1. Thank you very much for your time! Before we introduce your new release to our readers – what kind of drink would you recommend to zip on while they listen to your new music?
Thank you very much for the question. I’d recommend something like a good scotch with an unapologetic taste. I’d go for a glass of 18 years old Bowmore. But if you don’t want to sip on a drink, any flaming shot or cocktail will suffice.
2. Please give us an update about – new single, new album, tour dates, new videos?!
My new song, Eastern Boytoy in a way is a continuation of my last album release, Brute. I took the distorted synth approach as I did before and added a context to it that reflected more on the society around me than myself. My friend Botond Balogh is a video director and editor so I reached out to him with the idea of doing a raw visual for the track. Him and Gábor Kővári cinematographer came up with the idea of this puppeteer character and how it thrives on human chaos and confusion and it’s one of the main elements in the final cut. While it might not be the easiest music video to take in, we got a lot of praise and love for it which I’m forever grateful for. Especially for the team we worked with, including Adrienn Mész choreographer, whose work was crucial for the whole video. Eastern Boytoy is the first release of my upcoming EP which will be released in four new singles separately, featuring four artist friends of mine. We plan to put together a big release concert this May in Budapest. It’d be a shame if any of your readers missed it out. It’s gonna be worth the bus or train ride or the flight. But hopefully if the intention is mutual we’ll be able to bring the show to your city.
3. We live in times of many conspiracy theories. Which, harmless, theory would you wish were true? (For example Dinos living inside Earth or E.T. living in a home in California)
Well, I don’t know how harmless it is but as I love reptiles it’d be so amazing to meet one of the lizard people. Well of course only if they don’t control the world in secret. My girlfriend says my face is shaped like a dinosaur’s so I’d be among relatives I guess.
4. What fashion style or brand would best describe your music?
Probably artsy streetwear. With intense colors. NO army green, NO pale earth colors or any of those trendy stuff. Bright blue, red, orange, yellow, pink, colors that capture the eye. And as I’m not really a sucker for branded stuff, it doesn’t matter what logo the piece of clothing has really.
5. Tell us more about your songs! Topics! Message!?
As I’m slowly leaving my twenties behind and I look back on the songs, I see that most of my songs are written out of a need for understanding. Understanding myself as a young man through my relationships and my behavior while also writing about the need to be understood. To find kinship. I don’t really like to focus on details or data too much but from what I can tell from the platforms, around 60% of my listeners are men and I think that’s the reason why. Sometimes I make fun of social aspects, like in Eastern Boytoy, it’s a mockery of gentrified aesthetics and lifestyle. While there’s also a song in the making, which is making fun of alpha male cultures. Another song, Ain’t No Cold Night is slamming narcissism and ‚angrysong‘ is about shortsightedness and blind patriotism. So there’s a lot of crying and fun. Sometimes in a bittersweet, sometimes in an aggressive way.
6. Beside music, do you have any special talents?
I think I’m pretty good at seasoning meat. Jokes aside, I am a voice actor. I’ve been dubbing series, movies, documentaries, commercials for ten years now. Had a great time working for Disney, Netflix, Warner Brothers, Nintendo, Sony in so many different projects. I am the Hungarian voice of live action Ezra Bridger, Hobbie Brown from Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse, or Wade from Elemental.
7. Name 5 things we all should know about you as an artist?!
I am a sucker for growly basses and distorted synths, I spent three years in a musical theatre as an acting student, I’ve been part of a gospel choir, I’ve learned playing the trumpet for five years (forgot most of it due to lack of practice) AND Joji and Oliver Tree are my two biggest inspirations currently.
8. How did you learn to sing/ to write/ to play??
I started taking vocal lessons at age 14 starting with classical music and musical theatre while also singing in rock bands. It’s been a bit of a mixture really. A couple of years ago I joined an improvisational music group called Seven Seconds In The Future. With that project we write songs on the spot, asking the audience what the genre and the title of the next song should be. It’s usually a great party with them, singing about pink rabbits and sometimes growling in the chorus because the audience asked for metal. As for writing songs, for a long time I only wrote my ideas with a chord progression on the piano but as COVID slowed time down a bit, it gave me an opportunity to learn about music production, recording and arranging. And I fell in love with the ways you can create an atmosphere with sound design. I started using little analog synth toys and tape decks and cassette dictaphones for my productions and I found a way to tame noise and distortion in my productions to my liking. But honestly I always preferred collaborations, because those sessions with other people are the times when I can achieve the most creatively.
9. A question you’d like to answer, but never been asked in an interview before?! + Answer pls
Ohh, that’s a hard one. Okay, got it:
Ben, have you ever met a celebrity?
Yes, I saw Luke Ewans in Budapest. I was drunk and I yelled at him: „Sh*t, you’re Luke Ewans!“
He looked irritated and went away. That was on me though. Must be a cool guy.
Instagram: @bentkadar