Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Benza Maman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Benza thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Trusting the universe. I began deepening my spiritual practice in 2018 and by 2020 I was meditating for an hour daily. In the summer of 2021, I lived in a small town north of Seattle Washington. I was barely scraping by as a creative, working many freelance and odd jobs. I had a good life but by no means was I thriving. I kept feeling like I was in the wrong timeline of my life, or maybe not the wrong one, but definitely not in the best one. I was obsessed with the idea of different timelines or parallel universes, and I was always wondering what the lives of the other versions of me would be like. One day I was feeling increasingly connected to the universe through my meditation, and I decided I was going to listen to any and every sign I got from the universe, and I would act on whatever the universe presented to me. Immediately after I made that internal declaration, I got an immediate ping that I needed to quit my job. It was uncanny and undeniable that thought showed up right after I decided to listen to every sign. But I knew that was the sign I was asking for. In all my years struggling in Bellingham I had finally landed a somewhat stable job as a production Coordinator for Moment Films. This was a super difficult moment for me because I didn’t want to quit that job, I actually really enjoyed that job. But I knew that I had made a promise to the universe that I would honor every sign, so I reluctantly wrote an unnecessarily long email about how I loved the job but I had to quit. I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do next. I had two months of savings that’s it, but I decided I would wake up every morning and go into the woods and meditate. So that’s what I did for two months, all day, every day, I meditated out in nature. At first, it was so hard, there was so much cultural brainwashing that had a hold over me. “I need to be productive” “I need to make progress” “What’s the plan” and “to-do lists” but as I continued to sit, those thoughts washed away into the sunny Pacific North West summer sun and blooming flowers. I made leaps and bounds of spiritual progress during that time, and I started to find the incredible joy of being alive on this planet bubbling up from the inside. I still had no idea what I was going to do next in my career, but that didn’t matter. Finally nearing the end of my two months in the woods, I had a simple thought to drive down to California to visit some friends down there. I didn’t know exactly why but it seemed like a good place to find a job. So I drove down to California and stayed on my friend’s couch for a week. That friend was Julian Melanson. On my last day visiting California, we went on a hike together, and he offered me a job at a Tech start-up he was working at. That wasn’t at all the kind of job I was looking for, but I decided to go for it. Fast forward 1 year and Julian and I had left the start-up to Start our own company called Leap Year Learning which has been wildly successful in the AI and Tech Space. Fast forward 6 months and I have relaunched my artist career by writing and performing spiritual dance music, and sound healing piano while running my successful business. My new song Nature = God is doing great on Spotify, and getting remixed by friends and played at music festivals by other artists. I can’t believe how much my life has changed in such a short time, my life is truly such a blessing. I am absolutely living in one of my best timelines. All of this came from me listening to the universe and honoring the signs when they presented themselves.

Benza, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always been a musician for as long as I can remember, so naturally at 17 I decided I wanted to pursue music professionally. I loved it all, dance music, pop music, classical music, indie music, hip-hop. So I tried my hand at nearly every Genre, but I never quite broke through. I was pretty good at all those genres, but there was never a reason for my music to succeed, besides that I wanted to make music. So in a sense, it was a selfish endeavor. It wasn’t until I merged my music with my spiritual practice that it really started to take off. I started writing music to elevate the (my) consciousness. I was not worrying about whether a pop audience would like it, or if a club audience would like it, I just wanted to make high-vibe music for the sake of making high-vibe music. This was so freeing, and I really found my own sound this way. I had invited all sorts of bullsh*t that was clouding my creative space. By removing all the barriers I had constructed around creativity like a song needs 3 choruses and the verses have to have identical syllables in order to blow up on TikTok. Suddenly I was free, free to be authentically me. And not so surprisingly that’s what resonates most with people. So now I make Spiritual Dance Music, like my new song Nature = God by Benza Maman, and I do acoustic improvised piano sound baths. I made an immersive experience of a live show with a video visual experience that goes with the music while people are singing and dancing, and then everyone lays down for the piano sound bath. It’s a full journey, but people are responding really well and I keep selling out all my shows.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The power of now, Autobiography of a Yogi, and Teachings of a Master from the West. These books changed my life. I always worked hard, that was never the issue for me, but it’s about attracting success. Hard work alone will never get you out of the rat race. Allowing yourself time to rest, and time to manifest and attract what you want is equally as important. Of course, I would caution about going too far the other way of only manifesting and never putting in the time but don’t just grind for the sake of grinding. Work smarter, not harder, and dive into meditating, so you can clear your thoughts and focus on your vision. It’s amazing how we can hyper-focus or miss-prioritize things. The mind is a great tool, but it should never run the show, so it’s important to check in through meditation to make sure the mind isn’t running wild down the wrong road. Always come back to the big picture goal, and focus on what that looks and feels like while you meditate. If you don’t tell the universe what you want, It won’t know what to give you.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I want to elevate the consciousness of humanity. Either in a small way for the people around me or mostly just myself, or in a big epic way for the masses. Whatever the density of my art is, however big or small the crowds are, I always want the music to center around this idea of connecting to the divine. I want to help people drop in after their long days, weeks, or lives spent in the matrix. My music and my show are about creating a safe space to let all of that go and tap into what we all already know, that we divine beings have a human experience. Many of us are here to help wake the world up and guide humanity through this difficult time, and even those of us not in leadership positions, we all have a part to play. We all can help each other along the way, and music and art are meant to inspire. So that’s my goal, to inspire the world to elevate the consciousness of humanity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://leapyearlearning.ai/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benza.maman/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benza-maman-746489211/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@benzamaman
• Tiktok: @BenzaBeats

Image Credits
Julian Melanson Julien Scherliss