By Roktima Godhuli
PSUE DONIM, aka Ben Phipps, and I met in August. We immediately bonded through music, hanging out in the car on those hot summer nights and listening to the good stuff. We talked about our favorite songs over countless hours, about how “Pink Floyd makes my brain explode (in a good way)” and “Kate Bush is so talented it makes me wanna rip my face off (also in a good way). I interviewed him, discussing his music process and how he mutitasks as a producer, as he moves closer to releasing his new music starting this new year.
DJ Amygdala (KZSC)
Hello everybody. This is DJ Amygdala from 88.1 FM, KZSC, Santa Cruz, and I’m here with Ben Phipps. He is not only an up-and-coming artist, but also a friend of mine. Ben, would you like to introduce yourself?
PSUE DONIM (Ben Phipps)
Yes, thank you. So yeah, I’m Ben. I’m an artist from San Jose, California. I’m currently living in Davis, California for school. And, yeah, yeah.
Amygdala
Okay, amazing. We got niceties out of the way. Now, let’s be honest. You and I both know I don’t play any instruments. It’s like my life’s biggest letdown. But as someone who knows how to play multiple instruments, what would you say is an unspoken requisite of learning an instrument?
PSUE DONIM
That is a great question. Okay, this sounds like a non-answer. I will say any, anytime, like someone asked me, like, what, what the secret is? So to speak, it’s, I mean, my only real answer is that you just have to like it. Because, my biggest gripe is, or I think that the worst thing for music is people being forced to learn an instrument, like either by their parents or in band that they didn’t want to do, or something like that. I think that me, my philosophy is that that only drives people away from music. I think that it’s crucial that the person wants to be learning the instrument that they care about it as an individual, that it’s not purely, you know, just to like, impress people or whatever. I think that it has to be like for not that it has to be, I mean, okay, don’t get me wrong, there’s many ways to learn music, but for me, my it was, it’s always been most important to me to know that I love what I’m doing and that that I think that’s brought me, brought me further, because I just love music. Yeah, I think, I think loving what you do is, is the way it go.
Amygdala
Yeah, I feel like, because my mom used to force me to go to, like piano lessons or whatever that I never really stuck to it, because I kind of develop this disdain, like it’s not because I didn’t like to learn piano, but just the whole process of going to my tutor and getting yelled at by her, I didn’t like it. So yeah, that’s good, that can give you some sort of outlet that you don’t find in everyday life. So what did you learn first? Like, what was the progression of your practice in music?
PSUE DONIM
Well, so I started with drums when I was five years old, and that was the only one that I took, like, formal lessons for. I started taking lessons for drums, and then I kind of went, it went off and on with those. And then in middle school, I was a band kid. I was in percussion, which is the cool section there. I learned we had, like, Bell kits and xylophones and stuff. So I learned that, which effectively taught me piano, and we had a piano at home, so I learned from those shapes. I was able to learn keyboards and piano. And then when I started high school, well actually before, before guitar, came ukulele. Because my dad had ukulele, called Delilah. So I started, I started playing ukulele, and then from there, I taught myself guitar on my mom’s old acoustic. And then one of my swim coaches was getting rid of an electric. So I checked that. And then in sophomore year, or no, not sophomore year, junior year of high school, during COVID, the lockdown, a lockdown year I got a bass, and then since senior year of high school, I’ve been producing and learning at FL studio, only pretty recently. With this tape, I’m feeling very like, I’ve, like I’ve, I don’t know. I don’t know. I think I still have plenty to learn, but I feel like I’ve got to a more novice point. Like, I feel like, for a while I felt like I was mainly beginning with with general producing and beat making. But now I feel like I’m at a point where I, you know, I’m improving a lot. I think that it’s, it’s cool to see the progress from now to, like, my first beats I made in high school that it’s cool to see my own progression. But, yeah.
Amygdala
Would you say like, once you learn one thing, like, once you learn the drums, or, like, once you learn the piano, it kind of makes your process of learning new things faster? Maybe, did you have an easier time picking up guitar because you learned instruments when you were so young?
PSUE DONIM
I think, absolutely, I think that learning drums was actually maybe the best place to start, because it gave me a great foundation of how to like understanding timing and multitasking with all four of my limbs and whatnot. Like I think drums was the great was a great place to start for me, and I think that it definitely made it easier going into band in middle school, because, you know, everyone’s anxious when they start middle school, but I think that it made me more comfortable to know that I had this background in drums. And I think that kind of gave me a step ahead of many others, because I just had in the back of my mind, like, even though I hadn’t been playing drums very much when I started middle school, I knew, like, oh, I have this background. Like, I, I don’t really know how to, you know, read sheet music, but I at least know what to look for, and I know what tempo, how tempo changes feel, and I know that stuff. So I feel like I always had a good hold on tempo. But yeah, yes, to answer your question, I think that one instrument definitely makes it easier to learn the next.
Amygdala
Um, you mentioned you are a student at Davis. Would you say, knowing how to play music and like, how to produce your own stuff now disciplines you to be a better student?
PSUE DONIM
I think in some ways, yes, I think it gives me that like, like working on music definitely gives me something to like, if I want to feel productive, but I don’t have any energy for studying or doing my homework. Like, working on music feels like, like I did something with my day, even, even though it didn’t take really much energy at all. So I think it’s definitely a good outlet for, like, a rest day, or like taking breaks in between, like, I’ll take breaks in between working on homework and make a beat and then go back to homework and stuff. It can definitely be helpful for breaks. But at the same time, since FL Studio is on my computer with my homework, I do definitely find myself making music when I should be doing my homework, but I think that it’s a give and take. I think that it has its ups and downs, and I’d rather have that outlet and get distracted sometimes than not have that outlet. You know.
Amygdala
I was gonna say, maybe knowing how to make music can discipline you to be a better student so you don’t like, I don’t know, because when you’re making music, you don’t feel like procrastinating, because it’s like a fun thing to do. So maybe that would be the same when you’re doing your homework, though, I feel like if I knew how to make music and I had homework to do, maybe that would not help me not procrastinate, like I don’t think so. Yeah, I don’t know about that. Anyway, I know so you have a beat tape that is dropping on New Year’s.
PSUE DONIM
Um, yes, New Year’s day.
Amygdala
Come on. I’m so excited. Um, so take us through the layers of making a beat like, what are you laying down first?
PSUE DONIM
Okay, so I, am no professional, though I like to pretend that I am. I mean, like I was saying earlier, I am very percussion-oriented. I think my place that I always start with is drums when I’m working with a sample. I mean, I love sampling. It’s my favorite, you know thing to do these days, um, but if I hear a sample that I want to use often, usually the chop comes first. If I’m working with a sample, I’ll often get, like a loose idea, at least with a sample. Um, and I’ll chop it up with sampling. It’s 5050, whether I start with the sample or the drums, but with general music when it’s not making beats, when it’s more composition-based, I think I always start with drums, just mainly because drums are like the foundation. And if I record drums first, like if I do live drums on my drum set, or if I do, like automated drums or whichever, it’s just always easiest for me to have the drums there first and then build on it from there, find the groove with that, usually drums and then bass is, is my order. Okay, and then I know melodies, on top of that. But yeah.
Amygdala
So when you’re sampling, like, what kinds of sounds do you usually gravitate towards?
PSUE DONIM
Um, I mean, it could be really random. I found some. There have been some random samples that I’ll just hear, like in the car with my dad, that I’ll Shazam. And it’ll be, you know, some weird folk song from the 60s, or it’ll be some weird, psychedelic, Massive Attack thing from the 90s or something. You like Massive Attack?
Amygdala
I love Massive Attack.
PSUE DONIM
But, yeah, um, I think for me, definitely, I’ve always really gravitated towards, like, the psychedelic sounds. Um, I remember the first, the first time that I gained consciousness was when I was listening to the first time I heard the song tomorrow, never knows by the Beatles. I don’t know if you know that song.
Amygdala
It’s a good one.
PSUE DONIM
It is a good one. It’s one of my favorites, and it’s one of the, at least one of the first songs I ever heard, but I ever heard, but I think it was one of the songs that, like, pioneered looping and like using weird sounds and just that that, like psychedelic sound was very, very, what’s the word influential, influential? That’s the word very influential on me. And then from there, I was very into Pink Floyd in high school. I mean, still am, but those kinds of sounds were always really what I gravitated toward and with, with hip hop, with beat making, definitely like the ASAP Rocky type cloud rap was very inspirational for me, a couple artists like Maxo and Mavi and that that very like, I guess chill more chill sounds are very important. For me, also there’s no, I haven’t heard any other terms for it. I mean, people call it Dilla time, but like that, that bouncy feel in drums is just infectious to me. It’s so oh my god. It tickles my brain in no other way, but like the J Dilla drums and this artist, Overcast from Oakland, who I love, that those types of drums that like you feel the, the life in the drums like you feel, you feel the distance between each kick like it’s just beautiful to me. Yeah, I think those are the sounds that I’d most gravitate towards.
Amygdala
Okay, and also you, you also have a mixtape that’s coming up in the summer. So yes, you want to tell us about that?
