Birmingham Bands: BENJAMIN BLOWER

"The songs are love letters to my generation."

Exploiting to good effect the similar natures of folk and rap, and throwing in a bit of fuzzed-up gospel along the way, Benjamin Blower has released two albums and an EP through Zang Productions and is beginning to bring his troubadour-like live act to Birmingham's stages. Though the music is haunted by a sense of loss and End Times, he is more than a one note songwriter; with his Army Of The Broken Hearted, Benjamin Blower is howling defiantly at the coming storm all the way.

Introductions
My name is Benjamin Blower and I make apocalyptic cowboy music. My band is a musical / social / spiritual agitation movement called the Army of the Broken Hearted. We began performing in the summer of 2009 in back-alleys, car parks, under bridges, and outside fast food establishments in the city of Birmingham.

Why? Because music all comes out of machines these days...Because stages are anti-social...Recently they let us into venues so I better pipe down now.

Sell it in 10
No stages, machines, or bars, and you’re in the band.

The Benjamin Blower Mixtape
1) Johnny Cash
2) Tom Waits
3) Buck 65
4) The Book of Ezekiel, recorded onto tape obviously.
5) BB King
6) The Situationists (the french art/philosophy movement from the 1950s) somehow also captured in sound.
7) Any book by Cormac McCarthy.
8) The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
9) Soundtracks from cowboy films
10) De La Soul

On the Music
I write because I love my people and I’m provoked by the crookedness of our times. These days drive me wild! The songs are love letters to my generation. I used to prefer recording but since we began partying in public space I've never looked back. The street has renewed live music for me.



Plans for 2010
Our new album will be released on the Zang Productions label 22nd March. We’re going to gig around for the first half of the year, and then in the second half I intend to write a book.

On the Birmingham Music Scene
We only recently gave in to playing our music in actual venues, so I don’t feel like I know too much about it. I think that music in the UK is generally sick because the scene exists mostly for the benefit of the musician and his vain fantasies, not for the audience and their “right to party” or what-have-you... Our part is easy: to be where we shouldn’t be, saying what we shouldn’t say.

I recommend Joyous. They’re a killer band and they’re killer guys. I feel happier when they’re around. And Fiction Fight from Coventry. Is Coventry local enough? Also the Flagship nights at the Sunflower Lounge... those guys have been good to us.

BONUS QUESTION from Kidnapper Bell: Would you let me buy you a new Fender Jaguar?
Yes, of course.

If I was to ask you one more question, what would you like it to be?
Do you love anybody more than you love yourself?

Next Gig
Friday, 29 January - The Rainbow, Digbeth

Myspace Link
http://www.myspace.com/benjaminblower