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Benjamin at D-Edge (click for more recent pictures)

Sao Paulo disco house DJ Benjamin Ferreira is in the running for ‘best breakthrough DJ on 2009, in DJ Magazine Brazil’s latest annual poll of talent.

DJ Magazine’s Brazilian staff have selected nominees for the 16 categories based on their clubbing experiences of the last year, selecting Skrufff DJ Benjamin alongside the likes of Gorky, Lishy and Leiloca Pantoja (Djs including Magal, Atum and Gui Boratto are included in their ‘best DJ’ category). Clubbers are being invited to vote for their favourites in all 16 categories (including ‘best festival’, ‘best blog’ and  several groups for ‘best club’) with voting running throughout February.

Benjamin told Skrufff he’s delighted, if surprised, to be included in the poll.

“Nobody told me about it – I just saw a link for the nominees on Twitter and started scrolling down the page to see who was there, and suddenly I saw my name. I didn’t expect to see my name there at all- really,” he laughed. “I shouted loud enough to terrify my friend who was sitting next to me at home.”

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“Disco’s been a part of my life since the very beginning, it’s definitely been my first and most important school and has been there when I played a 134-bpm remake of Indeep’s ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ or Robert Hood sampling Kool & The Gang 5 or 10 years ago. It’s like the air I breathe – I don’t think about it, I just breathe.”

Sao Paulo DJ Benjamin Ferreira started DJing aged 11 after being inspired by listening to the records of two DJ uncles in his hometown of Belém in the Amazon. Kicking off his professional career six years later at his local Belém gay club he discovered the internet simultaneously, opening his ears to the world outside the Amazon.

“I became independent from local DJs and radios and was able to meet new people and listen to different kinds of music,” he recalls.

“I started playing techno and big beat – from underground stuff such as Dave Clarke, UR and labels such as Code Red and Cosmic Records to mainstream acts such as Underworld, The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, but house was always there, too, especially the French touch – Cassius, Daft Punk, Crydamoure Records, and Chicago masters such as DJ Sneak and Derrick Carter ” he smiles.

DJing at his first outdoor rave in 1999 (with green hair) he quickly teamed up with Pragatecno, a Brazilwide collective dedicated to popularizing underground dance music beyond Rio and Sao Paulo establishing a northern side of the group Cotonete.

“We started a radio show and invited Brazilian and international DJs to send in mixes and promos then after a year we started inviting DJs to come and play at our parties,” says Benjamin.

“We persuaded DJs such as Marky and Renato Cohen to play in Belém for the first time, both in clubs and raves and local press and even TV became interested in what we were doing and the scene grew. Though by the middle of the decade the scene changed,” he says.

“Psy-trance started to get bigger and bigger and we started losing money in our parties, so we went back to smaller parties. I then decided to move to Sao Paulo and in 2006, two weeks after graduating I moved here.”

Four years on Benjamin has played most of Sao Paulo’s biggest clubs (including Pacha, D-Edge and brand new uber-club du jour Hot Hot) as well as alternative institutions such as A Loca and Vegas (where he’s a regular guest at Camilo Rocha’s Discology)

“The same percentage of people who like underground music in Belém also like it in Sao Paulo but Sao Paulo is a much bigger city so things happen easier here,” he suggests.

“That’s why you have more underground clubs, DJs, promoters, audience and money. The crowds and their reaction, however, are quite similar - people are usually friendly, dance a lot, ask for track IDs.”

As passionate about music as he’s skilled in his DJing, he uses Ableton, CDs and vinyl to mix disco and house with all sorts of styles and flavours (from techno to afro and Latino and rock).

“I’ve always listened to different kinds of music, so what I try is to mix as many different references as possible in a coherent way and according to the crowd I have on the floor,” he says.

“It’s all about balancing the music I love and what I’ll think will please my audience. I usually say that I may not play everything I love, but I love everything I play,” he smiles.

Benjamin has just joined the Skrufff team as an official Skrufff DJ and we’ll be covering and linking to his upcoming productions, gigs and DJ mixes on an ongoing basis. Download his latest mix ‘Dance Yourself Dizzy’ here: http://tinyurl.com/yahdfqk

Benjamin spinning in Brazil

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