Michael J Benjamin Releases New Single 'The Deal Has Long Gone Down (Acoustic)'

Beguiling young artist - MICHAEL J BENJAMIN - introduces himself with a breathtaking acoustic version of "The Deal Has Long Gone Down".

Evoking the likes of Johnny Cash or Leonard Cohen, "The Deal Has Long Gone Down" is a masterclass in mature and measured music-making.

With gallant vocals that weave themselves niftily amongst genial plucking guitars, the poignant new track serves as both an introduction to the artist and a testament to his mastered craft. A song stricken with a paranoia for a world spinning ever more rapidly out of control, Benjamin says of the new release:

"The Deal Has Long Gone Down is difficult to pin down. I guess it expresses my fears for the modern climate we all live in, a changing world in danger of moving towards something dark and despairing. When the fortune-teller at the crossroads loses belief, you know it's tough times ahead."

Staking his place as a young musician set to shake things up, Michael's soulful songs express a hard-won sense of authority: embracing the world with an engrossing, truth-seeking style of writing which belies his still-tender years.

Like most other millennials, Michael J Benjamin grew up with the entire history of music readily available at the click of a mouse. He embraced himself in the heroes of old, immersing himself in the works of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash and Paul McCartney, before finding more modern realms of influence in the songbooks of Lana Del Rey, Weyes Blood and Jack Antonoff.

And while many of his musical favourites are American, Michael's literary influences have a distinctly European flavour with Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud and Hugo all seeping into the way he looks at his art. His songs flourish in a self-made world of creeping dusk, ever-aware of the foreboding, Lynchian darkness which will inevitably follow.

The artist explains:

"I was born and raised in a nowhere town, stuck in a place you don't want to be in: where there's no sense of identity and where you don't fit in. Music shaped my world from an early age."

Of Dutch origin but raised in Sweden until the age of 16, Michael J Benjamin spent much of his late teens and early twenties travelling around the UK. Playing guitar, piano and harmonica in small venues in Bristol, London and the Isle of Wight, Michael got his first big break in 2017 when he was invited by the Dutch National Ballet to provide music for "Two and Only", a pas de deux performed by two male dancers.

The piece was awarded Runner Up at the prestigious Prix Benois de la Danse at The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and was later performed with Michael's accompaniment at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, in the presence of Bill Clinton, Elton John and Prince Harry.

Arriving as the first sample of a wider body of work being readied for release this Autumn, "The Deal Has Long Gone Down" is taken from Michael's upcoming self-titled debut EP. Recorded in London, the new material was produced with Jon McMullen, best known for his work with indie sensations and four-time Brit Award-nominees Wet Leg.

Listen to the new single here: