We grabbed a chat with singer / songwriter Benjamin before his gig with James Morrison for the iTunes festival tomorrow...
Hi! So are you excited about doing the iTunes Fest?
Course. It should be great! It’ll be really nice to play at a really famous venue like The Roundhouse; I’ve always wanted to play there.
Any other dream places you’d like to play?
I’ve played at Union Chapel once before and that was amazing and I’ve got my own show there in October so I’m really excited.
What about festivals, have you been doing the trail this summer?
Massively. Glastonbury was obviously a high but Lounge On The Farm was my fave. Then I played Secret Garden and Leeds, and I’ve got about 10 or 15 more festivals coming up! It’s busy...
What’s your most memorable festival experience?
It’s got to be Leeds Festival, when I was 16! I got there, had a drink, and then woke up about 20 hours later in someone else’s tent! I freaked out because I didn’t know what happened and I wasn’t even drunk! I blame food poisoning!
So do you camp or do you rock star it out at a hotel?
I love camping, though quite often we’re just running in and out of a festival in a day. I last camped at Glastonbury this year - the vibe there is fab.
The new album ‘Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm’ is out now - how did you come up with the name?
It’s a reference to the moment of being chilled before everything happens – like while I was making the record and recording and doing my thing it was sooo calm and then putting it out there and it’s mental.
You’ve been getting some big fans on the radio, Dermot’s been bigging you up on Radio 2, is it important to you to have that kind of following?
Obviously I’m pleased that people enjoy it - especially Greg James - the support from the BBC has been amazing!
How did you celebrate the day of the album’s release?
I had to do an industry gig at Soho House and had a few beers and had a day off. I did use the first pay check to buy some new jeans, and an amazing pair of Nike Airs, nothing too big
Wow such modesty! Good luck for tomorrow - we look forward to seeing the trainers on stage.
Benjamin’s critically acclaimed debut album ‘Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm’ is out now. His second single Atlas Hands will be released by Dirty Hit on September 4th with Ben’s headline UK tour starting on September 30th in Stockton.
Words by Heledd Williams
