Ben Marwood Talks Things.

Damn, another blog? Perhaps this regular posting thing is getting old. I'll chill it after this one.

However, I had the good fortune of chatting with Mr. Ben Marwood over the interwebs recently in conjunction with a journalism assignment, and it was a little bit cool. He's a little bit cool. Figured I'd post it up, for kicks and whatnot. On Word it had a picture and interesting use of fonts, but blogspot let me down. But that's just detracting from the Big Picture. Read it, or something:

Ben Marwood is a far too little-known musician found regularly in Reading – or in an assortment of bars across the UK where he performs and drinks with his righteous supporters. After a smattering of EPs, Marwood released his debut album 'Outside There's A Curse' earlier this year as recorded entirely in his bedroom, despite being signed with Xtra Mile Records. Now how’s that for artistic licence? Currently in the middle of his ‘Something For The Weekends’ tour, he chivalrously took a moment out to answer some questions.

I was first introduced to your music by a friend who saw you at a Frank Turner gig in Bath earlier this year. I'd say your music shares that Angry-British-Man sound, but of course it's what appeals to me. Would you say Frank is someone who has influenced your music, or are you just inherently similar in outlook?

[Laughs] Angry-British-man is a highly under-acknowledged genre. I'd say it's inevitable that Frank has influenced my sound - he must have, and rightly so because he's a great songwriter and a good friend. The Frank Turner/Franz Nicolay tour in May was just superb - people don't realise how much it takes to have a tour run smoothly, and Frank's team were pretty flawless in their running of the shows, especially tour manager Graham Kay. To have that opportunity is something I will never forget, especially because for a while it looked like it would never happen. Touring with people you admire and get on well with is like taking a road trip with friends doing something that you like. 

To talk about your own music - what sort of thought process goes into your lyric writing?

I really wish I could divulge the secret formula that I use to write all my lyrics, but in truth I don't really know how these songs end up getting written, they just tend to fall into place naturally over time. What I can definitely say though is that nine times out of ten I'll start with the music, then the melody, so by the time it comes to finalising lyrics the tempo and the meter and whatever else is already taken care of. Then it's just a case of crafting the words to try and make a point. Or I could just drop more references to 'Ghost' [the movie].

Such as in 'JJ Abrams'... is there an underlying message of your love for the movie or is that my misreading the connections? Subconscious desires being powerful and all...

I'm not a gigantic fan of that movie, but it was a very important one in the early 1990s and I'm fascinated with the pairing of Whoopi Goldberg and Patrick Swayze. Those scenes where Swayze is beating people up as a ghost is comedy gold.

There must be some real pressures of touring at the same time as doing nine-to-five work [Marwood also has a 'typical' job in Reading]. Is this something you find difficult?

In its own special way, it is a bit difficult. Not a 'working two jobs to stay above the poverty line and feed your children' kind of difficult, nor a rocket science type of difficult, but certainly this approach has its moments where it would be appealing to down tools and go off in a sulk. At the moment I'm doing shows mostly over the weekend, which is good because it doesn't require time off work, but bad because it means I don't see much of my family, friends or favourite drinking establishments. Still, I'm nearly done with the latest tour, and I'm nearly done with the year; and I'm sure as soon as I'm done with this I'll be planning the next tour or next step, so it can't be too difficult or I'd stop.

You’ve had some technical troubles with your guitar over the last few shows – not a dig, I promise. But has there ever been some kind of momentous disaster during a show?             

 Yes, my guitar is a bit of a nightmare! It's a lovely Art & Lutherie, but they just make guitars for beginners and I've pushed it beyond its means far too many times. Most of my mid-show monumental disasters do involve things not working, like PAs, guitars and lights and so on, but the most bizarre thing ever was when I was playing with a band, and I mounted a monitor for an end-of-set guitar solo freak-out... and the monitor wasn't secured to anything so it tipped back and I flew offstage directly onto my bum. Thankfully this was not captured on camera. I'm still living with the physical effects and I expect I will forever, but at least it's a good story to tell in interviews, right?

