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Benny Maverick Opens Up About “VALENCIA” Album, New Single “Uyadlala,” and Signing to Gamma

South African DJ, producer, and entrepreneur Benny Maverick is stepping into a powerful new chapter with the release of his deeply personal album, VALENCIA, and his emotional lead single “Uyadlala.” The Durban-born hitmaker, known for timeless anthems like “Omunye” and “Memeza,” sat down to discuss his partnership with Gamma, the inspiration behind VALENCIA, and how this project redefines his sound and purpose.

We recently had an interview with Benny Maverick and he opened up about the inspiration behind “Uyadlala,” and album “VALENCIA” his artistic evolution, and what fans can expect from him onwards.

1.Congratulations on signing with gamma.! How did this partnership come about, and what does it mean for you as an artist at this stage of your career?

Firstly, how the relationship with Gamma came about it was the good relationship that I have with Squicks who I assume is the A&R from Gamma, it just so happens that he heard one of my songs making a rounds and he asked me where I’d be releasing and what my plan with the project was. We to speaking and I liked everything that he said, he showed a good interest in understanding what I want and they presented a very good plan him along with Sipho. It good, it felt right, it felt trustworthy it only made sense to go ahead with them. I had received various offers from different people but what I wanted more advances, what I wanted more than somebody just saying give me the music I’ll put it on the streaming platforms and that’s it. I wanted commitment to the project, I wanted whoever I was going to work with to actually like music. So more than anything about getting somebody, it always easier to market something you like, something you love. They say, ‘If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life, that’s exactly what I wanted it to feel like, to work on something that doesn’t feel like a mission. You not pushing something for the sake of pushing but you’re putting it because you believe it genuinely deserves to be out there.

2.VALENCIA is a deeply personal project named after your mother. Can you share more about how her story and strength inspired the album’s concept and sound?

The name Valencia is a very special name to me, it’s a name shared by two of the most important women in my life, my mother and my life partner, the mother of my son. They both share that name so it made sense that I name this project, my debut project. Two of them are supportive people in my life. the name means strength so it is dedicated to my album, hence the intro is my mother speaking her story and our upbringing. The name Valencia means strength, power and that’s exactly what I took from my mother. This album is just my way of thanking her.

3.The name Valencia itself symbolizes strength and courage — how do these themes reflect in the music and lyrics of the album?

It definitely does come across, especially in the first song “Mthandanzo” where I basically speaking to speak about where I manifest, I pray for a good life, I pray for a life where my mom is happy, my partner is happy, where I have money, I build a house and my mom is proud of me and my partner is proud of me. So that’s how it comes across especially it comes from my mother’s intro. Hence why it’s called Valencia’s intro, Valentia’s prayer where mother talks about her story and her well wishes into the song where I manifest exactly what my mom raised me for. She raised me to be a man who takes a wife who has children, that’s what I want to do, I want to make her proud.

4.What emotions or experiences do you hope listeners take away from VALENCIA?

5.Your lead single, “Uyadlala”, sets the tone for the album. What message or energy were you hoping to capture with this track?

To capture emotion. The concept of the song came with me when the guys had started writing the song I came in and I changed the concept of the song. We changed the words to ‘Uyadladla”. It was a song about being in love and I came in and I changed the concept to a song about heartbreak because that’s what I wanted, I want a song that people are going to cry about, that’s literally it. I call it crying in the club, I want people to cry in the club and seemingly that’s what I got from people that ‘you going to make us cry ‘and that’s one of the things I said immediately after we made the song that niggas are going to cry in the club and that’s exactly what we wanted to do. Anything that I put out, any music that I work on, I like music that is well written, I like music that has meaning, music that will resonate with people more than it is about people dancing and a Tiktok trend.

6.You’ve had massive hits before — “Memeza” and “Omunye” are South African classics. How does VALENCIA differ from your past projects, both sonically and personally?

The sound first and foremost, the sound has changed significantly. Before I was more into house music, the House I played was Deep House but when I came up with ‘Memeza’ was during the time Afro-tech was really coming but I didn’t really like the sound, how raw it was. I wanted a song that was going to hit, with ‘Memeza’ but also I love vocals. I want whatever song that comes out, I do want a song that has some form of vocals to it. Even the same with ‘Omuye’, it is a Gqom song, before anything there were just beats to Omunye. I’ve always been a House and Deep House and a bit of Afro-tech so when Piano came in, piano is very soulful and its slow. The aim is not to sweat with the Piano that I play so that’s why It was very easy to transition to from Deep House to Amapiano. The sound is now completely different, the sound is more soulful, the songwriting is very well thought of, I get very involved in the production of the music, I co-write with artist because I like what like because I write what is personal to me, it is a reflection of me. And that’s what the album Valentia is, it is a true reflection of me, of my different talents in the producing space.

7.The album features your evolution from group success with Kweyama Brothers to a solo journey. What lessons did you take from that collaboration into this new chapter?

What I took from that is, it’s time to do things by myself, I’ve been an individual before, I’ve been an individual brand Benny Maverick, hence the hits ‘Omunye’ and ‘Memeza’. So when you’re in a partnership with someone, you are married so I wanted something that was strictly going to be me, my opinions only, my thought processes, my investments without me having to collaborate or check in with somebody else. So I just wanted something where I was going to do by myself, be the creative director from start to finish and put out what I like, put out what I wanted for myself and my brand. So it was good to be in a partnership but it was also time for me to being who I was before the brand that I was before.

8.You’re known not only as a DJ and producer but also as an entrepreneur and event curator. How do your ventures like Saso’s House and One Man Concert influence your approach to music?

When I make music I always imagine where the music is going to play and that’s where the influence of my event curation comes about. I make music that I expect to hear at events and I even think about the time the music is going to play. I hear my song playing during the sunset, I hear the song playing the peak hours when everybody is standing on couches. So the combination of the two has worked for me, I try to keep my business as an entrepreneur or a Restaurateur separate to me as a DJ and producer. When people come to the restaurant they should expect professional services not what you find in the club. I wear many hats but each of them represent a particular part of me.

9.How has being from Durban shaped your identity, sound, and overall creative direction?

It has shaped a lot of who I am as a brand and producer massively. I would like to believe Amapiano is a foreign sound to KZN, we are only followers for the sound and we really do love the sound and we have capable artists and producers that are creating this music here as well. I won’t say there is a Durban sound for Amapiano but we definitely do sound different to what is out there, we try to be unique but we also try to follow the guidelines of what the trendsetters have put there which is Johannesburg or Gauteng. As you listen to the album you will definitely hear that, especially if you are a producer or somebody that is an avid fan of Amapiano, when you listen to the the album Valentia, you will definitely hear that this isn’t the ordinary sound that we hear in all the different places that are in Johannesburg. So even with us when you hear the music, you will definitely hear that this is a sound that we are not used to but I’m hoping people will be open minded and open to hearing a different side to Amapiano, we haven’t changed anything, we have haven’t created anything new. We have just done Amapiano as we like it and as we understand it.

10.What was the creative process like while producing VALENCIA — who did you collaborate with, and what was the studio atmosphere like?

The atmosphere in the studio is always electric, I love working with unknown talent and discovered people. I like putting people on with the little popularity that I might have. In the creation of this album, I went online and I put up a video and I said I’m looking for vocalists and producers based in Durban. People sent me a lot of stuff and I found the people that I really enjoyed. In there you find artists like Aeda, Orchid Music, and Ze Mgeba. The music has always been great; the vibe has always been great. I’ve got producers like Ntwana R from Durban, one of the main producers from the album Tripple XXX The Ghost they were behind the hit song with Kelvin Momo.

11.You’ve built a strong brand that connects music, lifestyle, and culture. How do you balance being both an artist and a businessman?

