Yeah, that's another element too: the way you come across. But I find worrying about that stuff exhausting. I figure I'll just be my warts-and-all self, and then if people don't like it, oh well. I'm not pretty enough to get away with pretending I'm important.
THIS. This this this. Facebook does it all the time. "Have you heard [new band]? They sound just like [band I already have], [band I already have], and [band I already have]." I don't want clones. Good music is NOT hard to find as long as you don't look on mainstream radio -- I'm not dissing pop, but dissing the fact that only a handful of songs are played ad nauseum with no variety. If you like a CD, go on Amazon and look for "Customers also bought," or put on that artist's Pandora station, or look up "Related artists/videos" on Spotify/Youtube, respectively. Easy as pie. The ads are for people who don't take any time to do this, and it just makes both parties look sad. Ben, I have always admired your DIY/under-the-radar approach. It's so necessary nowadays. Everything else is force-fed and I feel like a lot of really good stuff goes to waste under the guise of "Bonus Tracks" only available from a certain download store...or only in Europe. Thanks for releasing everyTHING to everyONE.
This is just a completely random comment, but somewhat in regards to the comment about having a versatile voice which could possibly be used for a more electronic project. I loved the way you opened "Family Portrait" on tour; you have the ability to make your voice sound choral, almost like a Gregorian chant. Would love to hear this element explored a little more in a different song. Could be really cool and ambient...haunting even.
Just to add to that, I think it might be because people say it takes hard work to become a successful musician. So they put the hard work into garnering attention rather than into writing and playing. I don't know how he opened Family Portrait on tour, but have you listened to Electric President? If you're looking for a more electronic project of Ben's, it's right there.
I think the next Electric President album is gonna be a dance record. Not necessarily a straight forward one, but we were talking about how it'd be fun to do something super upbeat and use a lot of dance foundations, then just warp them. So yeah. Dance things.
hey Ben, a couple more questions: I know you've talked about using over 100 layers at points, so I was wondering if you had any tips regarding EQing so many tracks and how you manage to give them all so much room to breathe and have their own space. I was also wondering if you're able to actually make enough money from you're music that you can live comfortably or if you have another job that keeps the money coming in. I love the idea of being able to record so freely, but practically I don't see how you do it, haha. Lookin forward to Clone!
Oh, absolutely. "The Violent Blue" is a staple in my album collection. The other 2 were also great, but that one is by far my favorite.
Yeah, I use lots of tracks. Some of that just comes from working alone. If I want a choir type sound, I usually just record myself about 20 different times then blend them. And to be honest, mixing that many tracks is tough. So I usually just group things into more manageable chunks. Even if it took 18 tracks to make the drums, I mix them separately, then work with them as a group from that point on. Keeps it manageable. And yes, I live off of music now. For a long time I did odd jobs and graphic design work to supplement, but I've been full-time with music since about 2010. But it's not just records and touring (I lose money touring, actually). I sometimes write for TV and film projects, and sometimes do mixing jobs for folks, etc. I've always kinda had multiple sources of income and worked it out that way, but have been able to focus more and more on music as time passes. It's not a very stable way to live, but it's never boring.
Captain Cooper, is there any way I can download the songs from You Have the Right to Remain Awesome? I have both vinyls but I can't get them onto my mp3 player for obvious reasons.
Is there any chance I can take up the same offer of the digital files for YHTRTRA from either one of you guys? That's the only disadvantage I've found of buying music on vinyl compared to CD's or online, you can never get them onto your computer without buying them again. That and the higher price is what puts me off buying the majority of music on vinyl.
And maybe this has already been asked and or answered but it was a thought that was slightly interesting me the last couple of days, but I wonder what has been your most memorable show you've preformed at? This of course is not a prompt in asking of your favorite show, because simply, how could you really choose that, hehehe. But mainly the one show that really stood out for you, and why? Hope your doing well and have fun on those shows to come. (Thanks for the update email you recently sent out. Keeps us happy to be informed.)
This probably isn't the answer you want, but the most memorable show for me is probably the worst one I have ever played. It was from the first Electric President tour. We were playing in Paris, and it was a mini-festival where they had 5 bands throughout the night. Because of those circumstances, you could not sound check -- only a quick line check before you played (which is basically ... is everything turned on? Okay, start playing.). Well, I don't speak French, and the sound guy did not speak English. We get on stage and we're not getting sound out of our laptop (which we used for synthesizers and such) or my mic. Just a very loud hum. The first 25 minutes of our 35 minute time slot was spent with an intern/translator running back and forth and trying to communicate between me and the engineer. The engineer was convinced that our gear was not working and made us go through it piece at a time (and to be fair, a lot of my stuff is kind of old or held together by duct tape and such). But I tested it with headphone from my backpack and everything was working fine on our end. Eventually, he asked me to restart my laptop, and while I did he came and replaced the DI box everything was running into. Well, it turns out the engineers DI was the culprit. But he'd left the volume on the mixer way up. So when my computer restarted and the Windows XP boot sound triggered, now through a working DI, it was insanely loud and scared the shit out of everyone in the room, myself included. The few remaining people who'd sat through all of this mostly left (only about 8 people stayed to watch us play), and one guy from the neighboring restaurant stuck his head out the door, yelled something at me in French. This is all struck me as really funny. By the time our sound was running, we only had time for two songs, and I could not stop laughing throughout both of them, to the point where I only got maybe half the lyrics out and Alex kept missing notes and such. Then we left. The promoter was really angry with us, even though it wasn't really our fault, and said he'd never book us again. Which only made the whole thing funnier.
