Benjamin Bates
Of all the professions in the world, I chose to become
a deejay. I don’t remember exactly when that was. Not when I was young, because
at that time I didn’t have a clue about anything at all. I guess I was a deejay
before I knew it, and decided afterwards to leave it that way. It’s a great way
to meet girls, and none of them ever ask you to dance. I started making some
money with it when I was around 17 years old, playing in local bars and at stupid
school parties. Sometimes a track would end when I was still at the bar getting
drinks, but I doubt anyone ever noticed.
It got serious
a few years later, playing in a club called ‘de dansSalon’ in my hometown Eindhoven. Not only was
this the first club I ever played at, it was the first club I ever entered! The
atmosphere in there was so amazing; I became addicted to house music instantly.
People in the club were all shouting the deejays name! I never heard of the guy but that would soon change. His name was Marco V…
The next day I
applied for a job and since the manager could clearly see my biggest talent, he
gave me a job hanging coats in the wardrobe. I got sick of it pretty soon, and
when the light jockey got fired (for pushing vitamins) I cheated my way into
his job. It was great working with Marco and we had some memorable nights
together. We talked about our passion for music and he invited me into his
studio for a tryout session. That was in 1996. We’ve been producing together
ever since.
When I was a
child, my parents forced me and my brothers and sisters to learn how to play a
musical instrument. To annoy our parents the six of us decided we would each
pick a different instrument. It must have been horrible to be our neighbour in
those days.
My instrument
was the piano, but after a few years I convinced my father to trade it for a
synthesizer. I was 17 when I moved out of the house and to another town to
study, and naturally, the synthesizer went with me. I shared a room with a guy who played the bass guitar, and we put together
a band. We practiced in the backroom of one of the sleaziest bars in town and I
will never forget the looks on the faces of the school kids the first time we
played at a school party. They were in absolute shock, just gazing at us. We
were so bad they didn’t even bother to boo.
When we were
together for about a year, things slowly started looking better, we even
recorded a demo in a studio in Amsterdam.
But as these things go, one of us got a job, another one moved out of town and
we split up just before I was kicked out of college and decided to move back to
my hometown. I didn’t have any money, so my sister introduced me to her boss,
who needed an extra hand. He owned a club called ‘de dansSalon’…
Ever since i
met Marco there, we have been writing and producing our own music. In the first
years we used project names like 8th Wonder, Out Of Grace and Southside
Spinners, but things really took off when we started making music to enhance
our deejay profiles. We started with Marco’s project in 2000 and created the
first Benjamin Bates tracks two years later. In 2004 we released my debut
artist album called
“n.e.v.e.r.l.e.t.a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g.k.i.l.l.t.h.e.p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e”, but unlike we
expected we didn’t win a Grammy for lamest album title ever. Wasn’t there a
category for that? Wasn’t there?
Anyway, apart from writing and producing music, I am
very busy deejaying and playing computer games. When I have decided which I
like best, you will be the first to know. If you haven’t read enough about me
now, you can always read more nonsense at: www.benjaminbates.com.
