Talking To: Ben Cura

Ben Cura is a man of many talents. After spending many years in his youth travelling, he attended the New York Film Academy in Paris before graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His back catalogue includes theatre work, director, producer, actor and, most recently, musician.

I sat down for a chat with him about his ventures into the music world and why now was the perfect oppurtunity to start.

·       Thank you for taking the time to speak to me today, can you tell me a little bit about yourself? I understand you’ve moved to many different countries!

I’m primarily an actor, also a filmmaker and musician, currently based in London. I was born in Argentina but left when I was two years old to move to Verona in Italy – it was a lovely place to spend early childhood. Then when I was six years old I move to just outside of Paris and that’s where I went to music school and started playing piano and reading music.

I come from a classical music music family and from that I’ve seen the level of dedication required and some of the seriousness that is part of that and it hasn’t really changed since the 1700s, it can quickly take the joy out of music. So there was a part of me that was like I’m out, I’m going to keep enjoying music but in my own terms.

Around that time, I started writing my own things and then later on, around the age of 15, I decided to become an actor and pursue drama school. At 17, I moved to London and was accepted into LANDA where I trained for a several years. After graduating and acting professionally for about ten years, it took a long time for me to be like ‘ok I want pursue music for a while now’.

I think I’m my own worst enemy at times because I never thought much about releasing my own music because I didn’t think it was good enough. But now I feel a lot more confident and have released several now with the EP due to be released this month.

·       You entered the creative industry at a young age – was it something you always wanted to do?

For a very long time, I thought my career would be music and I think the release of my music now is me releasing that this is part of who I am and instead of being ashamed of it, I believe it is ready.

You can’t please everyone, it’s ridiculous to even aim for but it’s out there and I hope people enjoy it.

I feel and fear that I’m part of the cliché of the ‘pandemic saved my life artistically’ but there’s something to be said about how, early on when were all kind of a bit terrified by the virus, there was a lot of emotion for everyone as we were all going through it differently. There was an awareness that life is finite and fragile – not too sound too cliché – and it cleared that doubt that it doesn’t have to be perfect because nothing ever will be.

It wasn’t so much being cooped up but more, if not now when?

·       Your most recent track, Toutes Les Couleurs, is beautiful – what/who influences your music? Do you have a specific sound you strive for?

My library ranges from DMX, Joiner, Eminem, Michael Kiwanuka and then 60’s and 70’s Motown. Then I’ll have hours and hours of Celtic music, in particular Jordi Savall, and other medieval pieces. I also really enjoy electronica music, and experimental work.

Genres are a creation that stems from publicity, it’s a pragmatic way of defining music and ultimately if a piece of music is good, who cares if it’s alternative or indie or rock.

The pieces I wrote for this EP are instrumental and you could say it’s neo-classical but also, in parts, it’s also cinematic. I hope it’s evocative of a feeling that is visual, perhaps a landscape, which is born out from all the things I’ve been absorbing and keep absorbing from soundtracks.

·       It’s interesting that you’ve weaved together cinema and music – is that from your background in acting and directing?

I think it was inevitable that I borrowed bits from my other creative outlet. The way I experience music is that I see colours depending on what kind of note or chord I hear, there’s definitely another aspect to how I write. In my head, I’m building a small narrative or a landscape for one track. I want to try and evoke a sense of place and movement.

·       Your video for Toutes Les Couleurs is stunning – how did you come up with the idea for that?

I think it’s born out of limitation; the videos for the three tracks are what other people have shot but then I processed the footage. The original footage for Toutes Les Couleurs is paint being poured into water in slow motion, I then processed the footage, reversed it, changed the colours, timed it, and all these things.

I think it works with the song because Toutes Les Couleurs means all of the colours in French and I guess there’s something quite peaceful when you look at paint expand in a body of water. But it quickly becomes quite daunting and terrifying when it’s sped up or reversed or it’s coming from different angles, it becomes quite aggressive. In the song, there’s a slight through-line of comfort at the beginning but it’s got an energy behind that is asking you to engage and is quite a nervous energy and I think the music video matches will with that.

·       You’re set to release your debut EP soon – can you tell us what sort of sound it will be and when we can expect it?

So it will be out in July and there will be 6 tracks on it. They are framed around a narrative and it made sense that the first thing I released would be almost a biography, tracing my steps of growing up.

The EP follows the early years and several tracks reference my time in Argentine while other tracks relate to my time in Verona and Paris and the final two tracks are more of a later time when I settled in London.

·      Do you have any plans for an album? Is that something you would want to put out there?

I don’t have any concrete plans at the moment but I would like to. When I have something that makes sense, I’ll know if it deserves a full an abulm. I still don’t know how I would shape an album.

The way things are released nowadays, I don’t think there’s a need or an emphasis on people releasing full albums. I chose to release the EP because I had this narrative in mind, if I don’t have a narrative and have 6 or 7 tracks to release then it might make sense to release them individually.

·       You’re a man of many talents – playing the piano, theatre work, actor, director and now musician – do you have a favourite? What do you mostly like spending your time doing?

I don’t know many actors who are not interested, at some point, in tackling the act of storytelling from a different angle. If you’re doing theatre, you’re more in charge of what you’re putting out there but in film you are more of an additional crew member to help the director build their vision for the film.

Writing and directing is fascinating and I would love to do more of it but the way I would like to approach my next project is to choose who I work with very carefully. Once you find the right people to collaborate with, which can be pretty hard, it’s great because they complement you and your abilities. You surround yourself with people who are the best at what they do and you can offer you so many different options for what you want to do.

The thing that keeps me constantly going is acting, I wouldn’t give that up for anything else. I think it makes me a better actor when I write and direct.

·       Do you think it’s easier to write music or write a screenplay?

Its two very different things; sometimes there is an idea, when I’m writing a screenplay, which just flows through which I can shape very quickly and then there are some ideas that can take years to produce where I’m sat at a screen staring at a blank page.

It’s the same as music, there are some tracks on the EP that took less than 48 hours but some of them took a lot longer and so it really depends on what resonates and what makes sense.

“Inspiration is for amateurs and hard work is for professionals” – if you sit there waiting for inspiration to happen, it’s never gonna happen.

·       What interests you the most when deciding on whether or not take a part in theatre or film?

I think one of the ways you know you’re on the right track is if you’re a little bit scared. There’s nothing worse than just taking something because it’s easy. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t always get the chance to do something new and exciting, sometimes you have to pay the bills, you have to eat and get out of the house.

A big part of it is getting to know a writer or director and seeing their vision and energy, that’s the exciting part of it as it’s a collaborative thing. Especially in film, getting to know the team is imperative and so trusting and understanding their vision is definitely a must before you jump on board.

·       You directed and wrote the screenplay for Creditors in 2015 – did you enjoy being behind the camera for a change? Do you have any to direct or write in the future?

I was 24 during the production year in 2014 and I wrapped in 2015 and we took it to different festivals where it did alright and now it’s available on Amazon Prime in the UK and US. The reason I’m saying this is because it’s a very much independent film in the way it was created and then the way it was released as it wrapped in 2015 and then was very slowly put out there.

A few things have changed in the independent film world, back in 2014 having a VOD streaming deal was kind of frowned upon, and there was very much an emphasis on having a theatrical release.

I wish I could tell you about some of the projects I have coming up but I can say that one of them is a TV show that will be a limited series and that is definitely a bigger project which I’ve been working on for many years now. It’s on the backburner for another 2 years but before that I’m also working on a second feature film as a writer, I won’t be directing, but I would like to play one of the parts in it.

The first mini-series would need to be set in the UK and Argentina – that’s all I say! Then for the film, I’m not sure where I want to set it but it will probably be one of the most culturally diverse films I would have done to date and I’m very excited about that as I would like it to incorporate different languages.

Getting a project off the ground takes time and the right ingredients and that’s why the limited series is on the backburner for now as I need the right people on board.

·       Was your career – both in film and in music – impacted by the COVID pandemic?

I was very lucky to be able to work on voice work when everything shut down; I narrated an audio book and did a of couple stories for the Calm app.

The ones that were able to start again were usually the bigger ones because they could afford the risk of the whole thing shutting down for two weeks. Unfortunately, a lot of projects were cancelled because a lot of them were planned 2-3 years in advance so you have to choose which one to cancel.

I’m very happy to see things picking up again, it’s still going to be a year of transition. My main worry with this industry is finance, how much money people will be able to raise to get going again, and particularly independent films. I hope the business side of it is not hugely impacted moving forward.

There is a moment where ‘Covid is making it difficult is not going to be a viable excuse and from the fallout we’re going to see how much of it is Covid’s fault and how much of it is the industry’s fault because of the structures we had in place. This also impacts musicians and the way touring is set up, particularly post-Brexit where it’s now even more difficult.

I think there’s a tsunami of shit coming our way but maybe this is a reckoning and this is what we need to open our eyes to see what needed to change.

You can check out Ben’s first three singles on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3MIPIcYfy1h7VhSheJhLHf?si=m5kcL7KGSo6GBcDs7HpI8w&dl_branch=1