I have to say, I love your cover of ‘District Sleeps Alone Tonight’. I definitely prefer it to the Postal Service (no discredit to them) and I think it rivals Frank’s version (on-going debate with my friend here).  I think it’s great when someone completely revamps a song with a cover, and there’s people saying ‘I love this guy’s song – oh wait it’s actually really old?’ But is there some song that you’d want to cover but feel like it’s this mammoth sacred piece that you’ll only ever reveal to your showerhead..?

Oh gosh, I'm sure there are loads of songs I'd love to cover but don't think I could do it justice. I'd love to cover Elliott Smith's 'Angeles' but I can't hold a candle to it. I do play it when I'm alone sometimes, but rarely in front of anyone! There are also some Johnny Flynn songs I'd love to cover but he has such a great blues tone I'm not sure what I could do to improve upon it. But I suppose that's the cover debate encapsulated in two examples - I could cover an Elliott Smith song (and do) without having to change it too much because what I do is not a million miles removed from what he did, but if I was to cover a Johnny Flynn song I'd have to change it considerably because of his voice, and the way he arranges songs. Ditto with the Postal Service. I'd have to make that my own because I couldn't do an accurate tribute! I'm not sure if the covers debate is limited to just 'tribute vs. originality' but I'm not going to move from my spot on the fence.

You are obviously a fan of social media [being a frequent tweeter (Twitterer?) and blogger], but what's your stand in the Great Debate: do you reckon this is bad for music with all the illegal downloads etc. yadda yadda yadda, or is it just a better way of getting more people to hear you?

Let's start with social media. Social media is important. I'm not quite sure how it came about, and I have no idea where it's headed, but it's the most useful tool for keeping in touch with people. It supersedes, or at least brilliantly complements, the likes of internet mailing lists and such, and I can't see how social media could be bad for music because it makes word of mouth advertising a billion percent easier than a life without, say, Twitter. As far as digital internet piracy goes, I've met people who have illegally downloaded my album or albums and they seem like normal people. No eye-patches or peg-legs or parrots. It's a shame because it detracts from revenue for the record labels, who in turn can't pass any money onto the artist. But even if the internet didn't ever happen, people would still just be borrowing CDs from people and copying them. The internet just made piracy more prolific, in the same way social media made spreading the word easier. In the end you have to say the internet exists: it has a good side and a bad side for music, and all you can really do is make it as hard as possible for people to exploit the bad side.

So - Vinyl man or digitalised?

That said, I'm a digital man.I don't own anything by Apple, but I have an MP3 player and don't own a vinyl player. I'm still faithful to CDs though, even if I have run out of space to store them. They're just stacking up now...

I guess it's a physical music history/soundtrack for your life, so I reckon it's worth the clutter. However, recently you wrote about a new record/work in progress in your blog. Is this something you can elaborate on?

I think you've summed it up pretty well already! There is new stuff in the pipeline. Things are mostly written but need finishing off, and when they're finished off they'll need properly recording and once everything is done, we'll see about releasing! I'm quite excited but at this stage I'm not going to look too excited because any new release is a long way off at the moment and if I started getting excited now, I'll be exhausted by the time it's ready for release..! Gotta pace yourself.

And finally, out of baffled curiosity - can you tell me about Avril Lavigne's significance...?

