‘Chica’ started as a two hour studio session between friends and turned into one of the biggest underground tracks of the summer. What began as an accidentally shared Dropbox folder led to Saoirse playing the track for months before Ben Evers and Najeh even knew, and eventually to a viral moment at Circoloco Thailand that racked up over a million views before the track had an official release.
Now out on Saoirse’s label TrUSt Recordings and Disorder, we caught up with Ben Evers and Najeh to talk through how it all came together, the ’80s sample at the heart of the track, and what’s next for the pair.
WWD: ‘Chica’ started as a track for your own sets and ended up everywhere from Circoloco Thailand to clubs worldwide. Take us back to that first session. What clicked between you two?
Najeh: After finishing another studio session together, we still had about two hours left. Ben asked if I had any ideas so we could make the most of the time. I played him the Chica sample, and something just clicked immediately. Ben had an idea, then I had the next one, and everything simply fell into place. Two hours later, the track was basically finished.
Moments like that are genuinely rare, but they do happen. We weren’t overthinking anything or questioning every decision – we just followed our instincts. In those moments, every sample, every sound, and every idea seems to fit perfectly.
Ben: Ah damn, I totally misread the question and thought you meant our very first session together ever. So I guess we’ve got two answers now, which is probably even better for your readers. Najeh and I have known each other for years, but we’d never actually gone into the studio together. Since I started the Ben Evers project about three years ago, our musical directions have been crossing more and more, and since we always got along well as people and had a good time whenever we met, we figured it was about time we worked on music together. I’d say it clicked between us immediately. Of course, we still had to find our groove, but that happened within the first few sessions. And here’s a fun fact: we actually finished two tracks in those very first sessions, and when Najeh played before Shonky in Hamburg, Shonky turned around and straight up asked him, “What’s this track?” It was ours. So yeah, a pretty great start. And after working together for a good while now, I’d say we’ve really found our groove, both in the workflow and in our signature sound. We’re at a point now where you can hear a track and just know: this one’s from us.
WWD: Ben, you told Najeh he’d listened to ‘Chica’ forty times in eight hours. Najeh, you’ve said you knew right then something was magic. What was that feeling like for each of you?
Najeh: I was driving from Hamburg to Berlin and listened to the track almost non-stop for the entire three-hour journey – again and again. When I arrived in Berlin and still wasn’t tired of hearing it, I knew we had created something special, even though we had no idea what we were going to do with it, yet. The only thing I was thinking was, I need to play this live as soon as possible and see how the crowd reacts.
Ben: Haha, yes. We mostly upload our stuff straight to our shared playlist on SoundCloud since it’s the easiest way to listen on the go or in the car, even if the sound quality isn’t at 100%. But for me, that doesn’t matter at this stage. It’s all about the vibe, the overall feeling of the song. Vibe comes before everything else. Anyway, after sending Najeh the link, I checked my daily SoundCloud stats a few hours later and saw 40 plays for “Chica”. I just texted him: “Haha, I think you like this track.
WWD: The Circoloco Thailand video crossed a million views before ‘Chica’ even had an official release. Where were you when you saw that happen, and how did it change the way you thought about the track?
Najeh: I was in Spain visiting my girlfriend. I had just woken up, looked at my phone, and the only message from Ben was: “CHECK INSTAGRAM.”
Over the next two days, our inbox absolutely exploded. That was the moment we realised the track had taken on a life of its own.
Ben: I was here in Hamburg, in my bathroom, getting myself and the kids ready for the day when a message from my buddy Misty in Egypt popped up on my phone: “Bro, this is your track.” The link he sent was to the video from the Circoloco after-hours in Phuket. I texted Najeh straight away, and as he said, our inbox exploded once we commented that it was our track. We already knew it was a strong track; we’d felt that early on. But in those first days after the video started popping up everywhere, we really understood how much potential this thing had, both for a release and for becoming an actual “hit.”
WWD: You built ‘Chica’ around a vocal from an obscure ’80s Italian recording. What pulled you toward that sample, and how did it shape the direction of the track?
Najeh: I already knew the vocal from Patrick Topping’s track. For the longest time, I didn’t even realise it was a sample. Then, completely by chance, I found the original recording and immediately felt like I wanted to create something with it.
The vocal sticks in your head after hearing it just once and brings out the more playful, almost pop-inspired side of ‘Chica.’ We never actually discussed it while producing, but instinctively we took everything else in the opposite direction. The drums, bassline, and overall sound are deep and club-focused.
I think that contrast is exactly what makes the track so interesting.
Ben: Yes, exactly. We knew the vocal was already quite poppy, so we had to balance it out with a stripped-back beat, something made purely for the club. And, like Najeh already mentioned, the whole thing came together really fast; we only needed two hours to produce the track. At least that first version, which was already about 95% of what you hear now. Honestly, we only meant to make something for our own DJ sets. But then Najeh accidentally dropped the track into the Dropbox folder for Saoirse. Haha. And that’s when the whole thing took on a life of its own.
WWD: ‘Chica’ is out now on Saoirse’s label, TrUSt Recordings and Disorder. What does having her behind this release mean to you, and what’s next for you both?
Najeh: Over the last year and a half, I’ve built a really great relationship with Saoirse, and we’ve always had a good connection. For me, it’s super important when an artist genuinely believes in a track and builds a real relationship with it.
I’m pretty sure she’s played ‘Chica’ more than Ben and I have over the past year! So when we decided to release it with her and her team, I was genuinely happy because the track is just as special to her as it is to us.
Ben and I have produced a lot of music together over the last few months, and we’re currently having some exciting conversations about future releases. What we can already share is that we’ll be releasing a three-track EP on Luuk van Dijk’s label later this year.
In September, I’ll also be releasing an EP with Frag Maddin on Chloé Caillet’s label “Smiile”. I’m particularly excited about that project because Chloé believed in me from the very beginning and has been incredibly supportive throughout the whole process.
Ben: Yeah, as Najeh said, Saoirse was behind the track from the very start, and you could really feel how much she wanted to release it. And when someone’s that invested, you can be pretty sure they’ll push it properly. So it ended up being exactly the right decision. And once Disorder came on board too, the whole package felt perfect.
As for what’s next, I’m really looking forward to the EP Najeh and I have coming on Luuk’s label. We tested it extensively, and it turned out really strong: three tracks made for the dancefloor.
On top of that, I’m currently working on my next single for my own label, Eternal Sunshine. Some exciting remix requests have been coming in, and my buddy Biesmans and I have finished a few tracks that we’ve just sent out to some friends to test. After hearing the title track a few times now at DC10, we’re finally starting to put things in motion.
In general, I’m as creative and hard at work in the studio right now as I’ve been in a long time; there’s genuinely a lot in the pipeline, whether solo or with Najeh. As they say: the fire is burning. Najeh and I, for example, were just out at Can Jay in Ibiza making music together, including a couple of tracks with HalfPint. So yeah, stay tuned.
WWD: We definitely will! Thanks for the chat, guys 🙂
‘Chica’ is available here