Ben Finocchiaro aka Safire is a man on a mission, but not one without a sense of reality. Having been plugging away solidly for just under a decade, Finocchiaro is realistic in terms of both goals and achievements. The man who eats, sleeps and breathes drum ‘n’ bass has worked alongside some of the genre’s finest acts and his hard work and commitment have paid off time and time again. While his introductory statement could easily be misread to contain pessimistic connotations, Finocchiaro is the epitome of laid back ambition.
“I have been doing it for about six or seven years and I kicked it off with some audio engineering. There was definitely a time when I thought I was going to bail on it. I was just sort of chugging along and obviously we all need to keep working, so it is hard to keep up with production work if you have to work three or four days a week.”
While clearly the first one to point out the trials and tribulations he has had to overcome, what is both impressive and appealing about Finocchiaro is his open-minded approach to life lessons. While many triers have fallen at the first hurdle, his sheer desire sees him through.
“With that has come a lot of determination, which every producer will have been through. It is definitely hard work you go through a lot of times where you feel you can’t be bothered, and you aren’t getting to where you want to get to. But you just have to put in those late hours and just try to do it. It eventually pays off. It is an ongoing battle for everyone, but if I could eventually survive just off music then it would be a little easier. But you have to get there first.”
With a clear goal insight, his busy release schedule, which features dubstep and drum ‘n’ bass, sees him releasing six new tracks before the close of the year. So what can people expect? The answer focuses on his drum ‘n’ bass releases, and starts pretty obscurely. “Expect some pretty interesting tunes in Dispatch sort of style I guess,” before he adds,
“They are quite deep and dark really. With Dispatch we are working on some stuff, a lot of collaborations so it has been pretty interesting.”
“I’ve been working a lot with Dabs from Italy. Got one with Octane and DLR coming up on the Dispatch 50 EP. Those guys are celebrating 10 years of releases, so it is pretty cool to be a part of that. It is coming out in November. Me and Borderline are working on some more stuff too. It is an interesting time. It is good to get some local artists up and out there.” With a stack of collaborations up his sleeve, it is increasingly obvious just how much Finocchiaro’s hard work has more than started to reap the rewards.
“I guess I have been lucky in a way, we have been running Broken Beat Assault for the last seven years and we’ve done a lot of touring and events ourselves. I have been able to build up relationships with a lot of touring artists and spend time with them when they are in the country,” he admits. However, just because his work both as a performer and day to day allows him contact with some of the industry’s finest talent, it does not necessarily always equate to the perfect opportunity. For the first time a disappointed tone edges into the otherwise upbeat voice of Finocchiaro. He states, “A lot of the guys I have worked with in the past, such as Mindscape, even guys who have come in to town, I have had a little time in the studio with them. Unfortunately a lot of the time I don’t get the time to finish the music with them, but I have had some really good sessions and interesting conversations about what to do, how to produce certain sounds. It has been a good opportunity for me working with guys who have come through town.”
“For every negative, luckily I have been able to finish the music with Octane and DLR, which are two of the best guys out there at the moment. The music they are making is the music I am playing at the moment. It was great to be able to work with them and start a bit of a collective between the Dispatch boys.” With his Dispatch-based activities clearly at the forefront of his mind, he admits to being more than a little excited about his upcoming dates alongside Goldie, Lowqui and Borderline. With plenty of opportunities on the horizon to further develop his craft, we close our brief but enlightening conversation with a retrospective look at the future. How does Finochiarro feel his experiences to date have shaped his current sound?
“I can definitely feel that sound has started to mature a bit more. As I have grown up over the years, I have always played pretty tech-influenced sets. High energy stuff and I am still really into that sound, but I have also started to get a bit more into that deeper sound. It seems to be a bit of trend now. Everyone has started to move over to that sound.”
BY DAVID HUNTER
