Music Waves Q&A: Fire Beninois
learn more about Fire Beninois through dipity's monthly music interview spotlights
Introduction
Fire Beninois is a mixed-media art project telling the story of a post-collapse civilization of ghosts. Through experimental songs inspired by hip-hop, trip-hop, dark ambient, and downtempo folk, it delves into stories of power struggle, alienation, and eternity, illustrated by AI-generated images and videos.
Q: What is your name? Where are you located?
My name is Fire Beninois and I’m based in Paris, France.
Q: What is the backstory behind your artist or band name AND What does the name mean to you or signify?
Fire Beninois is the moniker used by a whole tradition of musician-ghosts through the ages of a distant post-collapse future. All ghosts who make music will release albums under that name. The first bearer of the moniker was Toundra Soupiro, who was nicknamed so by a shaman-child, to whom he taught to build fire, and because he was wearing a T-Shirt, recovered from debris, that read Café Béninois (Beninese Coffeeshop). A lot of different ghosts perpetuated the Fire Beninois tradition after him.
Q: How did you begin your journey into the world of music? AND How long have you been in the music industry?
I’ve always wanted to make music but I focused on writing novels until 2020, when the lockdown provided me with some time and introspection (as well as a mental breakdown which took me away from writing).
Q: What inspires you as an artist? Give us some insight into your creative process.
The whole Fire Beninois project has actually grown to be a long audio-visual narrative: songs are recorded by ghosts as they navigate a maimed future of power dynamics and war and repeated mistakes. First I told their stories through short narrative and poetic captions on Instagram, accompanied by visuals made with AI. Then I switched to video and since then the stories are told through animated stories, of which my music is the soundtrack. So, my creative process is basically exploring this milleniums-long period of fiction, going deeper into some stories within my larger narrative. Themes of power, struggle against power, decay and the persistence of love and human spirit inform these stories
Q: What's your favorite song you've released? Why is it your fave song?
It is hard to choose, and my answer may vary. But right now, I could mention “Sortie Mishima.” A personal favourite because creating it hit the right balance between inexplicable intuition and hard-work, and the outcome feels like a song I’ve always wanted to compose, without being aware of it.
Q: What's an upcoming project or which event(s) are you excited about?
I’m about to close a trilogy of albums called Ashuvetvu which revolve around the
irruption of a non-ghost creature in a pessimistic convent whose main teaching is that ghosts are fruitless creatures who should not engage in anything constructive. The trilogy, which began this year with album Charrue and was followed-up by Jailflowers, ends on May the 3rd with Choir Last.
Q: We love to read and get inspired by lyrics. Share the title of a song and its lyrics (one of your favorite songs you've either written or released). What does this song mean to you?
My music is mostly instrumental, but here’s a text from the narrative “Queen
Sheer”, which corresponds to albums Blunt, This Prairie Won’t Hold, and Sunsun
Miserere:'the meaning of dances
the meaning of fights:
rituals, and every ritual is a reminder that turned into something sacreda reminder, in that case, that every ghost is a wave on an ocean who doesn't
have to know whether it is one or many
but it is one
and we know it
so we remember it
by crushing together in fights and dance
Q: What are your thoughts about the world of poetry? Are there any poets that you're a fan of?
I welcome any initiative that tries to give back life to poetry as a written genre. I think right now, at least in France, printed collections of poems are dying out, because the publishing world is strangled by the need to make profit. But poetry, as a notion (as opposed to a specific literary medium) always finds a way and is actually to be found everywhere. To me it’s incarcerated beauty. Beauty that blooms in the prison of versification, but also on the limited surface of a wall, the brevity requirements of a social media post, etc.
Most of my favourite poets, in the traditional sense, are French-speaking : Arthur Rimbaud, Guillaume Apollinaire, Henri Michaux, Aimé Césaire and many more! I have written poetry in French but it turned out I am more at ease with writing it in English, as I do with Fire Beninois. The fact that it’s not my native language makes me freer, and sometimes, awkward phrasing gets you to accidental poetry.
Q: Who are some of your favorite artists and musicians that you listen to?
I have to give a shout-out to two musicians I was blessed with meeting since I started Fire Beninois: Mauk Tenieb and Hot Air Balloons. I have the honour of having made one album with each, and to call both of them my friends. You can find their music on all platforms. Just click on whichever cover inspires you the most : they are fascinating explorers who always have something new to offer, whichever genre they try out.
To Check Out More of Fire Beninois’s Music Visit:
Instagram: @fire.beninois
Follow and listen to more on Spotify [Here]
Subscribe to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmxToSft70wsIv_MbDt0vfw
Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/fire-beninois/1672868151
Bandcamp: https://firebeninois.bandcamp.com/
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/fire-beninois
Any other thoughts, comments, or shares after reading the interview?
[Interview Processed By VFORROW]
Thank you so much, Fire Beninois, for sharing and submitting to Dipity Lit Mag! ~ Jazz Marie Kaur (Vevna Forrow).
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It's truly an honor and a joy to explore creativity and potential artistic worlds with visionaries like Fire Beninois. (Hot Air Balloons is also a wizard: his work is a vast landscape where lushness and solidity coexist beautifully.) Fire Beninois and I share a French background, as well as a human complicity. He opens up a world of mixed-art life forms and narrative arcs that I believe will be significant in the future. (Let’s check in a few years.)