Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Kath.
Hi Benjamin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
So I got started with producing hip hop back in my last year of high school. My friends at the time had introduced me to artists like Eminem, Dr. Dre and Tupac, and I started to listen to it every day. I had so many of the lyrics memorized and always knew when the beats were about to drop or change. I bounced with the tracks and was getting a sense for rhythm without really noticing right away. I don’t exactly remember what it was that got me to try GarageBand out, but all of a sudden one day I was making beats and writing my own rap lyrics to them with my best friend at the time. We made an EP about getting girls and skateboarding, and after that, I was absolutely hooked.
When I went to St. Cloud for college, I really started to commit to finishing projects and building myself a portfolio. I took up playing keyboard and learned some scales, and from there the beats became much more personalized and special to me. I started working with others in the artistic community and ended up starting to perform my music live. All of the music was written by me, but I performed on stage with multiple friends every time, normally including back up singers from the school choir, saxophone or guitar players that were also my roommates, and everything in between. We were what I called the “Jam Squad,” as my artist name then was “Ben Jammin’ K,” playing off of a nickname my parents gave me as a child. We played tons of shows, won St. Cloud State’s Battle of the Bands, and I ended up playing the Red Carpet the last year I was there, the cities premier venue.
After I graduated, I left the city and came to Minneapolis. I met my wife of now 6 years, and also some amazing people in the local music scene. This included Brandon McCollum, owner of Nice Guy Entertainment and one of my closest friends to this day. He and I recorded my final rap project titled “Jamtastic,” at the Institute of Production and Recording in Downtown Minneapolis. We had a huge release party at the Pourhose, a staple in the local music scene, which was my last big live show I ever performed. That was over 6 years ago.
Since then, I’ve been writing instrumentals, and I’ve never loved music more. It’s not that writing lyrics wasn’t fulfilling, it’s that fully investing in the instrumentation helped me grow as a music writer so much more than when I was focusing 50% of my attention, normally more, on the lyrics. There was a long period where I wasn’t releasing anything, and that was fully necessary for me at the time, to invest in finding what new direction I wanted to take. I finally landed in the “Chill hop” genre, or what some people might call Lofi Hip Hop or Jazzhop. After taking so much extra time with my piano skills, I started listening to more instrumental hip hop that had jazz samples or funky little riffs in them. That led me to messing around and finally finding a new sound to experiment with. I never mentioned this earlier, but the style of rap beats I was making when I first started this journey was very heavy, west coast type influenced tracks, so this new chill hop style was completely different from what I was doing before. That being said, I’m now to this day currently producing instrumental hip hop and find more joy in it than anything I’ve done thus far.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There were definitely struggles along the way, as with any journey worth talking about or learning from. I’ve spent countless years trying to master my craft, and that means a lot of trial and error. Every producer has their own way of getting a final product, but sometimes that means lots and lots of beats need to be tossed before you land on something meaningful. Myself, I can finally say my workflow is so close to perfect for me and what I want, because I can normally get a track completed in a matter of hours sometimes, usually a couple of days before I have a final mastered track. But getting to this point has taken 12 years, and it for sure was frustrating at times.
Other than that, there were for sure struggles with the band in college, as there is with any group working closely and creatively together. Someone would forget a line or play at the wrong time when we were on stage, and it would be hard sometimes for me, being the frontman and wanting the show to go perfectly. I was always extremely nervous before shows too, so it never helped when we actually messed something up. I wouldn’t take anything back though, as those were some of the best times I’ve had playing live.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I would call myself a music producer, as I very rarely write or record lyrics anymore. My main priority with my work now is streaming my music on Spotify and Apple Music. I work with record labels in the chill hop scene to get my projects released and promoted on streaming services.
I primarily go for a vintage jazz sound, blending crisp bouncy drums with piano and additional elements like flute/horns/vibraphone. I rarely use samples, which is the classic way that hip hop producers write. When I do use samples I’m always adding in my own top lines or melodics.
A couple things that set me apart are tempo and improvisation. A lot of the beats in the genre offer a straight forward, loop heavy approach with not much variety or beat changes. Which has its place, as a lot of our listeners have these playlists on during study sessions or in the background while chilling out. But I was never satisfied with that after my background in rapping and improvising on keys live. I would ALWAYS play keyboard live along with rapping, throwing down solos in between lyrics, and normally surprising the crowd while doing so. So when I started writing chill beats, I wanted to offer variety for the listener and throw in things that might catch people off guard. I almost always have a piano improv solo in my tracks, making the tracks more fun and interesting. I also use slightly higher tempos, normally using 80-92 BPM, rather than the average 70-82 range a lot of the songs in the genre have. It just gives the tracks more bounce and makes them easier to freestyle to or bop your head to.
What does success mean to you?
I define success as happiness. I’ve made big strides lately to get closer to bliss, because I’ve realized that money is not success or happiness – it’s safety, comfort, and holding yourself accountable to your emotions. Success is being your best self every day. Decisions aren’t made with stress, they’re made with calmness and intuition. It’s making time for what’s truly important and being true to yourself and what you want, because at the end of the day it’s just you with yourself.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/58flJQprTkM8cMJwnQ6aIi?si=6w0V0d6fT_2rKOCz04-umA
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ben.jammin.beats/?hl=en
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/benjamminbeats
- Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/ben-jammin-beats/1513120067
