2019 has been a fairly productive year so far for Los Angeles artist Benji Lewis. He’s already given us three widely successful stand-alone singles (Ride, Is It Love & Away), as well as two remixes of the latter by Two Lanes & Spirix, while also giving promise of more new music coming our way soon.
This week Benji Lewis is making good on that promise with the warm, nostalgic, summery sounds of ‘Fast Forward’, which also comes with a Chris Weigen directed music video and is the first taste of Benji Lewis’ brand-new ep, “Here, Then And Now”.
Benji started working on ‘Fast Forward’ near the end of 2018 during a writing session with LA producer Kid Froopy. Benji found the writing process with him to be quite easy, organic and enjoyable, and off the back of that he decided Kid Froopy would be the perfect person to work with on his next album.
“We started Fast Forward towards the end of 2018 and finished it off in early 2019. We got to talking before that first session and he said something to me about looking more inward, in regard to himself and his life. Almost instantly the opposite play on words “Inwards, Outwards” came to me, and then the rest of the song came to me quite easily and effortlessly.
This song is about getting out of a certain state of mind. Not wanting to think about or look at a current situation, relationship or particular person right now. We are never really stuck, and my subconscious was telling me this while I wrote the song. I was feeling like some much-needed alone time and craving change. I was listening to a lot of H.E.R. and Sabrina Claudio at the time. I’ve always loved rnb music and that’s just what we ended up creating with this one. It feels sexy, natural and honest to me.
After creating this song with Kid Froppy, I knew that I wanted to create my next body of work with him as well.” – Benji Lewis
‘Fast Forward’ also comes with Benji’s first ever music video which was shot in Los Angeles over the Spring with local photographer/visual artist Chris Weigen, who Benji has worked with previously on a few photo shoots. After giving Chris the concept and overall ideas that he had in mind for the video, the planning and preparation began and the result really speaks for itself.
“The music video for Fast Forward was done by myself and Chris Weigen, a friend of mine in LA who is great when it comes to photos and video. He really gets into the preparation and planning, whether it’s a killer mood board, the lighting, finding the right studio spaces and outside locations.
We put our heads together on this one. I already had a clear vision in my mind for what I wanted for this song, an empty beautiful white studio space and a bit of purple mood lighting. Chris mentioned these beautiful mountains in Calabasas and empty streets in Downtown LA, and the vision of these ideas tied into the story of the song perfectly; wanting and needing alone time, expressing and processing what I was feeling and needing. And then getting out to a completely different space and area, surrounded by nature, really changing up the energy and everything around me. It helps tell the story of a journey, a transition moment in my life.” – Benji Lewis
Stream:
https://fanlink.to/BenjiLewis_FastForward
Artist Connect:
https://soundcloud.com/benji-lewis-1
www.facebook.com/benjilewismusic
https://twitter.com/MrBenjiLewis
https://www.instagram.com/mrbenjilewis/
Credits:
Production by Kid Froopy
Mixing by Tristan Hoogland
Mastering by John Greenham
Artwork by Aeforia
Press Photos by Sean Pyke
Music Video by Chris Weigen
Artwork:
