Benny Sings on 22 Durnham Dew, Family, and the Beauty of Being “Boring”
Benny Sings has spent more than two decades refining one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary pop music. The Dutch singer, songwriter, and producer has a knack for creating songs that feel immediately familiar—warm keyboards, melodies in soft-focus, touches of soul, jazz, R&B, and 1970s singer-songwriter pop—while often hiding something far more complicated beneath the surface.
That tension is at the heart of his latest album, 22 Durnham Dew. Written during a period of significant change in his life, the record follows a move away from central Amsterdam and toward a quieter, more domestic existence with his family. It’s an album about home, parenthood, transition, and the weird way that everyday life can seep its way into pop music.
Our conversation travels back even further: to his parents’ record collection, his fascination with American pop culture, Sesame Street, Chet Baker, Judee Sill, Rupert Holmes, the Carpenters, and the enduring appeal of music that sounds light even when its emotional center is anything but.
We also talk about vinyl, working alone versus collaborating, why his daughter helped rescue a song he wasn’t sure about, and why—after years of touring, producing, collaborating, and making records—Benny Sings may now be increasingly interested in something much less glamorous: routine, simplicity, and what he jokingly calls “ambitionless music.”
ezt: You’re in Los Angeles. You made it to Los Angeles?
Benny Sings: Yes, I made it through customs.
ezt: Good. I’m glad you made it all the way. When did you get into town?
Benny Sings: Yesterday.
ezt: So you have a gig this weekend?
Benny Sings: My record label, Stones Throw, is celebrating its 30th birthday, which is great and very cozy. We have a small festival on the street at the office. It’s three days, and I’ll be joining them onstage.
ezt: Very exciting. And you’ve got your (Stones Throw) shirt on there, so you’re ready to go. Benny, thanks for joining me today.
I visited Haarlem some years ago, and I love the Netherlands. It’s a really great country, and I enjoyed my time there very much. You’re obviously a Dutch artist, but your music still feels deeply connected to American soul, soft rock, jazz, R&B, and 1970s singer-songwriter music.
Growing up in the Netherlands, what records or albums did you listen to? How did you consume music? How did you find out about these artists? What inspired you?
Benny Sings: It was my parents’ record collection to begin with. There was a lot of classical music, but next to that, American pop culture was the biggest thing ever when I was a kid.
We had Sesame Street. We had Paul McCartney—although, of course, that’s the UK—and Stevie Wonder. You name it; everything was in our house. That was my first connection to music.
ezt: So there was a record collection. It was vinyl? They had records?
Benny Sings: Yeah. It was the ’80s, so vinyl was normal.
ezt: Are you still a record person now? Are you a vinyl person in your personal life?
Benny Sings: Well, I’m not that guy. I’m not a connoisseur of anything. I just live. I do love vinyl and the whole warmth around it, but no vinyl in the house yet.
ezt: I listened to your record on vinyl, which you were kind enough to send me. Thank you very much. It sounds great. It’s a great pressing. I think it’s a Czech pressing, and it sounds good. Were you excited about releasing this album on vinyl, or was it just another format that you wanted to tick off the list?
Benny Sings: No, I think it’s really special because I was brought up with the idea that you’ve only made a true album if it’s on vinyl. You’ve only really made it when it’s pressed on vinyl and the artwork is there in that big format and you can open it up. That’s always the goal, I guess, when making an album.
ezt: It makes it real, right? It feels real.
Benny Sings: Yes.
ezt: Did you get a chance to hold it, touch it, interact with it, and listen to it?
Benny Sings: Yeah, I did. I’m excited about it.
ezt: You’ve spoken about Dutch culture being very grounded and rational. How do you think about your background and how it made you think about pop music? Your music can sound really warm, lush, and open. Those are words I use when thinking about your album. It has a really consistent sound throughout, and everything has a certain sheen on it.
Benny Sings: It’s weird because I’m just not that typical Dutch guy. I remember being around eight years old, and on the square near our house there was this big “This Is America” kind of commercial presentation. There was an actual big band made up of Marines or Army people—a huge big band. You could drink Cherry Coke, which blew my mind. You could put on American football uniforms.
I remember that was just it for me. I thought, “Okay, this is it.” Hearing the big band, the Coca-Cola, everything—it was like, “Okay, this is where I’m supposed to be,” or something.
I don’t know. I just immediately connected to that American pop culture. Sesame Street, the Muppets—it was all big, and Jim Henson was also a huge influence on me, along with the kind of music they picked. I always gravitated toward that kind of stuff.
ezt: It’s interesting you mention Sesame Street. When we were younger—and I guess they still do it now—they always had musical guests. I have three kids, but we didn’t watch a lot of Sesame Street. I’m not sure why.
