What marks the beginning for your music and craft? What inspired this passion?
“What inspired the beginning of my music and craft was the love of music is my mother used to play a lot of music as she loved music, and it was from that I really got to love artists like the 3 degrees, boney M, Abba, Diana Ross, Donna summer, Olivia Newton John and Barbra Streisand, the bee gees. What I loved about the thick was the tunes and the way that the songs were arranged and especially the backing vocals and the harmonies. At school I really loved music and we had the chance to play instruments with songs and also, we learnt songs in different parts and the harmonies. It was so wonderful to hear and from me music was something I really enjoyed whether it was dancing and singing all even making up my own songs. When I was very young, I used to write down lyrics and also songs and used to dream of performing and singing. When at school we had to an essay about of this school union and what we would be doing when we came back, a lot of people said that our comeback is so famous singer. I’ve always been singing and dancing since I was about 4 and it has been something of a passion. it was great to sing those lovely melodies and hear the harmonies and also music was a great therapy for dealing with feelings and getting things out of your system. In that sense music became that the closest friend and the thing that has always been there for me to utilise and to help me cope with my life, and it almost feels like I am reacting the lyrics of thank you for the music, but it was always like that. I was naturally drawn to music in every way and also to theatre and acting.”
What does music, and making music, mean to you?
“Music is the song of the soul. And like artwork lyrics are the sketches of emotions and words and with them your able to communicate what you are feeling and what you are going through and then to me adding on music harmonies background vocals arrangements etc is like a painting canvus and adding colour and shades and your personality onto the songs.
in the 70s I got to hear a lot of cover songs and I got to hear the originals to and it was always fascinating to see the difference and the personality was added to the cover of the song to make it different. Music is the language of the soul and for me it is a way to express all your emotions and feelings and also through music I am able to pass on my experience and wisdom but also it helps like healing, or like a counselling session, it allows you to express at a deep level what I’m feeling and it speaks to the very core of who I am in a way that is truly honest and unscreened. So music to me is creation and creation is a big part of the world in that so many beautiful things are created by people whether being songs, gardens, buildings, ornaments, and many other things. Creation is the nearest thing to God or a higher being. It also fulfils you in a way that buying clothes or other types of materialism can’t feed you. So is important that the message I get out people is about expression and healing and finding ways to truly know yourself and to heal yourself.”
If you could share two songs with the world, which two would you hand-pick to showcase? Why and how so?
“This one is quite difficult because it is like choosing between many different children and so if I was to pick to songs, I would have to go for the two that are closest to myself. The first one would be the childhood song; which I call “you can’t hurt me now”. This started out as the short song and as I worked on it develops each week and until it became a movement and so that this short song could not represent the whole of my childhood, I felt that it needed different parts within the movement. So this song is representing for me what was going on in my life at the time and it deals with things of abandonment, pain and loss and dealing with rejection for being different and being someone of colour and also dealing with issues of who am I and whether I should fit in. I felt very alone and that there were no other people like me to discuss what was going on for me and this song is about coming to the realisation that you cannot look to others for your self esteem or to find out who you are. The spiritual message is about understanding where pain comes from and when you do that and when I saw how people had hurt me it with then I was able to understand where my things are coming from and be able to find coping mechanisms and also ways to avoid feeling that way in the first place. At the time of writing the song I had not really gone through all the process of understanding what had happened for me and that only happens with lots of study and also writing diaries and getting help. I think it’s important in the song I do say that once you’ve dealt with something it does not mean that it may not come back again and so it is important to be aware that that will happen.
And while I like the song ” heaven” or “the search for love”, it is the song in my heart that would be the other them that is closest to me. This song has strong observation of human nature and what is going on in the world and I felt that love was the healing power that changes everybody and that there was too much greed and selfishness and corruption in the world which was telling the world and that can also be seen in the way we are destroying the world as it is driven by greed and corruption. It was about aspiring people to care about others and those less fortunate and reaching out to people to help each other, like people dead in the wall and people do when there is great disasters in the world. It shouldn’t take that to happen for people to care about each other or to reach out which other so this song has a lot of my own feelings of how I see and observe the world.”
Some more information I would like to include about my songs include
the songs “All of my life,” “In My Heart,” and “Heaven and the search for love.”
all of my life
is a wish list for the heart and soul
where I have found the tribe of people I belong to
where I have found my voice, and I have finally found the way to be true to myself and find the people who can love me for who I am with no judgment, and being different is beautiful and not shamed.
