Artwork by @mystupidsketchbook
WHO is he?
“My name is BEN WOODS. I played music casually when I was young and started playing in bands when I was a teenager. I’ve played and toured in a couple bands I’ve written songs for, or in friends’ bands in more supportive roles.”
“I think I started playing music because of the space I saw music performance opening up for people. I was a relatively shy and emotionally repressed young person, and I think despite the fact I would not have actively thought this at the time, I was attracted to the idea that people could get on stage and be allowed a little area and time to be incredibly emotionally forthright and confronting. Often to an obnoxious degree in a lot of cases with the music I was listening to as a twelve year old, and seemingly without really ever upsetting or scaring anyone! It was also just a fun thing to occupy me and my little friends’ time of course.”
Woods is set to release his debut album in December.
WHAT is the inspiration behind first single Lozenge?
“Funnily enough Lozenge is a song I wrote in a clinic I was in during a drug trial I did to fund the album it features on. I wrote it during a period in which I started feeling increasingly alienated by the city I have spent my whole life living in, but was too stubborn at the time to allow myself the time to grieve the things I needed to when I knew there were more things in front of me I wanted to get to. Getting to them required effort and money which costs time, so that’s why I was sitting in a hospital ward with a bunch of strangers when I wrote it.”
“The song is not particularly representative of the other music I’ve written and recorded recently in terms of energy, but I think it captures pretty well that manic, running desperately 100kph into the future whilst losing your shit feeling that takes us all every once in a while.”
WHERE did he grow up?
“I’ve always lived in Christchurch, New Zealand, which as you may have noticed by my last answer I have an up and down relationship with. I think that’s more to do with me and that I’ve been here all my life than the city itself, then sometimes I’m unsure. There are a lot of talented people I love here. The music scene that I’m most often attached to is pretty insular, and often not well attended, but there’s a good couple people who give a lot of time and energy to it and make nice things happen. Maybe because it’s often pretty relaxed and not always booming it means the people playing music put a lot of care into it, rather than half-arse it just to be part of something? There’s always an element of that, but I think that might be the case to some degree… Maybe that’s effected me somehow! ”
WHY are people drawn to his music?
“I’m not sure about other people, but I can say that when I have been enjoying my music most recently! It’s because it hopefully reflects a few things I love in other people’s music. Those things are pretty much just the ability to be super minimal with things and allowing sounds space, not being afraid to be vulnerable, and mixing weird sounds with really basic nice melodies.”
WHEN can I see him live?
“I’ve just finished a tour of New Zealand recently. I’m opening for another NZ band TINY RUINS this month. Am hoping to play as much as I can over the summer period here and get around as far as I can.”
HOW can I get to know him better?
Listen & Watch: Soundcloud // Spotify // Bandcamp // Youtube
Follow: Facebook
The Five Ws of 