PSUE DONIM
Yes, I do. So the mixtape is going to be a bit more refined than the beat tape I’m dropping in the on New Year’s Day. The mixtape is a collab project with my good buddy Yucef Bouzina. He goes by the name Bouzy. His Instagram is DJ Bouzy, DJ, B O U Z Y, He’d want me to plug him. So I am. But we’re doing a collab, and we both have very different music tastes, and we kind of always have, because I grew up mostly on, like a rock influence. He grew up mostly on, like classical and then electronic music. He’s mainly like an EDM producer. But I think we meet in the middle in a kind of cool way. We both have very different influences. So it’s it makes it very fun whenever we cook together. But I’d say for that project, at least for what we have done so far, it’s a very like Kaytranada-esque sound. Very, very like poppy, at least so far, but we’re keeping that project pretty open-ended. The original plan and my idea was to finish a project, like to start the project when we first started Christmas break, and then finish it and release it by the end of break. Realistically, I know that I’m too much of a perfectionist to do something that quickly, and I know that he, also works full time at Costco, so it’s like impossible to find time. But we’re planning to finish it in the summer. We have a pretty cool direction the project is going to be called Paseos, because I grew up in a neighborhood called Los Paseos, which means the walks in Spanish. So it’s going to be about, like, different walks of life and different, you know, areas of growth and what. So that’s, that’s sort of the direction we’re going with that.
Amygdala
Very cool. I know I heard a little snippet on this man’s Instagram, and it sounds pretty good. Sounding pretty good. Well, I know you really appreciate, like, self-produced albums, obviously, like, you know, I bonded over the fact that we both shared a love for these albums, like, like you said, like Donuts by J Dilla, or In Rainbows by Radiohead or Innerspeak Tame Impala, you know so like, how would you say loving these albums have, like, helped you move towards making a project, like, all by yourself? Like, I don’t know. What about it makes you want to do it yourself?
PSUE DONIM
I think that these albums, like these self-produced albums, are they feel very honest to me. And I think honesty and art is important because it’s hard to tell with a lot of stuff. Like, it can be hard to tell, which I mean. There’s really no way as a listener to know what albums were authentic and which ones weren’t. Because really, who knows what art is authentic? You know, like, it’s kind of arbitrary. But just to me, knowing an album was self-produced, gives it a certain amount of credibility that other albums don’t like it had. It gives it an extra layer that makes me gravitate towards it. And I think that that that idea of someone. And having an idea for an album, making it themselves, fully executing it, dropping it solo, their name on it. And I think that the Tyler the Creator idea thing of putting on the cover of all songs written, produced and arranged by Tyler Okoma, like I’ve always really wanted to have on a project of mine and be able to say all tracks are produced and arranged by Benjamin Phipps, which so far they are, which I’m really proud for. I mean, that just that fact alone, regardless of what the album sounds like, I even mixed them all myself. Like, I’m mastering them, but otherwise, I’m really proud of it. And even for sounds, just the fact that I have seven songs that I arranged, put in order, titled, and uploaded, or haven’t uploaded yet. But will you know just that, idea, that a single person can do it all is very inspirational to me. And I think that’s, that’s the reason why I’ve even done it. Maybe it’s also the reason why I haven’t it took me so long to because I’m so stubborn about being solo, right? I think that it’s helped me be focused on my own direction, my own, you know, producing style, my own vision.
Amygdala
Yeah, well, I think it’s really impressive to not only play like multiple instruments, but also knowing how to put them together, and creating a space where it sounds good and it is meaningful, not only to you but to people that will potentially listen to it. So yeah. Anyway, thank you, Ben, for taking the time to share your thoughts with me and the listeners. And yeah, talk about your new stuff that’s dropping, like, tell us all the information, tell us where we can find you, or yeah, like how to reach your work.
PSUE DONIM
Okay, so I’m new to this. This is, this is all very new to me, but my Instagram is mr.benphipps, Mr. Ben P, H, I, P, P, S, that’s my personal but my music account is P, S, U, E, D, O, N, I, M, U, S, I, C is my music Instagram, and then PSUE DONIM is the name that I’m releasing this project under. It’s going to be called Bad Therapy, and it’s going to be on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. And can I like link those on this what’s posted?
Amygdala
I’ll link it.
PSUE DONIM
Okay, that’d be fantastic, but Bad Therapy by PSUE DONIM, dropping January 1 of 2025.
Amygdala
Amazing. Um, yeah, go, go, check him out. Gonna be great. Um, and, of course, as a conclusion, we’re obviously gonna listen to his brilliant, brilliant work. So stay, stay tuned for that.
PSUE DONIM
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate the opportunity to yap about music. I love music.
Check PSUE DONIM out!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psuedonimusic/
Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/6BkUj7dd4STPL3y97