It is hard when you are different to avoid being like everyone else. So the challenge is to be you and accept and love myself.
in my heart
love is all we need and crave – but we need to open our hearts and care. t was an era of electronic music like Yazoo and Alison Moyet. So this song you’ve inspired by the same kind of music instead of a dance song is slower. One thing was evident in this period of my life: a lack of compassion and understanding. The song talks about separation and loneliness, how love can change people, and that we do not need to be alone. How love is a remedy to us all. How love is the remedy to it and how that can change people
heaven and the search for love
I know God is real, and so I loved “like a prayer” by Madonna but also loved the other side of religion, which is summed up in the song “it’s a sin” by the Petshop boys – as sin is a creation of man and done to control people. Those have used religion to want to control people, own them and dominate them. This track is in the spirit of prayer by Madonna dance mixed with messages of rhythm nation Janet Jackson and also inspired by Petshop boys and Trevor horns production.
If you could choose three top industry professionals to work with, who would you work with, starting today?
“The first person I would choose would be the singer, producer arranger who created the pop group the buggles, who have the huge hit with video killed the radio Star. Trevor Horn was the guy co-wrote and helped to produce one of the finest albums of pop called the age of plastic and the amount of imagination that went into the videos was at that time fantastic. he went on to produce many other artists including dollar, ABC, Seal and many others. What I like about him is that he did a lot of experimenting with sounds that have had a huge impact on the music scene and that his imagination and production was really clever and also delivered songs and music that were so individual and yet at the same time really brought out the artist.
The next person I would probably babyface who is the famous writer and producer who has written so many great songs and produced songs for boyz to men, Karen White, pebbles, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, as well as his own solo material. His music reflected life and relationships and feelings and did it in the way the Motown did and to work with him would be a privilege as I love his production.
The third one was more difficult but in the end it was Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who created some of my favourite music of all time with Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson on songs like control, nasty, what have you done for me lately, pleasure principles, state of the world, the knowledge, with the nation, living in a world, the velvet rope, together again, come back to me, history, scream, money, tabloid junkie, God’s stepchild, special, can’t be stopped. All of these songs really spoke to me and it was if they were translating how I was bringing about a lot of things in life and so they are so creative and the sounds and what they do and how they portray some really important messages and for me they will be great to work with.”
What are the highlights for you in this year 2022? What success can we expect to see in 2023?
“It is difficult to judge highlights as they are so changeable that for me having people really love the music and also are in tune with the messages and it makes a difference to their lives, when I hear that it makes everything worthwhile so every time someone really likes my music that means a lot to me especially with the amount of time that has been spent on the mixes and the production and also in crafting and arranging the songs.
I would like songs to be recognised all over the world and also that the messages and healing which people all over the world and that my experiences can help other people in the way that artists like Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson and Olivia and John and Barbara Streisand have done for me. There have been also many other artists so I have not gone into that but if you go to my website you will see all the artists I love from and you love them.
I cannot predict success in the next year but when I map I am doing is carrying on doing the songs and creating them for the album and releasing them for next year, so I do have a timetable for.
some songs I found many years ago to be released and these are cover versions of the world’s stone and people on a string and I hope to release one of my other songs called the day will come, which is about a coming together of people and nations to realise that it’s about love and not judgement and to release the false ideas that being different is a bad thing as we are all individual and different and we cannot change that. This Song is s also about freedom from injustice and prejudice and from a lot of the things that are destroying people and the world and it was a song I wrote back in 1985.
There are more songs which deal with being different and also being individual and stand up to prejudice discrimination and is represent a lot of the minority groups including LGBT, people of different race and colour, those with disabilities, whether they be mental or physical. But also for the women who are not able to be themselves and is are prevented from having the same freedoms as men in different parts of the world, which is something that happens in countries like United Kingdom and also the United States not that Long ago, and I would approach that many countries across the world would have evolved and moved on to a time of equality for all people out there.”
What does success mean to you?
“Success is relative and it is important that I don’t get too attached to an idea of what is success is so one it is nice to make money from your music, I know that these days come streaming, it is far harder make music that makes money as mnay platforms do subscriptions and it is the music platforms that make the money and not the artist. That is not so different from the record company but there was more chance of you making more money from individual sales.
Success for me is getting the message out there and is knowing that you’ve made a difference to people’s lives through the music but also that people have got the message and it has healed them and they are able to pass that on to other people.
I think my success is more about what’s inside and suppose it is more spiritual in that I understand that a lot of fulfilment comes from within and dozen not rely upon things outside yourself. The strength comes from within and knowing you who and knowing what is real as a lot of things that people chase after our temporary and is they are an illusion to me.
