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Artist of the Month: Breach (aka Ben Westbeech) - the man behind "Jack"
House | Wednesday 19th June 2013 |
If you haven’t heard the massive summer hit “Jack” yet, then you probably haven’t been to any worthwhile clubs for months! This huge track has recently propelled Hertfordshire-born Ben Westbeech out of the underground and into the world of mainstream house success stories, similar to Julio Bashmore and Disclosure. But the classically-trained Westbeech’s first taste of success was not with house, but as a jazz singer.
A track released in 2007 called “So Good Today” saw him sign to Brownswood Recordings and make an appearance on Later… With Jools Holland. He released an album as a jazz artist on this label and then in the period between 2009 and 2011 began to diversify towards singing, songwriting and producing on a range of genres, including working with Professor Green, DJ Marky and Redlight.
In September 2011, he released his second album on Strictly Rhythm, which married Ben’s songwriting/jazz instincts with a house edge and was widely well received. This led him to fully embrace his deeper and darker instrumental/producer alter ego Breach in 2012, launching the Naked Naked label. “You Won’t Find Love Again” was a huge success, featuring on the Annie Mac Presents compilation, and his collaboration with Midland, “Somewhere” is a sophisticated, beautiful pure house track which found its way into many a big-name DJ’s sets. Despite this, Breach was still relatively unknown amongst the general public outside of the UK. “Let’s Get Hot” and “Jack” were released on an EP together for Dirtybird about 3 months ago, but it was “Jack” that has really taken off, receiving considerable airtime both on radio 1 and in clubs and festivals all over the world This clear potential for success led Breach to set a new release date for a “Jack” standalone EP, and the official video has just been released.
It looks as if Breach is finally poised for deserved superstardom; years of dedication to music of all genres has paid off, and I can’t wait to see what he will release next.
Miriam Johnson @MiriamEJohnson
