Ben Hemsley Was Always A Trance Kid
As dance music fans, we all remember the sounds that first captured our interest. For some, the first love was techno. For others, it might have been progressive house. At the end of the day, a new love and understanding of the rabbit hole of synthesized music is all that matters.
Ben Hemsley’s first descent down the rabbit hole ties to his earliest memories. His mother, an avid dance music fan, regularly shared her passion for the sonic style with Ben in the car and at home. By Ben’s account, her favorite sounds gravitated towards trance. In fact, the epic sub-genre staple, “Barber’s Adagio For Strings,” by William Orbit, is Hemsley’s first dance music memory.
“The first dance record I remember hearing,” Ben recalled in an interview. “Driving along the seafront with my mam and my brother, always skipping to this track on any dance compilation CD we listened to… When I first began producing, this would always be my reference track, and everything I made would just sound like a really really bad remake of this.”
Ben’s catalog is masterful in its transcendence of genre but inclusion of diverse themes. While he first struck hits with a more house-tinted take on his “rave nostalgia” style, the Covid-19 quarantine presented an opportunity for growth and reconnection to roots.
Breaking from a proven sound of success as a producer can be terrifying, and rightfully so. Why depart from the path that has heightened your name and professional opportunities when there is no guarantee that departure will equate to further success? The answer is largely intangible because it reclaims your artistic freedom and authenticity.
Ben’s time with house themes had run its course. Feeling his creativity and fulfillment running thin, he used the pandemic’s halt of the music industry to tap into the sounds that first filled his heart as a child—the sounds of trance. These themes of sonic escapism that permeate the clubs on the island of Ibiza, were the cornerstones of Hemsley’s relationship with dance music. He had broadened his musical horizons but lost touch with his roots, and reconciling was in order.
Cue “Bebé Musica.” This track marked a new era for Ben Hemsley, punctuated by the authentic expression of all that inspires him. In the years following, we’ve seen the highest form of Hemsley yet. His connection to the crowd has never been better, and his sound has never been so pure. Ben Hemsley displays that he’s more than a house head, more than a trance kid—he is an artist.
