Bene on the songs that influenced her breakout single, Soaked

Bene is an artist on the rise. Her debut single, last year's Tough Guy, bubbled under-the-radar within the New Zealand music scene, which over the last few years, has birthed a range of up-and-coming stars-in-the-making such as BAYNK and recent chart-climber Robinson. However, her second single Soaked is getting all the hype it deserves. It's a slick, funk-fuelled pop number with the washed-out nostalgia of 80s funk-pop brought forward into the future - catchiness, irresistibility and everything else that era encompassed coming forward to 2018 with it. The success, to be frank, has been enormous - she played triple j Like A Version with our favourite Frenchman Petit Biscuit and has become one of Spotify's big risers for 2018, while in the future, sets at Laneway Festival NZ await. To celebrate the release and gain a bit of behind-the-action insight into the single and Bene herself, we got her to run through a couple of tracks that inspired her career thus far, and as expected, they're pretty good picks. Dive into them with her single Soaked below.

The Songs That Have Influenced Bene:

Cosmo Pyke - Chronic Sunshine

One thing that I loooove about his music is that it always mixes melancholic themes with light summery guitar sounds! Makes for great beach music (: This dudeee isss siiiiiiiiiiiick! He’s got this super cool chilled back attitude which I love and he always just seems to look effortlessly cool. The funky bass mixed with his unique voice creates such a fresh sound that I can’t get sick of.

King Krule - Biscuit Town

There’s something about his voice that melts me every time. It’s so deep and dark. I haven’t heard anyone that sounds quite like him…his music has such mystique! Seeing him live once, everything I had hoped he would be in real life was standing there on the stage. His stage presence alone so vividly shows how much he feels the music and I think that for my own stage performances he has really shown me that you don’t need choreography at a show to pull it off and put on a brilliant performance.

Joji - Yeah Right

I only recently found out about Joji and I’m hooked already. His songs remind me somewhat of a mixture between Corbin and James Blake. Both artists that I listen to a lot & have both as musical geniuses influenced my work. Joji encourages me to incorporate more of the R&B sounds into the production of my music as he shows me just how well a softer vocal can sit on top of those productions means. His dark themes are so nicely conveyed with his choice of melody & the music videos to go with his tracks are killer cool.

Daniel Caesar - Get You

Daniel Caesar’s voice is gentle and husky… two vocal attributes that my ears seem to crave! His lyrics are so soft and sweet and he adds a twist to classic romantic songs. I think that when it comes to writing songs about the more personal matters surrounding the theme of love and romance it can often be quite hard, in my opinion, to not make my work sound cheesy or too mainstream, however listening to his work it’s allowed me to see a more in-depth, metaphorical way in which Caesar writes.

Beirut - Elephant Gun

Elephant Gun by Beirut is a song that instantly makes me feel happy but also kinda sad. The light instrumental in the background is so sweet and the vocals are so poignant. I was introduced to the band at a young age by my parents and a feeling of nostalgia always hits me listening to them.. reminding me of the long road trips we would take to go to beach batches and surf trips growing up.

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