Dallas musician Hevy Ben$ challenges labels, genres, and constructs in his new experimental, 7 song/7 minute album “Right Now, Forever.”
Musician, artist, multi-hyphenate Hevy Ben$ has been a venerated Dallas gem for years, flying under the radar, but earning esteem and fostering collaborations from such Dallas staples as Keite Young and Maya Piata. His name comes from the depth of thought he tends to express - his personality lands somewhere between a buddhist monk and a poet. Hevy has no choice to be heavy, and that shines through his music.
“I call it graffiti music. It’s influenced by everything. All of your influences should show through, like an accent when someone talks. You can hear everywhere they’ve been. You don’t type the stereo; they type themselves. I grew up that kid that was listening to Zeppelin backwards trying to hear the hidden messages. Looking a certain way but having a different value. Being from Oak Cliff, we aren’t vagabonds with heavy clothes. It’s a lot of thought and wisdom. Weight.”
His latest album is no exception to this. It details in only 7 minutes a meditation of sorts on a life-changing car wreck he experienced in 2012. Scene-by-scene Hevy recounts through the use of a narrator of sorts his thought process and his eventual rise out of the situation into a better mindset.
“I didn’t want to waste time with sixteen songs. My style is a haiku. It’s potent.” Hevy says.
“Try to breathe in, and, when you’re ready, begin.” Says a disembodied voice on the opening song of his seven-song, seven-minute concept record / Möbius strip “Right Now, Forever.” The record carries on in a series of vignettes with mostly just Hevy’s voice and various forms of distorted guitar.
The album carries on from this opener to its second song, “Pavement.”
“Pavement represents the shock after the wreck. Dying. Life-flashing.” Hevy explains.
This leads to Hevy reminiscing on what brought him to the pavement on the next track - “Speeding”
“Sometimes you're driving so fast that the car slows down.” Hevy says referring to the car wreck.
This leads to the intermission of the record, “NOW” which sets the scene for introspection with tracks “Hollow” and “Tired of the Party.” A one-two punch of sorts. The former alluding to growing into a lifestyle and finding it hollow or empty and the latter referring to a moment that led to that realization.
This brings “Right now, Forever” to its logical close - “FOREVER”.
“That’s the rest of it.” Hevy says.
To sum up the record Hevy shares the haiku that inspired the record’s brevity.
“Right now, Forever
No matter what else changes
Time is a mirror”
No matter where Hevy’s ‘forever’ takes him though he plans to have it in Dallas.
“I didn’t run off to Atlanta, New York, or Los Angeles. Why would you try too hard and get someone to understand something when people from where I’m from already understand it?” Hevy asks.
He continues with quiet confidence. “Being from Dallas, I want to try and reframe the scene around us with high-quality art and when I make it I want to look out my window at the Trinity and know that I’m at home.” He continues.
"There are moments that everyone goes through. You yourself get to decide what your right now forever is. Life has many.”
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