Benjamin Ramsay, who creates music under the name, The New Consistent, has just released his latest single, ‘Turn Off All The Screens’. We caught up with Ben to find out what he’s been doing since his last release, and how his sound has developed over the past year.
Speaking about the break between releasing ‘Rude Boys’ and ‘Turn Off All The Screens’, Ben says he found the time away had been “enlightening”, saying: “I feel like I was always striving to find my sound, as I threw myself into this whole thing quite quickly with little preparation, so it’s been great to hit my groove and feel 100% happy with the music that I make!”
“It’s all felt so natural too”, he continues, “I think this development of my sound has been growing in parallel to the development of my music taste, so it’s been really fun to channel my influences directly into the music making process. I feel like this stuff now is 100% me, and I feel comfortable with myself as an artist at this point in time!”
Influenced by conscious hip-hop, Ben cites the likes of Loyle Carner, Dave, Jorja Smith and Kofi Stone as some of his biggest inspirations, with newer influences coming from artists such as Easy Life, Arlo Parks, and Collistar.
‘Turn Off All The Screens’ is reflective in its expression, blending poetic, spoken word lyricism with gentle chorus hooks and layered instrumentals, oozing with lo-fi charm.
Discussing the music video for the track, Ben notes that he wanted to create something more upbeat in style, to contrast against the mellowness of the song itself. “We decided to go for a glitchy kinda vibe, and it’s basically me and Paige (the actress in the video) just wondering around aimlessly, which I guess suits the theme of the song pretty well haha!”, he says, mentioning how video editor, Jacky P, made the visual decay over the duration of the song.
“We filmed it all in the West Midlands too, but I wanted it to be subtle references to the West Midlands rather than the cliche spots that we’ve become known for. It’s a subtle nod to the area for sure!”, he continues.
Talking about his plans for the rest of the year and beyond, Ben’s looking ahead to the release of his new EP, and finally getting the chance to play live shows, saying: “After this single I launch straight into the EP campaign! I’m basically active now until mid December, I’ve got even more promotions and collabs to help promote the EP which I’m really looking forward to! Then next year I’ve got two headline gigs (keeping the cities secret for now!) in support of the EP.”
The details of The New Consistent’s second EP will be revealed soon, meanwhile you can listen to ‘Turn Off All The Screens’ here:
LDOI 