I guess it works hand in hand, a lot of my life as a DJ happens during the weekend so during the week I really try focus on my business, or businesses and my events. I make sure that I wake up every single day, go to the office, work on everything that I need to between Monday and Thursday evening. From Friday my weekends begin where I need to travel for gigs, that time is spent doing my Djing part of it. A lot of the production will happen during the week maybe in the evening so during the day from morning to the evening I’m in the office doing some work for the restaurant. Then in the evening we back to studio or we set a time that for the next 14 days we’ll be in studio. It’s just a matter of balancing both knowing how to use my time during the week is more business and week

12.As an artist who’s experienced both local and international success, what are your ambitions for VALENCIA on the global stage? end is more Djing.

My ambitions are big, I want to travel the world, I want my music to be heard all over the world and I don’t want my music to only live with Africans that are in the UK or Africans that are in different places, I want my music to be loved by everyone. Just like how you hear football players, where playing music by Tyler ICU. I want my music to be loved by everyone in the world, not South Africans living in England. I want my music loved by every race, every colour. As much as it sung in IsiZulu, I still want it to land to everyone across the road. I want it to play in all the international festivals, and all the DJs in South Africa go to play at is where I want to see myself and I’m really hoping this album is well received both locally and internationally and it does what it needs to do to get me on a global stage.

13.Uyadlala and the upcoming album arrive during a competitive time for South African music. How do you plan to stand out and connect with both loyal fans and new listeners?

The time the song and album had dropped, really doesn’t matter to me. I actually didn’t notice that I’m releasing at a time where everybody is chasing December hits. But that was never it for me, it was just the time thing, I couldn’t get the album out. I had announced that I’m going to drop an album sometime last year and I didn’t drop an album then I announced that I was going to drop an album in the beginning of the year and I couldn’t do it. So this time around it happened to be ready around this time. I didn’t drop the music because we chasing December hits, I literally dropped the music because that’s when it was ready. Now that it’s ready and it’s out there, I just hope people really do enjoy it and its not confused as a hit record or a fly by night record, a trending song. I want a timeless song, I want a song that people are going to love genuinely, when they sing the song, they sing it from their stomach, it needs to come from the soul when you sing the song. I want people to cry in the club when they sing the song. And whether the song is a smash hit or whether it’s a number 1 or not so long as people sing this song and so long people feel emotionally connected to it, then I’ve done my job as an artist.

14.What advice would you give to young artists navigating the music industry today, especially those coming from Durban like you once did?

My advice is make music, stick to your guns, believe in yourself, listen to what other people are making. Listen, you need to listen to as much music as possible so that you know what is out there, how you would want to be different. Keep creating, create and release, there’s no other way to do it. Eventually something is going to stick, eventually something is going to hit. There’s no point in making music and keeping it to yourself, create and release. Put it out on YouTube, find pages, make mixes. The internet has made the world a lot smaller, people connect very easily. The more you work on your brand and yourself out there the quicker it is for people to pick up your work, pick up your music and start messing with it. Those coming from Durban, use the internet, keep on producing, keep recording and keep releasing your music.

15.Lastly, beyond VALENCIA, what can fans look forward to next from Benny Maverick — musically or otherwise?

Right now my entire passion is on Valencia the album, I want people to look forward to pieces of me, I want people to look forward to well written music. I want people to look forward to hearing what I like, this album is the exact music that I like, music that I want to play, its music that I want people to like. So this is me teaching people about myself. People can look forward to seeing me more, I want to build proper studio and do gaming, I want to do live podcasting. I just want to be out there sharing my opinions, sharing my thoughts and to just be live all the time. So people will see a lot from me and hear a lot from me. I’ve in the background for a very long time, I haven’t been in the forefront of my popularity if there has been. I just want enjoy my life more, it’s a privileged doing music and Djing knowing full well I’m not dependent on it if it’s not meant to feed me. So I love being in the positon to do things because I love doing it. People should look forward to hearing more of me, my voice, my opinions and just getting to me as a human being.

Make sure to stream “Uyadlala” HERE.

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