about the whole thing. And I thought you know what, someone needs to stop and lift the gloom. I don’t know how you felt at the time, but everyone around me was just really hollow, and that was scary to see the pain in everyone around you. It was an odd time, like being in the twilight zone. That was my two cents for it, to help people find a way out of it, because I needed to find a way out of it.

NA: Your music is unique, it’s really a breath of fresh air compared to what you hear on MTV everyday.

RB: Thank you for that... You’re awesome

NA: Have you been pressured to be more commercial in the time that you’ve been in the industry?

RB: Oh God yes. It has been such a learning process in the past two and a half years, because I was finding my voice literally and metaphorically as well. I was finding my voice through song, through trial and error and finding what songs I felt more comfortable with. You know every artist goes through this but I have found that through kind of ignoring all that and staying faithful to what drove me to do this in the first place. I’ve created a collection of songs that I’m extremely proud of, and the record company is also very proud of it as well. They can see that there’s integrity in what I have done, I didn’t compromise, and they didn’t compromise ultimately either, and we’ve created something that we can all be proud of. We have songs that will hopefully convey a message and hopefully people will respond to that message.

NA: Can you tell me about your experience in the music industry especially as it relates to being an African woman?

RB: In terms of being African it has been pretty positive, the people that I’ve bumped into have been very thrilled about music tinged with another culture. In terms of being a woman, it’s a mixed bag there. When
I started out; one of the first producers that I worked with briefly had his own ideas about how my music should be presented. He kind of went of and did his thing and then called me to lay down vocal tracks, and that was the extent of my involvement. He didn’t let me be more involved than that. For me, that was a wake up call and I realized that’s kind of how it was; yet another male dominated industry and you have to fight for your rights as it were. I had to learn to assert myself, because I had a vision on how I wanted these songs to come out. To that end ultimately I ended working with a couple producers, James Poyes and Bob Powers, who are gifted musicians and have a good track record of working with women in the industry. James has worked with Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu and Bob has worked with Me’shell Ndege O’Cello and India Arie. All strong musicians who write their own material. It was very refreshing

RB: In London. It was so unreal. I was performing at an open mic night at a club called the spot. Some of the executives from DKG came in looking for talent. They came up to me after one of the shows and they said they really liked my vibe. At that time everything was up in the air with me, I was looking after my mom, she was seriously ill at that time. And the plan was I’d stay in London while she recovered and when she was fine, I’d go back to school or find another job. But here’s they come, DKG music. We met a few times and it was just perfect. Their focus on artistic integrity and the quality of music was exactly what I was looking for. So I came out to LA in summer 2001 and here I am.

RB: It is, that was part of why it was such a huge decision as well but I’m glad I did.

NA: What advice would you give to young African artists who want to break into the music industry?

RB: I would say it is very important to stay true to your roots and your identity. The music industry is geared towards kind of pushing you into certain categories, because it makes it easier to market you to the global audience. I would say hold on to your uniqueness because that’s the core, that’s what makes you an artist in the first place. So be you.

RB: Well as my parents did say there’s a lot less certainty nowadays, because you don’t have the security of a pension and health insurance. However life is much more exciting. These past two and a half years everyday has presented a new challenge. A new thrill of some type, and that is living life to its fullest. It has been very, very exciting for me and I’m a bit more open-minded as well about life in general, because it could all go really well and it could all fizzle out as well, that’s the nature of the business. I think I’ve found more inner calm about what I’m doing with my life, which is really why I’m doing it and that’s enough for now. I’m just enjoying being in the moment.

NA: You toured with Raphael Saadiq and you’re also featured in their Ghana festival. How are you finding life as a celebrity?

RB: I’m not a celebrity.

RB: Thank you. The pace is really fast, but that’s really the way you want it to be in this business. If you’re sitting around and weeks are going by and nothing is really happening, that’s not a good sign. I’m doing
a lot more interviews which I’m really enjoying, because its such a joy to be able talk to you. It’s feels like yeah I’ve really moved ahead, but things get more and more hectic as they move along, so I’m bracing myself.

RB: I love Jill Scott, I love D’angelo. Jill Scott I would go out and watch her any day of the week, I think she’s possibly the best live performer and I am really digging the Norah Jones album as well. I like classic albums and I also go out and listen to live music as well, there are a lot of great independent artists that perform in LA clubs, so it’s not hard to find good music.

NA: As far as Norah Jones, it took a while for her to get there, but now she’s on top.

RB: Yeah, and I think that’s I think the best way to do it. It takes some time to build a really loyal fan base. Her album will probably still be on the charts a year from now as more and more people discover her. Because it’s that type of good music. It’s just so direct and honest, and that’s the most powerful thing about good music, because it speaks to you immediately, just makes you feel something.

NA: You’ve lived in different parts of the world, where is your favorite place and why?

RB: Accra, in Ghana. It’s just home whenever I go back and get in the car, and I drive to the first home we had, where my brother and I used to play. There’s just a constancy about it, the pace of life is very slow, so while some of the roads may have changed and a few buildings have gone up, it’s still the same feeling you get. The same… it’s very peaceful and relaxing.

RB: Oooh that’s a toughie…. That I believe that life is too short, that’s kind of been my philosophy, it’s my mantra pretty much. I think that now it’s sometimes now it’s practically a difficulty to chase ones dreams and the worst thing is to deny that the dream is there, and one should always hope that one day, one would be able to follow one’s dreams. That’s my stance on life nowadays.

RB: Hopefully an album release that will lead to sales that will enable me to continue to record. That’s quite a big thing nowadays, it’s tough to sustain a career beyond 18 months in thins industry climate at the moment. But I hope that I will continue to record and continue to build my fan base, and I certainly will continue to tour. That’s become one of my favorite parts of this whole process; it’s actually getting out on stage and making contact with my fans. You will be seeing me out on the roads.