Hah. I've been telling this story every night on tour, so yes, one more time wouldn't hurt. My song that references her in the title [‘Tell Avril Lavigne I Never Wanted To Be Her Stupid Boyfriend Anyway’] isn't actually about her, but it's about a short librarian who I thought I was madly in love with once. It turns out I wasn't, but I did write a couple of songs: the Avril one and one from 2009 called 'You Can Hold On Once'. Anyway, around the time I wrote this particular song, Avril Lavigne's song 'Girlfriend' was always on the radio, and essentially it was her telling everyone how much better she was than everyone else-  kinda like the Pussycat Dolls' 'Dont Cha' only much, much less sexy. In the end I was short of a title and annoyed at the constant presence of Lavigne on the radio whenever I turned it on, so I named a song to reflect my annoyance. Really that's it. Not a single lyric in the song is about her. Avril's sadly divorced since she released 'Girlfriend' though, so maybe her other half found out she'd been telling the whole damn world that they should dump their partners in favour of her. That's pretty poor form, Avril.

QUICKFIRE-ISH WONDERMENTS:

* Best band you've ever seen live?

Jetplane Landing, Future of the Left or Frank Turner. I can't decide. All for different reasons, but all truly great.

* Best get-psyched song?

'Surf Wax America' by Weezer would be right up there, as would 'Stereo' by Pavement. I recommend both of these songs, though they are pretty old now. But so am I! So that's my excuse.

* Bizarre fan things that have happened? Because I've been to gigs where people have mooned that band to show support...?

None of my fans have done this, I can report.

* If you could trade places with any other person for a week (living/dead/fictional etc.) who would it be?Could you trade places with someone who was dead? That would be pretty boring just hanging around in a coffin all day. Oh hey, but I'd like to have been Michael Jackson for a day. That would just be crazy. Decision made!

* Superhero power?

I think about this a LOT. It's definitely the power to slow down time. Not completely to a stop, just very very very slow. I just think it would be handy to have as a superhero because you could do things like dodge bullets and do super-fighting. Basically you'd be like Batman.

* Who are you listening to at the moment?

I have the new Jeff Lewis album, which is superb, and I bought the new Death Cab album lately. I was also surprised at how good the Foster the People album is. So... that.

Cheers etc. goes to Ben Marwood, obviously.

Now check out his album.

FRANK TURNER HARD CORE.

Okay, I give in. I wanted to try consistency with this blogging thing, but it's just not happening. Attempt  number #183726:

Frankly (maha), the problem is that He is just so aknfakdd on tour that I couldn't possibly put to words how amazing the show was. I've not recovered yet, and it's been 5 days of constant FT-playlist repeating (titled OBSESS, no less). 

Naturally, the anticipation was such that we arrived at the venue two and half hours early in order to queue, gaining the prime first-place position excepting two girls who had shown up for the support act Against Me! instead, and have no interest in Frank Turner. Therefore they don’t really count. Thirty minutes in and there was a minor panic attack as the venue posted an ‘IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT’ on the door; two minutes of stomach-flipping until we read it to find out that Against Me! have cancelled due to illness, being replaced by Franz Nicolay. He’s an amusing bald guy so this was all very good news. The two girls then shortly dispatched and we were sat at the top of the queue with only two more hours to wait. 

Then we're front and centre, on the barrier, squished into the metal but a mere few feet away from Frank himself. (I don't know how far a foot actually is, but just know that you couldn't be any closer unless you were lucky enough to be one of those miserable stage security dudes). The hall was packed; the standing area solidified with human quantity and the hundreds of seats rising vertically to line the walls were filled too. It’s the mark of a good musician to get the energy pulsing into the deepest depths of the room and I wager none do it like Frank.

But this is where the trouble is and the words stop. Because even though I can tell you ('you' being the nameless non-existing readers of this blog) that his energy on stage is tangible, a physical thing that seems to exude from his very being, transforming him and eradicating any outsider’s doubt that what you’re really seeing is just an unshaven thirty-something jumping around with four thirty-something friends; when in fact what’s actually there is an unstoppable force of opinion, expectation and pride, it still doesn't really explain just how it felt. 

