After more than a year of production silence, the Manimal, better known as Benjamin Bates made a great comeback with a brand new label, Anti Plastik Audio, and a re-release of the all-time classic ‘The Manimal’, including an official Jordy Lishious remix. Find out more about Benjamin and his recent activities.
You’ve been gone from the radar for quite some time now. Until you released Supersoul on your brand new label Anti Plastik Audio two months ago, there was no Benjamin Bates around. What have you been doing?
The short answer: reproducing haha. I’m a proud father of two little girls now! I never really quit producing -or deejaying- but i’ve been doing things at a very gentle speed for the last four years.
The Manimal (Benjamin Bates YOTR mix) [preview] by Benjamin Bates
What made you want to start Anti Plastik Audio?
To be honest i think it’s because i’m a bit of a control freak and i’ve been doing my own mastering / sleeves and all that kind of stuff for the past 8 years. That makes having an external record-label kind of a luxury. And that kind of luxury is hard to afford when you’re not putting out a lot of high-profile releases. I have been dreaming of having my own imprint for years, and the time seemed to be perfect right now with all the promotional tools social media has to offer.
I met my label partner Menno Abbink a few years ago, and at the beginning of 2011 we decided to stop discussing all the options and just go ahead and start doing something. I’ve been in a tremendous artistic flow ever since!
SuperSoul [preview] by Benjamin Bates
I am very happy to see the re-release of The Manimal, since it is one of my favorite tracks of all time. What made you want to release it again and why did you ask Jordy Lishious to do the official remix beside yourself?
Me and Dick de Groot (BeYourselfMusic / Big&Dirty label owner) have been planning on re-releasing some of my old tunes for years. Some of them just never got the attention we thought they deserved. A lot of people remember tracks like “The Manimal”, “Locked Up!” and “Whole”, but for some reason -at the time of release- they never really had the immediate impact on the scene we were hoping for.
Nowadays, some of those tunes are considered classics, so we thought it would be a great idea to bring them back to life. The first one i wanted to do was The Manimal. Jordy kind of offered to do the remix himself. He’s been a long time friend, and i knew he’s always been a big fan of the original version of the track, so he was the first one i called when we decided to re-release. I didn’t even have to ask him for the mix haha. In return i made a remix for my favorite track of his: “Raw”.
Anti Plastik Audio announced a release on the 1st of January. Can you scoop us something yet?
It’s a track called “Shatter”. It’s “SuperSoul” on steroids with guitars and an immense amount of WHOOP. I’m really excited about this release. We’ve got some great response already from some of the big guys. I’d love to hear it on a big outdoor stage! A preview has been uploaded for you:
We know that you spend most of your studio time together with Marco V. Since you started releasing new tracks on your own I am wondering how this will affect the way of working with Marco V?
It won’t really affect that at all. We have had the same weekly schedule for the past few years. Marco’s always touring a lot, so there’s plenty of studio time for other things…
So, what’s the next step in your career? Remixes, tracks, gigs?
If it’s up to me, all of the above haha. My Gareth Emery remix had just been released, and i think that will kick up more dust too during the coming weeks. I hope to be part of some of the big festivals again in 2012 but you’ll have to check back about that early next year.
Gareth Emery feat. Mark Frisch – “Into The Light” (Benjamin Bates remix) by Benjamin Bates
Download the Benjamin Bates bootleg of Feel So Close, original by Calvin Harris, for free by liking Benjamin on Facebook.
