![\"BENBRICK\"](\"\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Screen-shot-2014-05-29-at-13.40.50-e1401367404875.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPaul Carter is Benbrick, a producer, singer and songwriter, whose sound is grand in every sense.<\/p>\n
The London-based artist frequents a space between R&B and laid-back indie-pop, blending his falsetto, somewhere in the background of his eerily sound housed by a lasting and at times a somewhat mystical atmosphere that feels like a distant fantasy.<\/p>\n
As evident on “And Now She Runs,” a pro-love anthem taken from his debut EP \u2018Closer | Closure,\u2019 in which he uses his disarming vocals to take listeners on a poignant journey. Fun fact: in 2012 Benbrick co-wrote a song for a Japanese animated movie that grossed $13million at the box office. We spoke with him about making heartbreak songs and what he spares no expenses on.<\/p>\n
Did you choose music or did music choose you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, I\u2019ve played the piano since I was about 4 or 5. I remember when I was about 12 I played a classical piano recital and I played the whole song an octave too high by mistake. I don\u2019t know why I told you that as the first answer\u2026 I should have said something that made me look really good, shouldn\u2019t I? I\u2019m not sure who chose who.<\/p>\n So what do you want from your music career?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019d like to continue to make things that excite and inspire me. Eventually, I\u2019d like to be doing more music for film.<\/p>\n Is that the same feeling you get from writing a song?<\/strong><\/p>\n Being excited and inspired? It\u2019s definitely the thing that I\u2019m looking for. Sometimes it takes a long time to find. I normally start writing at about midnight when everyone has left the other studios around me, and it\u2019s quiet.<\/p>\n What do you spare no expense on?<\/strong><\/p>\n Probably food and coffee. I find menus at restaurants really annoying though. It just takes so long to read them and work out what\u2019s going on. We need a new menu system. I\u2019d spare no expense overhauling the menu system.<\/p>\n I was listening to \u2018And So She Runs\u2019 and the title itself conjure the idea of you in pursuit of someone. What sort of place were you coming from going into the song?<\/strong><\/p>\n The whole EP is about my last relationship and the break up. The track before it is called \u2018Stronger Than We Think\u2019 and is about holding on, and wondering whether the girl is still thinking about me. \u2018And So She Runs\u2019 is the answer and final track, I guess it\u2019s a reflection on the whole thing. It\u2019s after the pursuit. I love artists like Death Cab for Cutie where the lyric can be read like a conversation or outpouring of thoughts.<\/p>\n What was the creative process behind turning those emotions into a song?<\/strong><\/p>\n I normally come up with some chords and then create a basic track in Logic. I\u2019ll e-mail myself the track then walk around London listening to it on my phone miming some lyric ideas in my head. I\u2019ll go back to the track and make some changes, e-mail it again, put on my headphones, and try and write the lyric some more. It\u2019s an ongoing process until I love the song. The lyrics are very important.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t seem to be afraid of tackling difficult topics. I\u2019m thinking in particular of your recent single, \u2018Forever Holding On.\u2019 Do you find that writing can be liberating or can it be a difficult process?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s totally liberating. Of course at points what you\u2019re creating will resonate with a particular feeling and will stir up old memories. As you move through the process you became more and more removed. At the point where you eventually release the songs you\u2019ve spent such a long time with them that you\u2019re hopefully over whatever you\u2019re singing about.<\/p>\n