Get to know: Colin Benders

One of the scariest moments in Colin Benders career was debuting at Awakenings last year. Thrown in the deep end, the Dutch live artist was given a slot between Nastia and Ben Klock for an opportunity to showcase his monstrous modular set up at the forefront of the festival. 

Completely improvised and fuelled by the energy Colin was feeling from the crowd and himself at the time, this was just the beginning in a series of bookings to follow suit for techno events. Since then, Colin and his wall of modular synths have appeared in Berghain, De Marktkantine, NDSM Docklands at ADE, Funkhouse and lots more over the last 12 months. 

From playing the trumpet at age 17 to founding and fronting The Kyteman Orchestra, Colin is a long-running musician who’s now delved into the world of tougher, dance-floor centred sounds with an overwhelming set up of modular synth gear. Dubbed as the ‘modular synth wizard’, we’re expecting the sound system to receive a thorough work-out on August 25th when Colin heads up our Middle Floor alongside Delta Funktionen and DeFeKT (live). 

We caught up with Colin ahead of the night to get to know the celebrated conductor a little bit more and find out how the sounds of techno and electronica crept into his life before taking his career in an entirely different direction…

Looking at your history conducting the Kyteman Orchestra and playing the trumpet, I’m wondering when modular synths came under your radar? 

It’s quite a contrasting bit of gear compared to playing in the orchestra and learning the trumpet… Modular synths first came into my life when I was looking for new hardware to produce with because I was making all my beats on Logic and getting annoyed about how everything sounded so generic like all the computer synths and stuff like that. 

My workflow was beginning to feel restricted. I wasn’t feeling very inspired to make new stuff so I went looking for something else to work. I brought in some hardware synths to get different sounds but I could never find the right piece of gear to keep me going. 

In 2010 my friend suggested to look into modular synths and from there on, I got in way over my head. All these cables and blinking lights just gripped me right away but I had no clue what I was doing.  modular synths over the next couple of years, it just stood there in my studio making me feel guilty that I wasn’t playing with any of it. 

That went on until 2013 when I sat down and gave it a proper chance to see what I could do with it. I started to get some pretty interesting results (sparsely) and slowly but surely I became obsessed with the workflow, how things would sound and the way I was able to play. I gradually began to phase out my entire studio as I had all kinds of stuff. I just got rid of everything and rebuilt from scratch, purely based on modular synths. 

This was around the time the orchestra was coming to an end as we’d been playing together for a long time. We decided to work on our own projects and for me, that was the modular stuff. I haven’t stopped since. 

Looking at your Awakenings slot last year, the set up is huge. Is this the same set up for all your shows on the road? Do you take everything with you? 

It’s usually the same unless I take a flight. I have to make a few compromises but otherwise I try to bring as much as I can. Apart from working with modular synths, I’m quite limited in my skill set right now. Modular is all I do! I have no computer with me just the modular and a mixer. My sets are all improvised and completely spur of the moment. 

But what about your 4 hour sets? These extra long ones are all improvised too? 

All of it is improvised. I power up the machine and see where it takes me. It’s all based on the vibe. If the vibe is straightforward techno, then that’s just going to be it. If it’s more of a feel good, melodic atmosphere then I’ll float with that. 

You played with your back to the crowd at Awakenings last year, how did you get the vibe from the audience in this particular way? It can be risky, some might say it doesn’t help to connect with the crowd unless you see their reaction etc? 

That’s actually something I’m still trying to figure out. I have a stupid limitation now with the wall of modules being so big that I can’t see above it. If I can’t look over the top of the system, people can’t look up anyway. 

So far playing with my back the crowd works the best. I turn around every so often to gage the crowd though. 

What if you turn around and the crowd aren’t really into it? Or maybe that hasn’t happened yet? 

In the beginning, this happened a few times but that was when I was trying to find out what the live energy was. When I started touring, the biggest mistakes I made were based on insecurity. I was questioning if people were still following what I was doing. I figured I had to let go of all that and just decide that as long as I was having a good time, there’s probably going to be a couple of other people having a good time as well. That’s given me the best result so far. I can always change everything right there on the spot anyway. 

We had Lady Starlight here a few weeks ago who is another incredible live artist. Are there any other live artists who have caught your attention and who you’d like to share a billing with? 

Definitely. Surgeon, Blawan or Karenn. I’ve listened to some Karenn sets and it’s like ‘holy f*cking sh*t!!!’ 

Those guys are quite banging (in a good way) and techno itself is quite an intense genre. Where did your love of techno stem from? It’s so far off from the Kyteman Orchestra. 

Two things happened simultaneously. I started doing beats with basslines which sounded like acid. Rugged, big sounding beats. I had never really listened to techno until my friend took me to Berghain and after 48 hours there, I came out like ‘HOOOOOLY SHHHHHH*T this is awesome!’. My sound then went more and more into dance-like energy, it wasn’t a conscious decision until my bookings became orientated around techno events.

But still today, I am not quite sure the sound I’m playing fits into the genre of techno. But it does seem to fit these types of events. 

You also played in Berghain recently, how was that? 

I received an invite from Ben for his Photon night and that was just fantastic. I brought my big set up and afterwards, they asked me back again. That set also worked out amazing. I guess Berghain is my home base. 

What about DJing, would you consider this at some point? 

I haven’t done it yet but I’m considering to pick it up at some point. All my attempts have failed miserably - it’s the technicality of it. I tried vinyl first then CDJs which were a lot easier but honestly, I haven’t given it much of a chance. At the moment I’m most comfortable playing live. 

Did you find the environment in which techno is played in - the sweat, darkness and general intensity of a club and festival setting - quite difficult to adjust to compared to the more concert orientated settings you were previously familiar with? 

That came pretty easy. Both scenes have one thing in common - the people adore the music. The promoters also really care so that was the first anchor for me to grasp on to. 

I realised it’s not just about getting messed up in a club, people are actually there for the music. They’re there for a good time and experience. It’s all about energy. That’s what attracted me to this entire sound and scene, to begin with. 

With the orchestra, I was always looking for ways to bridge over a certain sound and type of energy into what we were doing. But there was this primal drive to let go and before you know it, it’s 8 hours later and I could never really find that drive in the other world of acoustics etc. that I used to play in. A club night is different to a concert night but yeah, whatever. It doesn’t phase me. I just go with it. 

You’ll be playing for us August 25th for the first time, will you have your back to the dancefloor? This doesn’t happen too often at the club… 

Probably, if I bring my big set up. But it depends on the setup and what I can bring over on the plane. 

What’s next for you over the coming months? 

I have a couple of weeks off so I’m going on holidays to chill on the beach. I have a few things lined up and then ADE. I’m opening with the Metropole Orkest on the Wednesday of ADE then playing Awakenings on Friday night in Gashauder, and a few other dates along the way. It’s actually going to be my first modular show in London at Egg which I’m really looking forward to!