BenBen Releases an EP

I had the pleasure of having a long phone call with Ben Wigler. Through conversation I got keyed into his eccentric mind and got lost in conversation. He has played in bands before, now embarks on his biggest journey to date, a solo project where he goes by BENBEN. 

When Ben attended the University of Rochester he started making these shitty dorm room recordings and not showing them to anyone. “The first time people heard me sing, I was in my dorm stairwell, I was just practicing.”

Ben has performed many times, and in front of large audiences since that first time he got caught singing in the stairwell. He went off the road with the band Arizona, as one of the original members, opening up for the Indigo Girls. His voice was even featured on Amy Ray’s solo album. He even went on to collaborate with Brandie Carlie. Ben has had an all over the place kind of creative career.

In fact, not only has he thrown himself into the musical world, he spends most of his time creating art, illustrations and other visual arts. He even taught himself frame by frame digital animation. The way he interacts with the world is very much through a creative and fantastical lens. I think you can see how he incorporates his art into his persona as a musical artist.

I asked Ben to describe his origin story and he proceeded to tell me about a crazy, random, formative experience he had. Which was a normal day as a new yorker for him.

He was walking down the street of New York, eighth Street to be exact and he sees a man “on another planet”. He’s not the type of man that would stop and speak to you on the street especially when it’s dark. It was the middle of winter and the man was wearing boxer shorts. But he decided that he’d take a chance and talk to the stranger. 

I was like, “what’s up man?” And he’s like, “you’re gonna talk to me?” And I was like, “yeah, I’m gonna talk to you”. He’s like, “amazing”. He goes, “you’re a musician, right?” He doesn’t know who I am, but I was like, yeah. And he goes,” all right, top three musical influences right now”. And I said “ummmmm, Metallica, Gene Wilder and Willy Wonka and Judy Garland, like Wizard of Oz.”

“Then he’s like, “I’m gonna give you something now”. And out of his satchel he pulls out this huge beautiful art print of a neon sign that says Sincere Gifts. It was mind blowingly beautiful. All of my colors, it was from like this unbelievable place in Chinatown in Los Angeles.

…People were swerving out of this guy’s way all day long and we stopped and had a conversation. It was like this beautiful conversation that got right into the heart. I named the next project of mine that I worked on for the next three or four years Sincere Gifts because of that poster.

The first album Ben ever created was a thrash, progressive metal album that was made in 1999. He was a metal kid for so long, but he discovered his singing voice in the midst of a horrible emotional upheaval, a serious breakup.

In the midst of our interview he actually broke into song and sang the first piece he ever wrote for me. And said “this thing came out of my body and I was, oh, what was that? I guess that’s what my heart sounded like.”

Another piece he sang for me mid interview was the opening track to his new album Artist’s Prayer. This song is a sort of mockery gospel song, in a world were everything is owned by Mark Zuckerberg and we’re all slave to the algorithm. The song is supposed to take on a sort of confessionary tone of an artist living in this world “ripping themselves apart at the altar of metaverse”.

That’s how the EP opens up and it sort of blasts off into Ben’s maximalist production style from there. Before releasing a full length album in 2023, he wants to sort of cleanse the air with the EP. Like he’s sagging the room.

If Ben is asked to describe his music, his projects to come he would say something like this. “I call it hobbit rock because like, like I want you to be in a magical realm but in a really jovial mood. Or “it’s like if Judy Garland sang for Metallica.”

If Ben Wigler sounds like someone you’d love to get to know, maybe even understand a little better, check out his new EP.

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