Mikey Bennett 'pencils out' songwriting career

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

When he was about 12 years old, Mikey Bennett told his mother about the lines of a song that came to him long after bedtime. The following afternoon, when he came home from school, there was a notepad by his bedside and a pencil was tied to the bedpost.

The directive was simple. Write the lines down before they were forgotten.

It was the beginning of a distinguished career in songwriting for the former member of Home T band, now based at his Grafton Studios in Vineyard Town, St Andrew.

Bennett's first commercial hit was Mek the Christmas Ketch You In A Good Mood (it was released in mid-December and after a week of hearing it constantly from cars and on radio stations Bennett had had enough) and included in his extensive catalogue are House call and Mr Loverman, both featuring Shabba Ranks, Telephone Love with JC Lodge, the searing Can You, performed by Brian and Tony Gold, and the Dennis Brown-sung love song If You Want Me.

He also says that many of the hits came outside of Jamaica, with multiple entries on the British charts at the same time.

However, 10 years ago at a Songwriters' Boot Camp, Bennett was struck by something that Calabash International Literary Festival founder Colin Channer said - that writing is rewriting.

He duly revisited songs he had written and released previously.

Bennett, it seems, has always had good teachers. Both his parents taught, and an aunt was a librarian who brought him books and insisted on reports.

"I grew up in one of those families where reading and writing were very critical. I grew up around books. My home was a collection of books and books," Bennett said, the Louis L'Amour westerns and Hardy Boys teen action books among the texts he read.

And, putting it simply, Bennett said "I fell in love with language, expression."

Writing in the family

It seems that writing was also in the family, as Bennett says years after that gift of pencil and paper by his bedside, an aunt told him about an uncle who would get up in the night and write songs on the walls. There was also his writer sister, who worked as an editor at JAMAL.

In the boot camp set-up, Bennett said a 'four by four' approach to songwriting was worked out.

"In four lines you try to stretch the whole story, get in the details, the how, why, when," Bennett said. Emphasising that to every process there is a science, Bennett pointed out that "One of the more liberating things about the science is breaking the rules. But you know the rules. What the science does is make an ordinary writer become a good writer and a good writer become a better writer."

Bennett also points out the value of listening, saying "I tell my students to listen to BBC every day. There are shows on TV that I turn my back and listen to the language." And there are times when he watches television for days on end, just to get that one line, that phrase.

Knowing what not to put in a song is as important as what to include. Bennett said "Usually, when I hear a piece of music a line comes to me. It is hard to leave out and sometimes it is the right thing to do. Sometimes it is the right line for another song."

The long-term benefits of songwriting come from publishing and Bennett said "Publishing is probably responsible for most of the investments I have made."

He also sees bands in the long term. "I realise the whole renaissance of the bands, if supported properly, can be the next big thing for Jamaica," Bennett said, tracing much of the surge to the need for musicians as popular secular artistes went the gospel route in the mid- to late-1990s. He also credits Scotiabank for getting involved.

In assessing the bands at tomorrow's Global Battle of the Bands Jamaica leg, as a judge Bennett said "As a songwriter myself, it is almost a reflex action to be attracted to well-composed songs."

However, he said "The reality is the level of songwriting - in terms of the lyrics and melody - may not be as powerful as you want. I probably won't score so hard for lyrics and so on."

What Bennett said he wants to see is excitement. "I want to feel authenticity. I want to hear basslines that hold me, punchlines that grab me. I want the wow moment that makes me say this band has something, this band spent time. I want a lead singer caught in the moment." And he says that he also wants to see bands experiment, so that one can feel "reggae is your thing, you feel you can express it your way".

Bennett waxes enthusiastic about the School of Music at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, while ruing the funds that Red Bull is pumping into its new studio project.

"We need another studio in Jamaica like how we need sunshine," Bennett said, noting that many studios in Jamaica were currently being underutilised and running a studio at a loss is a common occurrence.

"I would like to see the money that Red Bull is spending on the studio being spent at Edna Manley."