At the end of a miraculous 22-song setlist, Turner appeals to the crowd to join him in 'Photosynthesis'. "And I mean f****** everyone. Not just the diehard, old school m*****-f*****s down the front, but I want the curious parties, I want the people who had nothing else to do tonight and said to themselves, 'you know what, f*** it man, let's see what this Frank Turner man's got to say for himself'; I want the plus-ones, the people whose friends are really into it but they're not all that bothered; I want the boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands and wives; I want anyone who got in to this show on the guestlist to stop  being so damn hipster for five seconds and get down to the front and sing the f*** along, OK? I want the security guards to sing along; I want the boys, the girls, everyone...’ 

The effect on the audience was bordering on insanity. Because how many other musicians pause in the middle of a song to talk to every single one of their fans and tell them that they actually matter to them? It certainly got everyone singing, a powerful unison comprised of mostly off-key singers who don’t give a damn because it’s the message that matters.  And that's basically what Frank's about. Well, 'basically' means nothing here. You can't simplify this guy, he truly is one of those bust-the-boundaries kind of guys, and there is absolutely no denying that that is exactly why he exists. Thank God (or the equivalent for Frank's atheism) for that.

 

No One Likes A Topical Bugger.

It's not a review, I'm breaking the pattern.
It's a pre-review... but not a preview.


It's just 15 days until I get to see Frank Turner. Live.

- Which I will then review.

Maybe. I'm obviously not the most consistent blogger.

But 15 days until I see Him play. This is exciting.
My friend went earlier this year to a show in Bath, and was close enough to feel the spit (she says this was good, and was almost reluctant to wash her face) so now we're braving our better sense and turning up to the gig hours early to queue and feel the spit again. And yes - this is braving, as the gig is in Newport.
I'm not anti-Newportians or anything, just pretty scared of the town centre after wandering around before a gig in March this year. Then, too, we sat on a street corner for 5 hours for All Time Low and that was painful and chilly but we were buzzin' and added to the experience.


Didn't make Newport much better, though.


Either way, it's just 15 days.
Hell yeah.

Bloody Hell, Nowhere Boy.

I won't lie - the Beatles have, up until now, been just another band that I know I should like but haven't really gotten around to taking much of an interest in, unless my Dad's iPod shuffles in a forceful manner. But now, as aforementioned - bloody hell.

Sam Taylor-Wood's is a name that I knew through editorial articles, her film one that I put on the list of 'seeing eventually'.  Now I've Googled her in awe and am simply willing her to make the next chapter, as I haven't felt quite like this about a film in a long time. Because 'Nowhere Boy', a biopic of Lennon's early life, is a miraculous thing. Not only is it beautifully written, but everything it's made from is so heart-wrenching that you can't believe you hadn't already seen it one hundred and fifty-four million times. So you watch it to make it so. Set in the 50's, I'm a sucker for it from the off. The hair and the music and the urgency of adolescent rebellion is something that makes me ache to be more interesting. More 'Lennon'. And kudos to the wardrobe department. 

From a technical view, I'd pronounce it flawless. It's got all the fancy editing and perfect balance of those sweet silent moments, the smooth cuts from his early childhood into this swirling force of emotion. And the acting is just the same. Aaron Johnson, perhaps a little awkward in 2008's 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging', was more than a little mesmerising. Say what you want, I don't think even Lennon kept up a Northern accent at all times. Johnson was powerfully commanding, his anger and emotion so affecting that I caught myself frowning and tensing as he did. The brutality of the losses themselves, of course, shocked my ignorant self but I won't pretend that it's the cruelty of Taylor-Wood creating them: the power and those awful profound silences set my mind reeling at the amazing film-making whilst the rest of me took a moment to sort myself out. I'm not a weeper - it just feels like a physical blow, and I need to remember to breathe.

But then it's not fiction. It's a captivating depiction of a gruesome childhood that produced a riveting man. And there's a real beauty in that.

"Oh dirty Maggie Mae, they have taken her away..."

Get Dirty, Do Work.

