Interview with DJ Ben by letmeteachyou.Ben Ford, aka DJ Ben, started DJing in 1993 when he approached his old primary school and asked if he could DJ for their Year 7 Graduation. DJ Ben played at every end-of-term disco for the next three years, as well as playing at other schools around the area with the bonus of being paid. This humble beginning of DJing at school discos, turned into a small business venture with one of his mates, called Dynamic Disco Productions.
Ben has lived solely on full time djing since the end of 1999, and until then ran his own small business of mobile DJ work and delivered pizzas for 3 years. He also completed two years of a Bachelor of Education. “From as early as 10, I wanted to be a Primary School teacher. It was only when the opportunity came along to work more solid nights in club that I decided to concentrate more on the DJing thing, knowing that I could always come back to teaching down the track if I wanted”.
His first ever club gig was a Wednesday night at Kramer’s Bar (now known as Savvy), starting off with a couple of hours of Funky House and ‘American House’. Ben recalls, ”It was a small crowd, but the right crowd. They were more than happy just to groove along and I was happy to be finally playing some good quality dance music out in a club. This gig led me on to doing my first club residency there every Wednesday night for 6 months”.
Having played at just about every venue and big dance party in Adelaide, Ben says his favourite venue is Heaven, purely for the production. “They’ve always got the best kept gear and PA system and I suppose its always good knowing that there are professional sound and lighting gear guys on hand in case something should go wrong” Ben says. Another favourite of Ben’s was The Old Queen’s Theatre. “It was definitely a treat because I had longed for ages to play in a really run down and ‘un-used’ venue!”.
Mentazm, Ben’s radio gig on Fresh FM, has been nominated 3 years in a row for ‘Most Popular Radio Show’ at The South Australian Dance Music Awards. He began his radio career in 1998 when RMAC invited him on his generic radio show from 1 – 6am Wednesday mornings. Ben instantly saw this as an avenue for playing the Happy Hardcore / Hardcore Techno genre that he dearly loves. Two years later, RMAC moved to a Saturday night slot and Ben asked DJ L8s to help him turn it into a hardcore show. In July of 2001, the station offered Ben and L8s an earlier timeslot with their own name and ‘Mentazm’ was born.
Embarrassing moments are always a good laugh for all of us on the dance floor. Ben tells us about one of his, “In 1997 I was playing on my own to a packed room at Synergy (Traffic). The manager came up and said ‘If you own the orange datsun parked out the front, you might wanna move it otherwise you’ll get a hefty parking fine!’ Being the only DJ on, my only hope was to put on a mix CD while I went out and moved my car. The mistake I made was not changing the mode on the CD players from single play to continue play. It took me 10 minutes to move my car and I remember walking back to the club, getting to the front door and not being able to hear any music! Miraculously the dance floor was still full but everyone was giving me a death stare as I pulled myself up onto stage and realised what I’d done!”
When asked the question of Vinyl v CDs, Ben says, “Both have their advantages. For the types of gigs I do for a living, it’s CDs all the way – I’m too busy running comps and so on! CDs give you that clearness of sound and you can auto-cue tracks. Saying all that though, I find there is still something special about having a track on vinyl. Its just the feeling of having an original copy as such, especially these days with so many people owning ‘burnt copies’ of everything available, which I am against. A lot more DJs are also using CDs because of the availability of them on legal download sites.” In his own personal collection, he has around 900 records and somewhere around 3000 original CDs.
Having already started producing, Ben would love to see this become more prominent in the long term. “I’d like to utilise my classical piano training more and one day down the track would like to be a recognised film score producer. I am a big fan of James Horner who wrote the music for ‘Apollo 13’ ‘Titanic’ and ‘A Beautiful Mind’. Ben goes onto say, “I have a studio I have slowly put together since 2000. In my spare time during the week I love to just sit in there and make music, mostly hard dance. I find having classical piano training behind me lends some advantage. Not heaps, but I at least can pick discords etc instantly”.
For an anthems event, Ben would include the following tracks for our listening pleasure: ‘Amphetamine’ – Drax II Ltd, ‘Sound of E’ – Ultrashock, ‘Are you all ready?’ – Tony de Vit, ‘Trippin Out’ – Misjah & Tim, ‘Dreams’ – Quench, ‘Don’t Stop’ – Dr. Base, ‘Tres Chic’ – Nexus 6 as well as some of his old school favourites ‘Do you wanna party?’ (Carl Cox remix) – DJ Scott, ‘Panic’ – Force Mass Motion, ‘Life Anthem’ – Euphoric State, ‘First Rebirth’ – Jones and Stephenson, ‘Don’t Stop’ – Dr. Base, ‘Trippin Out’ – Misjah & Tim, ‘Follow me’ – Jam & Spoon.
DJ Ben gives us a few final words of wisdom. “A lot of people seem to take life way too seriously I think. If you’re getting into DJing, go into it with an open mind and be happy with what opportunities you are given. Someone has obviously seen some potential in you so grasp that and ride it all the way! Getting gigs can be difficult. I’m just happy to be able to play to masses of people week in, week out. It hasn’t ever bothered me the types of gigs I have played because someone out there has given me a chance and I have greatly appreciated that! On that note, I’d like to thank just a handful of people that have been a huge help along the way to getting me where I am. Big thanks to my immediate family, Shane Hogan, Craig Egan, jayse, Paul Amos, RMAC, L8s, everyone @ Heaven and Fresh FM, Nick Lewis, Anthony Griffin and lastly everyone that has every danced on a dance floor in front of me! That’s been the biggest reward of them all!”.
Check out DJ Ben:
@The Highlander on Friday nights
@The Pier and Pines at The Grand on Sundays
@Chemistry at Heaven on Thursday nights
Coming soon to Saturday nights at The Alma Tavern