We may be similar ages, but I remember those guests being very interesting and a really cool way to learn about music. Every once in a while now, on YouTube, you stumble across an artist who was on Sesame Street, like Billy Joel. It’s kind of cool.
Benny Sings: I don’t know why that’s still so attractive to me. There’s just something about it.
ezt: I think you should be on Sesame Street.
Benny Sings: Oh my God, that would be the biggest dream.
ezt: Let’s put that out into the world. We’re going to get Benny on Sesame Street.
Back to being Dutch—and sorry if I’m talking too much about that, but obviously it’s a big part of who you are. Your album is called 22 Durnham Dew, and it comes after a move from downtown Amsterdam into the quieter life of the Dutch countryside.
Talk to me about the difference between those two worlds. I know you have a studio near your home. How did those different environments inspire this new album?
Benny Sings: The studio was always near our home in the center of Amsterdam, and I still have that studio. It’s like my second home.
My wife didn’t really like the city anymore. I was willing to stay, but you see this often, and I was willing to go with her and leave my identity as a city kid behind and see if I could make it in a rural part where there are still real men building their own houses while I’m just trying to figure out the microwave.
It was a step for me, but it turned out beautifully because it’s only about a half-hour bike ride from the studio, which is in the middle of the city center. It feels like a suburb of the city, but with a lot of space and a lot of light. That really works on your mind. We’re just a happier family.
ezt: And those bikes—you guys love those bikes. I remember getting out of the cab the minute I got to Haarlem, and suddenly all these bikes went whoosh. I thought, “Whoa.” But I love it.
Benny Sings: Everyone who is not on a bike should be afraid of the people on the bikes.
ezt: The title track of the album is particularly domestic and personal. You’re talking about the move you made, and your daughter actually ended up singing on it after walking into the studio while you were working. Can you talk about becoming a father, how that change at home influenced the record, and the experience of working with your family nearby while you were recording and writing?
Benny Sings: I’ve had a 20-year career in music. We had a big world tour and a big album with Kenny Beats, which was big international stuff and very exciting.
Then we decided to move, and it all came down to the fact that it was time to take a break—to be totally focused on building a new house and a new home for the kids, who were about five, six, and one. It was quite a big thing, moving schools and everything. It was an intense experience, so I had to be there.
I was also ready to be there, ready to take a break. It was super intense. Everybody who has a family knows how intense it can be, but it was also very grounding.
I still kept writing. I never planned for the album to be about that, but you write about what you know, I guess. It just turned out that way.
ezt: Tell me how your daughter ended up on that track.
Benny Sings: She was sick, but not too sick. She was just in the studio hanging around while I was working.
It was a song I wasn’t that excited about. Then she walked into the studio and said, “This is the good part. Keep this.”
I said, “Okay, but would you want to sing it?”
She said, “Yeah, sure,” and she did it.
I was singing, “My heart burns so badly,” and when she sang that, suddenly something in the room changed. It was like, “Oh, there we have some musical meaning right there.” Then I had to finish the song.
ezt: So she pushed you along. Kids know what’s good. They know what’s cool.
Benny Sings: They mostly hate everything I do. But it was one of those small moments of appreciation.
ezt: I’m sure it was an important moment for you.
You’ve said that “Parachute” has a lot of emotional weight beneath its upbeat surface, which some of the best pop music has. That contrast seems to run through a lot of your work.
I think of Gilbert O’Sullivan. He writes a lot of these happy, bouncy songs, but once you read the lyrics, you think, “What’s going on here?” Talk to me about that dichotomy—those two things working together: the melodic music and the more serious content and topics.
Benny Sings: I always gravitated toward light music, but you don’t want it to be too careless. You don’t want careless music to be sung by a careless person because it just becomes annoying. You feel miserable because you think, “I can never be that.”
But there’s something about light music being sung by someone who’s in shambles.
I think of Chet Baker. He was totally addicted. He had just been beaten up by his dealer, and then he sang “My Funny Valentine,” lisping because his teeth had been knocked out.
There’s something about that that’s really beautiful. For me, it’s more beautiful than someone who’s depressed singing very dark stuff. That’s just too one-to-one for me. I think that’s the thing I’m looking for.
ezt: Who else can we think of? Gilbert O’Sullivan comes to mind. Randy Newman, right? Some Randy Newman songs can be like that—really sounding one way, but once you read the lyrics, it’s something else.
Benny Sings: There’s one song that has been constantly in my mind these past few weeks by Rupert Holmes, “I Don’t Need You.”
It’s so obsessive about a love he’s lost. Those lyrics are so clever, and it’s such an upbeat song. But this man is really, really in a bad place.
ezt: I love Rupert Holmes. I love those albums. And talking about record collecting, those are great records you can buy for five or six bucks, and they’re just great albums.
