彼の生まれ育った場所は、マレーシア、オーストラリア、沖縄etc... いずれも気候が温暖で海に面したところばかり。 そこに住んでいる人々はみんな開放的で（もちろん沖縄も例外ではない） どことなくオリエンタル（エスニック？）な雰囲気があるところばかり。 そこに彼のFavoriteであるBabyfaceなどのR&Bの要素が加わり、さらに彼独特のセンスによって、benhur独自の"Pacific R&B"が生まれる。 そのメロディーは日本人が聞いても全く違和感がない。むしろどことなく懐かしい感じさえもしてしまい、不思議な感じがする。 さらに、彼の曲には彼が愛している場所の一つの”沖縄”への気持ちが感じられるものがたくさんあるのも面白いところだ。
これから再びbenhurの
"パシフィックR&B"
が始まります。 今後の彼の活動にご期待下さい。
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"The fusion of funk & Soul and Island flavors, to the grooves of sexy beats."
A catch phrase as hypnotic as the sounds created by benhur.
The idea behind Pacific R&B, is to blend all elements from the pacific south, the south east asian region all together, for music knows no border. Making R&B music at it's best.
Music, like all races should not be prejudiced. One concept: One voice. One mind. One nation. One sound.
Since his childhood days, benhur loved all kinds of music, but being brought up in an environment where soul music is the most dominant, benhur couldn't help but absorb that kind of style.
benhur was brought up to be a shy boy. Till this day, words do not flow so easily for him!
He has shown to be a good and excellent leadership in whatever he did, but always smart enough to appoint a spokeperson to do the talking for him!
The only time when he really gets his message across is when he is singing. benhur realized he first had to create a sound that evryone can relate to, no matter who they are or where they're from. Being brought up in a multi-cultural country, he saw people are identified and associated with a certain genre. A fusion is required, no matter what the words are, the language that he had to use was purely music.
Only when benhur was exposed to the SOLAR (Sound Of Los Angeles Records) sounds, he then knew his preferences were then narrowed down to a certain approach. That approach was the sound that Kenneth "babyface" Edmonds and Antonio "L.A." Reid innovated in "The Deele". There were also a few others groups that were similar to the sound, and benhur later found out that the ones that were, produced by none other than his mentors L.A. & babyface!
The birth of pacific r&b began there. How it all started was, longing to sing many of the songs written by babyface, but he could never find anyone that could reproduce the sounds, the exact feelings to compliment his singing. Back then, not many liked or even heard of The Deele, nor "babyface".
benhur started penning down his feelings on to paper, and for many years, he sang his favorite tunes privately, waiting for the day where he is able to perform.
It was in 1989, when he met Joe Fidow, (formerly of the band "Kulcha" who had worldwide and Australian chart success with tracks like "Shaka Jam" and "Fly girl" back in the mid 90's) and that was the turning point for him.
"We sorta clicked when we met (laughs). I can still remember like it was yesterday. We were both in a local singing and dance competition at a very very local small club that catered mainly for the minority R&B crowd." "Both being Finalists, halfway thru' though, we didn't even cared about winning! We just wanted to get together, and make music!" "yea, we were both slow jam kings! (laughs) i was very much into the babyface stuff, and Joe was more into Surface. We didn't do very well then because our music were too slow! (laughs)"
They started writing together. staying together for months with only a synthesizer and a sequencer. "All we had was cheap no brand bread with no brand butter! 2 meals a day, a loaf between the two of us."
benhur learnt all the sequencing techniques from Joe. "It was cool, you know. being able to create the sounds exactly the way you want it to sound. Of course we weren't able to duplicate many of the sounds because we were limited to one keyboard and whatever sounds it came with (the keyboard)." "We improvised a lot. Filtering, envoloping and combining sounds to came as close as possible to what we hear on the CDs (of their favorite songs by babyface and Surface)."
It was a strange combination then, benhur, a Malaysian, Joe Fidow a Samoan, both being brought up in Australia. "I guess that was the first sign of Pacific R&B. I was Majoring in Japanese when I was in University, and I was listening to a few Japanese stuff back then. Joe introduced me to a few of his Islander music as well."
For many years they performed and wrote music together. But being restrained by private commitments, it was unfortunate they were not able to continue as team to the road of success, although they both reached their goals individually. "I would love to work with him (Joe) again because we had this chemistry. It's hard now since I am mainly based in Japan and he, back in Australia. I met him a few times when I went back, and he offered me to come back, but yea, it's a bit hard now, but we'll see!"
Wanting to keep the vibes and atmosphere, wanting the same old magic he had then, benhur innovated and termed his style, what is known now as:
"Pacific R&B"
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