A unique voice in a melting pot of world music – In conversation with Benji Cachia
When Benji Cachia takes the stage, you know you're in for something special. Whether you know him as Banjo Rancho, The Smiling Drummer, or simply as the explosive force behind the drum kit, Benji has always been a loud and vibrant personality – extremely technical, extremely flashy, but extremely tasteful and adaptable. While he's proven he can absolutely hold it down as a sideman, most people will inevitably know him as a band leader and someone who generally stands out wherever he plays.
Most notably, his project, The Ranch, just hit 10 years of activity this year. The jazz-fusion trio has become synonymous with daring musical exploration, with no boundaries and no territory uncharted enough for their adventurous sound. So when Benji announced he was launching a solo venture, it seemed like a natural next step for someone who's never been afraid to push musical boundaries.
But as natural as it seemed, this wasn't a seamless, unchallenging move. Akshara would mark the first time Benji would compose and record virtually by himself, and even more daunting, perform these tracks solo through a wide selection of instruments and loopers. Anyone who attended the album launch at the Valletta Campus Theatre in April witnessed just how ambitious this undertaking was. The range of instruments literally took up the entire room, from Benji's drum kit in the centre, to an acoustic guitar in the middle, all the way to some kind of water drum at the very end of a long table of percussion instruments from all over the world.
Benji didn't take on this challenge entirely by himself, though. Keyboardist Mark Attard and multi-instrumentalist Francesco Sultana guest on the record, and a handful of other musicians appeared at key moments during the launch. Still, Benji joked during the evening that he doesn't really enjoy performing by himself, which made the full house at Valletta Campus Theatre's enthusiastic response all the more rewarding.
Sonically, Akshara represents a lateral move but in a slightly different departure. Benji is well known for studying music from all over the world, and while these influences have always come through in his songwriting, they're more present than ever before. The album feels like a melting pot of world music, with these diverse influences merging into a very distinct atmosphere that still maintains elements of Benji's distinctive jazz and progressive sensibilities.
The album launch itself was a resounding success – a very interesting blend of Benji's solo pieces, coupled with songs performed by the full band and even some dance elements for a truly immersive show. With Akshara now out in the world and his first major solo performance behind him, I wanted to talk to Benji about the shift into solo work, the process of creating the album, and his reflections on taking this ambitious project from the studio to the stage.
Although this is your first solo venture, you obviously have experience as a songwriter, particularly with The Ranch. Could you tell me more about what was different for you in terms of the songwriting process for Akshara compared to what you’ve done previously?
To begin with, I feel very fortunate and thankful that I can go around the world and learn different techniques, as well as learn how different communities live and go about their way of life. This has opened my mind to so much more than what I could have imagined, and it helps so much when being a creative artist. The biggest difference, probably to writing a solo album, is that you are alone, mostly when it comes to decision making, so most of the work you have to judge by yourself – you don’t have others that you can feed off of or see their reactions. I think the biggest change in this album compared to all the stuff I've done before is that the sound qualities have a very important role. There are a lot of cinematic soundscapes, whereas before, there was a lot more of a technical approach to playing the instruments, improvising, and musicianship.
You’ve obviously studied instruments and musical ideologies from all around the world, and Akshara leans into these inspirations heavily. What I’m curious to know is how you approach incorporating these influences into your songwriting. Is it all accumulated language that comes out naturally when you write, or do you start out by actively thinking about specific modalities?
When it comes to writing, all I need is just to feel inspired or motivated by something. It could be anything – it could be a technique, it could be an instrument, it could be the scenery…then once you start, everything starts to unfold. For me, it helps a lot to be in another country for a period of time. For example, when I was studying indian music, even though I had been studying their music through books and online videos for years, going there was a whole different ball game and opened my brain so much in the first few days, even after all those years of studying! So now it's become a bit of an important part of my work to spend some time with the musicians in their country and see how they work and play!
Can you tell me about the process of translating the album to a live set-up? How challenging was this, given that there were multiple pieces you performed just by yourself? And in hindsight, do you feel like you managed to achieve the vision you had in mind in terms of performing Akshara live, or would you have done anything differently if you could?
Well, I'm nearly always looking to see what I could do better; how I can change things and make them more interesting for each performance. I feel that is how you can grow as an artist! Personally, I am very happy with how I pulled off the first solo performance. I was very concerned at the beginning, in terms of whether I was going to manage to make it happen the way I envisioned it…whether it was even possible to perform these songs along while still keeping it alive and raw. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but in the end I was very happy. I did have to gather new equipment, programme them, figure out how to use them, and determine the best way for me to utilise them. I needed to bring on board laptops, pedals and effects, loopers, etc. I also had to mic up my own setup and transfer everything into my laptop and back out before it went into the front of house. So there's really a lot of work before I even start to perform, but it's the only way that I can have control over my sound and make sure that I'm getting what I need.
Akshara featured a couple of guest artists, Mark Attard and Francesco Sultana, who also performed at your launch alongside Patryk Cutajar and Anil Sunny Jimmy at the launch concert. What was your process for selecting musicians to collaborate with on this project? And, particularly for the studio, how much freedom was there for Mark and Francesco to interpret the music in their own way?
When it came to the collaborating artists, there were only two for the album. It was a very last-minute thing – we were in the studio, and we said, you know, it would be nice to have some synth here.. or some wind instrument there.. So very spontaneous. The artists had a lot of freedom to do what they wanted, but of course, the song was there, so a good musician would kind of know what's needed of him naturally, but can give his own flavour. For the performance, I wanted to bring on some guest artists as I really enjoy playing with other musicians, even when performing as a solo artist, I hope to always have some guests in the show :)
What’s next for your solo venture? Do you have plans to perform music from Akshara again? And are you actively planning on writing more solo music?
I had all these questions whilst writing the album, especially when thinking a bit more long-term, and how I was going to approach this solo performance. Am I going to take this thing on the road? Am I going to manage to perform often? Because it's not easy with this kind of setup, it's quite a big setup! But things just started to fall in place. I already got called to play in festivals and on TV, and I also got my first international gig in Algeria this year, so I'm super excited about that. I also have another big performance coming up in September, and I’m looking into some other international events as well. So it kind of just started rolling, and from my side, I'm ready to go all over the world! I already have ideas to start writing, I even have new instruments in mind. I also have tracks that l've been working on from before the album. So there's quite a lot of stuff already happening there, so l would be expecting a second album eventually!