Even the Carpenters, in a way. Karen Carpenter—those songs were so beautiful and melodic, but there was such a sadness. Her heart was broken. Knowing about her real life, you can hear that sadness in there, too.
Benny Sings: Judee Sill comes to mind as well.
ezt: I love Judee Sill so much.
Benny Sings: What’s the song? It’s called “The Kiss,” right?
ezt: Yeah, “The Kiss.”
Benny Sings: Oh, man. With her past, having a really hardcore life and then singing something so angelic about an innocent kiss. It’s just insane.
ezt: James Taylor, too. Now you’ve got me going.
Everybody hears those soft-rock songs on the radio and thinks, “Oh, that’s beautiful.” But there’s a real darkness there, too, for sure.
“Parachute” is also written and performed in Dutch. Talk to me about doing that song in your native language.
Benny Sings: I was working on the song and thinking about doing this upbeat disco song about my mother’s depressions. I wasn’t that into it. It didn’t work out the way I liked. It just didn’t grab me, and it wouldn’t have made the album.
Then I was riding my bike home after a studio day. I think a lot of people who speak a foreign language will recognize this: what you often do in your mind is translate a song into your own language because it’s just a fun thing to do.
Instead of “I Want You Back” or something, you translate it. It’s something we always do in the house, and the kids do it. Everybody knows that thing you do in your head.
So I coincidentally did that with the song I had just written, and it clicked for me on the bike. I thought, “Wait—suddenly it has meaning in Dutch.” I don’t know exactly why, but it probably has to do with the subject.
ezt: You’ve worked with Kenny Beats and a lot of other people. This album seems like a very home-studio, solo record. What are the pros and cons of working with other people compared with doing something on your own in a very solo way?
Benny Sings: Working together with people is, in a way, easier because there are a lot more eyes on the ball. You inspire each other, and it goes back and forth. That’s good.
But there’s also compromise involved, and that’s not always good.
I guess they both have good and bad things about them. Sometimes it’s about doing something with another person, and sometimes it’s about being without compromise and doing exactly what you want. There’s something very nice about that once in a while, and this was that time for me.
ezt: Going forward after doing this album, what do you think your next project might be? Would it be another solo kind of thing, or do you think you might go back to working with a bigger group of people and getting more opinions?
Benny Sings: As I’m getting older, I’m much more attracted to the idea of being in the studio and having a very routine life—just coming to the studio every day. That’s very attractive to me.
I don’t think I would like to have big collaborations out in the world with management and big ideas. But making music with friends would suit me at this point, I guess.
ezt: You’re here in the States, and you mentioned that you’re doing the Stones Throw 30th anniversary concert. What else are you doing in the country before you go back to the Netherlands?
Benny Sings: I might be going to Vulfpeck, who are playing at the Greek, and their support is Jackie Evans. I think it’s going to be a historic night.
They actually asked me if I wanted to be part of a hype team onstage, so I might be standing onstage at the Greek tomorrow. I’m not sure if that’s all going to work out, but I will be there.
For the rest, we’ll be at the festival. It’s a three-day festival, so there are lots of people and old friends to meet. We’ll be back home soon after. It was only for the festival that we’re here.
ezt: Do you have more dates in Europe to support the album coming up?
Benny Sings: For sure. There are going to be lots of dates in Europe and some dates in Asia. Then we’ve covered it all again, and I can go back home.
ezt: At this point, you’ve built quite a catalog of music. As you look back on what you’ve created and think about going forward, how do you feel about your musical identity? Are you still searching for it, or do you feel like you have a strong identity in your catalog?
Benny Sings: I think that’s one of my strengths, actually—the identity. There are a lot of weaknesses, but identity, I think, is not one of them.
It was already clear in the first songs I made: “Okay, this is just what I like and what I want to be.” Now I’m on album number nine, doing exactly the same thing again, so that’s probably not going to change anymore.
ezt: You’ve just come out with a new album, so I’m not trying to stress you out, but what’s next? Do you have any ideas about music you might be able to share with us about the future?
Benny Sings: I’m just fantasizing about making music more and more without deadlines and without big ambitions. Maybe the albums are going to become way more boring. I feel like doing that—really making ambitionless music.
ezt: That’s good. I like that. Let’s get more boring.
Benny Sings: Yes.
ezt: I think the world actually needs to be a little more boring.
Benny Sings: I think so, too. I totally agree.
ezt: And I’m not even kidding.
Benny Sings: Me neither.
ezt: Benny, thank you so much for your time today and for answering my questions. Best of luck to you. The album is really great. I really enjoyed it, and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.
Benny Sings: Good.
ezt: All right, my friend. Be well. We’ll see you in Haarlem one of these days.
Benny Sings: Yeah.
