Dub Fx, aka Benjamin Stanford, started out as a street performer, and thanks to this early experience he is so friendly with everyone to this day that talking to him you’d think he is just a regular guy, not a world-famous musician. He loves Hungarian audiences, he recently collaborated in Random Trip on A38, and in 2013 he played his best show at Sziget. At Strand Festival he said he was tired, but it didn’t show at all: he is a ball of energy, and it seems like he is going to return to the streets to perform in Erzsébet Square on Wednesday – that is, if the police don’t shut his gig down.

WLB: How did you like Strand Festival and the Hungarian audience in general?  

Dub Fx: Festivals in Hungary are always really well organised, and the atmosphere is fantastic every time I come. I’m not saying this because you expect me to. I have played all the big festivals in Hungary, from the Balaton to Sziget, so I genuinely like coming back here, and the audience is always great.

WLB: Which show do you have the best memories of?

Dub Fx: I think Sziget last year was amazing, I really really loved Sziget, there were thousands of awesome people. In fact, that was probably my favourite show in 2013.

WLB: How did success change your life from street performing to thousands of people watching you on stage?

Dub Fx: Look, I’m still the same person, I’m still with the love of my life, the queen of my world. The only difference is that I work a lot more. I used to travel around and make money doing street shows wherever I wanted. We could earn a lot of money on the street, it was really easy; we were making like 6-700 euros in an hour. So we could do that 2-3 days a week and we lived very well. Living in a van, travelling from city to city. Now it’s different, I’ve got booked shows, I fly around the world, I don’t drive myself from place to place anymore. We’ve bought a house, too, we work all the time, so it’s good, I enjoy the success.

WLB: Your record label released an album by a young Hungarian producer called Mongoose. During your visits have you met any Hungarian artists you would wanna make music with?  

Dub Fx: I know some really amazing Hungarian artists! I really like Random Trip, their drummer Delov Jávor is a good friend of mine, we had a lot of fun jamming together on A38 not too long ago. There was also a fantastic show I saw in Budapest, a band called Bin-Jip.

WLB: Do you think musicians should freestyle and improvise more?  

Dub Fx: I know a lot of bands that can only work in the studio, and many other musicians, like Jávor, who like to experiment. I personally think all musicians should learn to improvise, but then again it’s also important to repeat ourselves, to practice the same thing over and over again. One doesn’t exist without the other. It’s just like learning how to drive.

WLB: You once said in an interview that you hardly ever listen to the lyrics because the performance is way more important. Is this true?  

Dub Fx: It’s not that I don’t care about the lyrics, but if I see someone on stage, it is the soul that really matters. If the spirit of the performance is right, it can be exceptionally liberating. Actually, I don’t think of myself as a singer or a rapper either, I look at myself as a musician and a producer. I started to sing because I couldn’t find the right singer to work with.

WLB: Your music is quite empowering. What do you want to express?  

Dub Fx: The number one thing that I’m trying to express more than anything is positivity. I think it’s very easy to be negative in this world and lot of bands use negativity like a sword to try and fight their way through the music industry and to become someone. And for some reason it’s cool to be negative, but it’s not my way.

WLB: You often criticize consumer society, politics and the media.

Dub Fx: This is the world we’re living in. There’s manipulation coming from every direction, and I’m just trying to make people aware of it.