Benjamin Fisher – ‘I Don’t Need No Other’

I was on a long drive when I heard ‘I Don’t Need No Other’ with the vistas of magnificent Western Cape mountains lining my horizon. Huge fields and blue skies all around me, I flew on the wings of the debut release of Benjamin Fisher. I inched my volume ever up during the intro until I was maxed out and flying down the N2, surrounded by the classic sound of the horns in the chorus, modern synths on the outro and the encapsulating electric keys and powerful chorus lines all the way through.

So smooth and timeless, the track has such an element of soul that speaks to you and stands out from the crowd. Suffice to say it’s become one of my favourite single releases of 2021 so I immediately got a hold of Benjamin and wanted to get to know more about ‘I Don’t Need No Other’ and what he has in the works for the future.

Born in Cape Town, Benjamin (or Benji to his friends) was always the entertainer. Playing music from an early age with a background in classical piano, his passion and enjoyment for music was something he immersed himself in and ultimately lead him to want to explore and pursue music further than Classical music.

This longing and desire to explore music took him to try different places. At 12 he joined the Jazz Workshop in Cape Town where he heard teacher Mike Perry play all of what he couldn’t really voice but wanted to at the time. From the twelve-bar blues, the pentatonic blues scale, soloing, improvising. Benjamin was hooked and so the next few years were spent practising and continuing to journey down the road of improvisation and covers. Taking leaves out of others books and starting to create his own voice, Benji immersed himself in music.

Constantly exploring and practising, refining his sound has been a process of not necessarily the pursuit of musical proficiency but rather that of identity. Initially nervous, last year’s lockdown was a good prompt to get his music out. Written and recorded last year ‘I Don’t Need No Other’ was a project that constantly morphed and evolved alongside Ben all the way till release.

“I think that not having a regime is a good thing because I wasn’t rushing. With the chorus, for example, it’s very melodic, it’s not flat or easy to sing to the rest of the song and that literally came to me through where… I don’t know, where it almost feels like it falls into your lap? It’s this weird thing where once it happens, once you sing those notes, you just sit there and just know you have something. That sort of feeling of almost being gifted to you out of the abyss, out of nowhere, is something I wanted to honour through the rest of this song.”

With so many different influences, it’s about pulling the ones that make you who you are, we are carried on the shoulders of giants. With dashes of the Beatles, Tame Impala, The Black Pumas, The Black Keys, Benjamin’s sonic influence has been a range that plays very much into his own sound.  “For me, it’s the music first. If the music is truly at a level I’m happy with, then I feel from there the opportunities will come. So that’s what I’m hyperfocused on right now. I’m focused on songwriting and getting to a level of quality I’m happy with.”

With the teased idea of an extended project, 2022 looks like the year for this young artist to emerge and make a name for himself.

Listen to his Debut release below and share the love.

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