There are a lot of people with so much money and they have so many possessions and houses and everything and yet they are not happy because having more does not make you happy. One of the major experiences as I had in my childhood was in Dubai when I met a lot of people who didn’t have very much who gave so much and that really humbled me and I never forgot it. The important things in life are some is very simple things like sharing a meal with a good friend, it can be being in a beautiful scenery, it can be with friends where you are having fun, can be enjoying the festival music all learning to cook or creating music, arts, poetry or plays and creating films and sets and so much that is based upon creation and creating things.”
If you could have your music play in any venue, where would you ultimately prefer to have your music play?
“In the last year when I performed, it has been in a small venue with up to hundred 120 people or it has been much smaller. I prefer more intimate settings than the massive arenas and one of my goals would be to perform at the Albert Hall or like in a very intimate small theatre that they famous that has history and soul.”
Where can we find your music, and why should we? What makes JAYLEEBENJAMIN so iconic?
“You can find my music on major platforms including spotify, Amazon, Apple, iTunes and many more including YouTube. Why should people by many I think to answer that I would have to quote a review of my music that was made. “ The unique variety of sound that one can expect from JayleeBenjamin’s music, the quality of productions of his songs is outstanding. This gives the artist music a refreshing modern sound that enables all nuances of the music to stand out. Ultimately. What is special about his music is that you songs blurred the lines between mass appeal and artistic integrity. The singer sings from the heart there is a lot of realness to his music, making them far more relatable than the average pop songs. And he is always not afraid to experiment with new ideas so the music is everything from electronic dance music, to soul, to R&B, modern pop and more.”
Anything to add here?
“I have been influenced so many different artists from the 60s 70s and 80s that my music reflects a lot of the ideas and creativity that came out of that period and I continue to experiment with sound and come up with new ideas and break the so-called rules which is how everything progresses in life. Thank goodness for those rule breakers across time and space, as we would be behind the times and also there will still be a lack of progression though it is clear to say that some countries are going back in time and that is great and money that is pushing people in power to want to take us back to the old days where people and workers did not have the rights that they do now.
Included in this article are some great professional reviews of my music:
Professional review: Today, making music is all about connecting with other people more than ever. We all had to face some of the most challenging and strangest times ever, so listening to music that feels harnessed and spontaneous is a fantastic way to connect with other people and share something, even if we find ourselves half the world away.
JAYLEEBENJAMIN is the kind of artist who embodies the spirit to absolute perfection. His music feels like a unique and fantastic representation of this. Not only are his songs catchy and fun to listen to. He is also able to endow his tracks with more depth.
JAYLEEBENJAMIN sings from the heart, and there is a lot of realness to his music, making them more relatable than the average pop songs. Speaking of genres, the artist is always eager to shuffle the decks, as they say, and experiment with new ideas. From electronic dance music to soul, R&B, and modern pop, anything goes.
In addition to the unique variety of sounds that one can expect from JAYLEEBENJAMIN’s music, the quality of the production of his songs is outstanding. This gives the artist’s music a refreshing modern sound that enables all the nuances of the music to stand out. Ultimately, what’s unique about JAYLEEBENJAMIN is that his songs blur the lines between mass appeal and artistic integrity.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5M7ptTtcHsXJQ5FJNoAARE
MUSIC REVIEW “JAYLEEBENJAMIN is a singer and songwriter who makes music inspired by various sounds. His influences include pop, dance, electro, soul, R&B, and more! He has many songs on streaming services, so dive in and discover what JAYLEEBENJAMIN offers!”
The album “the principles of love and compassion” is coming soon.
This music will reach people, touch people’s consciousness, and open people’s minds. I hope those who hear the music will be uplifted and enlightened, and it will help them cope with the negative situations in life. Like other albums I loved, like MADONNA’s – a prayer and ray of light and JANET JACKSON’S Rhythm Nation, and MICHAEL JACKSON’S history, I hope to create a legacy that’s different unique, and memorable. That will support and help all those who are LGBT and black and have disabilities, which are different from mixed heritage and need music to support them and help them overcome.
dealing themes: loneliness – being different – finding yourself – finding inner peace – discrimination – being yourself – standing up for your rights and learning to love yourself
If you are interested, you can find more about my music and me on these links:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5M7ptTtcHsXJQ5FJNoAARE
my artist website
https://jayleebenjamin.bandzoogle.com
Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/jeremy-bedford
Apple:
https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/jayleebenjamin/1524579237
deezer profile:
https://deezer.page.link/n1rXY1smByruFHsa8
YOUTUBE MUSIC CHANNEL
https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCppk9eXu4xIdlmlDz7U-x9w
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5M7ptTtcHsXJQ5FJNoAARE
https://jayleebenjamin.bandzoogle.com/the-music-journey-to-the-music-platforms-of-jayleebenjamin
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaylee1814
