Interview: Gracenotes Magazine

A conversation with singer/songwriter Grace Angelique about different approaches to writing music, early influences, live performance, accessible vs challenging music and more. From March 2024.

Read the full interview here.

Excerpt

Describing his multifaceted approach to music creation, Ben explained, "A lot of the stuff I do is notated, written out so other people can perform it, but I also improvise on piano or make stuff on Logic, using samples or recording myself playing instruments or whatever I can find around the house. I like not feeling too tied to one way of making music. I’m not a good singer, but I sing, hum and vocalise things to myself all the time when I write as that feels like the most direct way of communicating an idea. It’s funny because a lot of my music tends to sound complex but it always comes from this simple, intuitive place of singing and improvising - all kind of based in the body."

"I mix electronic sounds with acoustic instruments a lot; there’s all kinds of strange hybrid textures you can make by combining the two that fascinate me. There’s that term in robotics - ‘the uncanny valley’ - where something appears almost human but is eerily just off, evoking this weird mix of horror/revulsion and attraction. I like applying that in a music context, where the distinction between the human sounds and the non-human sounds are so intertwined that it’s disarming and kind of mesmerising at the same time. That’s the effect I was going for in pieces like ‘SERENITY 2.0’ and ‘Tell me again’."

Transitioning to the influence of other artists and genres on his music, Ben reflected on his diverse musical upbringing. "I think like most people my age I grew up listening to bits of everything - I was really obsessed with Debussy, John Coltrane, Steve Reich, electronic artists like Aphex Twin, bands like Deerhoof - but when I got to university to study music, I had this feeling that certain things weren’t allowed, like I had to suppress certain parts of myself to be a ‘serious’ composer. But that’s so silly! I think my whole approach since then has been to allow myself the freedom to do whatever I want, letting the music go wherever it wants to go. I like thinking of music as this virtual environment where you can make impossible things happen, a bit like in The Matrix, like a simulated playground where you can move beyond everyday physics, combine things that shouldn’t be combined together - like a really vibrant lucid dream."

“I like the idea that you can throw a bunch of new, unfamiliar music at someone and as long as there’s one element in there that they can relate to, they’ll find it engaging enough to keep listening. It’s finding that perfect balance between challenging and accessible. I love that feeling of hearing something new and being so excited, like just when you thought you’d heard everything, suddenly it’s like a door opens and everything and anything feels possible again. That feeling of wonder, like hearing music with a renewed joy; I’m always trying to chase that."