Two years ago RJ Benjamin announced that he would be hanging up his album boots and focusing on other sides of music. Since then he has been working with other artists such as Kelly Khumalo and putting together his final release, ‘Inside’. ZAlebs caught up with the talented songwriter, producer and musician to talk about his latest project and reasons for retiring.

Have you used the two years since you announced your retirement to start work on ‘Inside’, your new album?

I’ve been working on ‘Inside’ for a very long time. It was supposed to have been released in Feb last year, but the project has dragged on for longer. I’ve got no regrets for that – the biggest mistake I probably made was committing to release it at a specific date. When you are busy with a work of art – or whatever the case may be – you shouldn’t put a deadline or timeline on it.

What else has been taking up your time?

I’ve been focusing a lot on songwriting and music production. I just finished Kelly Khumalo’s new album. Apart from that I’ve been giving voice training to Toya Delazy and helped Lira last year on her tour. Other than that there has have been a few gospel projects, as well as quite a bit of work with up-and-coming artists.

So can fans still expect to hear your work through other artists?

Yes, one thing I did say in the press release I put out two years ago was that you may not hear me or see me as the frontman, but there will be a lot of times where you’ll listen to the radio and you’ll hear my music or lyrics. As the years roll on, that is very much the way that fans will get to hear me: through other artists, whether that will be musically or through melodies and so on.

How are you this certain that you probably won’t release another album after ‘Inside’?

Well, the nice thing of saying you’re retired as opposed to you quit is that you can come out of retirement at some point! One of the reasons I really want to take a step back is because sometimes I find the practice of releasing albums can be very stressful and depressing. I love music – I absolutely love creating music and I love performing on stage. But when you release an album, it’s not about creation. It becomes a whole different thing.

What do you mean? Does it take on a life of its own?

Your mind kind of becomes corrupted by all the wrong elements. You release the album and then certain stations won’t play it. So your brain starts to go: “But why won’t they play it?” Then you hear the station play someone else and you can’t help but think: “I’m better than them!” It starts a destructive thought cycle. I’ve never made music to try and impress other people. But an album can really start to make you think in constricted ways and soon you begin grouping yourself as making this or that kind of music.

So you are retiring from albums to get away from their changing how you do things?

Yes, I’ve been trying to remember the reasons why I started doing this in the first place. This is why ‘Inside’ is an album for my fans and something that I am personally happy with and can happily bow out with this music. That’s opposed to “they love me or they don’t”. In the bigger scheme: do these people really make me or break me?

What you describe is something many artists struggle with. But not many make the brave move to actually change things.

Another reason for my decision was how I was being branded in the music industry. Early on in my career I was associated with a more soul sound. But then I put out this huge House song. Against my better judgement I took someone’s advice and went into the House thing completely, which is very against what I would ordinarily do. It never felt completely right to me and I was never totally into it, as I always try to do something different since I was a kid. If people were listening to Nirvana, then I’d go listen to Erykah Badu! What scared me was when people started labelling me specifically as a House vocalist, That really freaked me out, since I’ve spent my life trying to gain respect and recognition as a musician, not a genre act. In a big way I felt that I needed to step back, get out of that and reinvent myself for the rest of my career.

Is this why you took ‘Inside’ so left of field, remaking your older tracks into new styles of music?

Definitely. To call yourself an artist you have to create art and not be bound by what society says you should do. You should be free to just create art. If I was a painter, I wouldn’t think: “Well, everyone wants me to paint a cow and a chicken, so that’s what I’m going to paint today.” I felt like I needed to get back to being an artist, the creative process, which is what I love and how I want to be fuelled. There are certain artists who invested in themselves being an artist and to this day can still create whatever they want.  And whether their fans love it or not, they appreciate it. Isn’t music about where you are at the time? You are telling the story of you through the music. I love that experience. I don’t just want to make something because it is big at the time.

By James Francis