  All Time Low  - 'Dirty Work' Album Review
Released- June 6^th 2011

I won’t lie: initially, I was mad. The early release of ‘I Feel Like Dancin’’ had left me with little hope for All Time Low’s upcoming album, as it appeared to so purposefully strive to appeal to the masses with its inclusion of cult-pop references of ‘Shorty’ and Ke$ha. I know that All Time Low have made their name on their sharp taste in hyper pop-rock and drinking references, but I still like to think that they’re not that mainstream. I mean, how many times have I heard someone reply to ‘All Time Low’ with ‘Oh, I love The Wanted’? So the new single preaching success from the top of Radio 1 was not something that made me tweet my pride so much as sigh at the potential loss of one of my favourite bands. Nonetheless, the creation of the single’s video being so reminiscent of the cocky antics of ‘Damned If I Do Ya’, I began to realise that All Time Low have not converted to the Other Side after all– they are still just a bunch of frequently drunk dudes who periodically crank out tunes worth dancing to. And that’s okay with me.

‘Dirty Work’ hails the typical All Time Low musical style we love to bust our speakers with, the tracks ‘Just The Way I’m Not’, ‘Time-Bomb’ and ‘Do You Want Me (Dead)?’ sparking my particular interest. The lyrics don’t aim to elicit deep philosophies, but are still clever enough to catch in your mind and mean enough to the band’s youthful following. With tales of ex-girlfriends and nights out, All Time Low hold no pretences of singing for the Older Generations, and do damn well at catering for those who simply want a band good enough to blare out the stereo for cathartic purposes. There seems to be some common ground with the lyrics in this album as lead singer and songwriter Alex Gaskarth focuses on the idea of being used and changing to suit a girl in ‘Just The Way I’m Not’, ‘Bad Enough For You’, ‘and Get Down On your Knees And Tell Me You Love Me’. This contrasts interestingly with the frat-boy concepts mostly explored in previous albums ‘Nothing Personal’ and ‘So Wrong It’s Right’, but nevertheless shows that the band is developing. Pre-release, much hype was built around the idea that the album was aiming to move away from the typical pop-sound, attempting to achieve a new mature feel; whilst any of the live shows would contradict this ‘maturity’ from the off, the overall essence of the tracks confirms that these twenty-somethings have perhaps now reached the emotional age of seventeen-and-a-half, making a change from the habitual sixteen-year-old aura. This isn’t a bad thing. It just means that under all the innuendo and ridiculous fun, the guys are also producing music that means something.

The heavy electric guitar-and-drum combo the band wield so well is present in almost every track, with ‘Under A Paper Moon’ reaching out for a different more alt-rock style than usual and ‘No Idea’ showing experimentation with the synth strings (apparently that’s cool at the moment). Habitually, All Time Low slow it down for a track - ‘A Daydream Away’ – for a bit of acoustic cute, but pick the pace back up for the rest of the album; even the acoustic version of ‘Time-Bomb’ shows a more fast-paced take on the traditional acoustic cover. All Time Low themselves have described it as the perfect summer album, “The songs are really loud and will get you to roll the windows down. It’s just a fun record all around”. Which is exactly what I have been doing this summer.

Whilst ‘Dirty Work’ hit the UK iTunes chart at No. 5 on release, it sank further down over the succeeding days for the surge of generic RnB ‘chart-toppers’ to restore life back to normal. But I suppose what I’ve come to realise is that whilst bands like All Time Low can continue to churn out good albums, the likelihood of our British charts ever really accepting them is relatively low. They are clearly impassioned, imperturbable (and arguably imbecilic) guys, - hence ‘Heroes’ and the self-explaining lyrics “We talk shit like it's a cross to bear” - and they enjoy it. You can hear it in their music and the endless innuendos that spew out of their mouths on tour, and there is no denying the energy they have for the success they’ve worked so hard for. This album won’t change the world, but at least it’ll get a few of us with taste to stand up and yell our support.

“Get dirty, do work”.