"Time to go" in Ben's words....
“"Time To Go" is about my relationship with music and my musical journey”, Ben says. “Each track on the EP has a special meaning to me, from Castles – which was one of the earliest songs I wrote, to Funfair which is a look back on the last 2 years where I decided to leave full time work and focus on my music.”. Explore below to learn more about each of the songs and to hear a little of each one.
Castles – this is one of my early songs. Originally it was called “Castles in the Sand”, and a friend Christopher O’Leary helped me with the initial arrangement. The song has evolved into what it is now with the help of my producer Thomas Keating.
I got the initial idea sat in the coffee shop at work, back in 2018 – it was one of those days when you could bring your children into the office and across the room from me, a lady sat with her young son. Every so often, someone she knew would come along and she would need to talk work and yet all she really wanted to do was play with her son. It got me thinking about how much women sacrifice and how much my own wife does for me and our two sons. This song is a little dedication to my wife.
Time to Go is the title track of the EP. The song is all about those times when what makes sense and what you are passionate about don't align. I've felt like that a lot over the last couple of years as I've looked to find the balance between music, corporate life.... lots of different things. In many ways I draw parallels to being in a long distance relationship as I was when I first met my wife - you know you're in love but its always someone's turn to leave.
Memories - "Memories" is a reaction to the over-planned time tabled world we can all find ourselves in, when we miss the meaning by rushing to the next moment.
I wrote the song for a friend’s EP launch, I’d promised to play some new material when I opened her show, but on the Monday before the show I didn’t have anything written. All week things got in my way – a friend called me because they needed help, then my son got sick and needed looking after – it got to Thursday and I suddenly realised that I’d had a great week without realising it and just doing the right thing had been the best thing I could’ve done – then I wrote the song!
This was fun to write! Funfair is all about my journey leaving the corporate world to focus on my music, start a music degree and generally follow my passion. Its been a roller coaster, and at times I’ve felt completely out of control – the only thing that’s kept me going at times has been pride and the fact that I felt I couldn’t let down the people closest to me who have believed in me so much – in short, I thought the whole experience would be like playing on all my favourite rides at the funfair all the time but in actual fact, self-doubt can be a real downer! The song talks about dealing with jokes from friends, how wonderful it feels when you do what you love, how we constantly question why on earth we thought we were good enough to succeed at our chosen path, the belief my family has shown in me –and then (finally!) at the end I say thank you. Its quite the journey!
Choosing Hurt almost didn’t make the EP as it’s a little different in theme. I wrote it about a friend of mine who was going through a tough time – Its about knowing when its time to walk away from a bad situation. However, when I sang it in the studio with Tom my producer doodling on my guitar it just had a really nice vibe and seemed to fit with the rest of the EP, so we decided to add it in. I'm pleased we did, it rounds off the EP so well!
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