22-year-old Ben Kessler has released his new track ‘Cruise Control’. The intimate and personal song is also the title track off Kessler’s debut EP that will be released on March 11th.
Produced by Ben himself and written with Jonah Shy (Dermot Kennedy, Chelsea Cutler, MAX), the track is about finding balance between extremes: chaos and calm, floating and falling, feeling lost and found. “Cruise Control” expresses the discomfort of switching between these extremes, the desire to find some sort of balance, and having blind faith that everything will work out.
The music video, directed by Josefine Cardoni, features vignettes of three different versions of Ben observing each other from a dreamlike and cinematic lens, chasing an intangible goal.
The 22-year-old artist and producer has released his self-produced debut single in the fall of 2019. Shortly after, Ben caught the eye of industry tastemakers (Music Business Worldwide named Ben one of their Hottest Independent Artists in the World) and landed a number of editorial placements on Spotify and Apple globally. With his previous single “False Art”, released in October of 2020, he managed to break into Spotify’s Viral 50 chart in the Philippines and India. Currently, Singapore, Jakarta, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok are in his top 10 cities based on streaming.
Inspired by artists like Kevin Garrett, Flume, SG Lewis, HONNE, Bon Iver, and James Blake, Ben Kessler combines relatable and intimate lyricism with ambitious, forward-thinking production. His music blends pop charisma and a singer-songwriter spirit with lush instrumentation and an alternative, electronic adventurousness.
