A Conversation with Ben Root
01.08.24
We sat down with Seattle-based musician Ben Root to discuss his newest single, his forthcoming album, and his creative process.
Ben Root is Taking a Surgical Approach
By: Brenden Whiteley
Ben Root, the 22-year-old Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist, is beginning the rollout of his third full-length album, “Surgical Approach.” This album is the long-awaited follow-up to his pair of 2019 releases titled “Various Sports” and “The Hits”, both albums recorded with only a four track cassette recorder, a single microphone and an iPad. However, in the four years since his last album was released, Root has been anything but dormant. With a number of features and credits on “4st Spiral thru the Dream Dimension,” a recent release from his close friend and frequent collaborator Caspian Coberly, as well as performing his own work and in the live band for Caspian Coberly. Needless to say, there has been no shortage of music coming from the artist.
“Surgical Approach,” has been three years in the making. It is a collection of songs made starting in 2020, which has been collectively updated and fleshed out in the years since. People familiar with Root’s work will recognize the emphasis on emotional, chaotic instrumentation. “Baby Where Are You,” the first single from this project, comes in swinging. The track feels like a love letter to late ‘70s punk, with the underpinnings of a pop ballad. The vocals are engulfed in layers upon layers of guitar and bass, with aggressive, punk-inspired drums punctuating every line. The single is paired with “The Aftermath II,” an ambient, foreboding track that would feel at home as the soundtrack to a suspenseful scene in a sci-fi movie. This pack of songs is the first of multiple double singles slated to lead up to the release of “Surgical Approach”. Fans can also look forward to a music video for “Baby Where Are You,” with more videos planned for the coming singles.
Last week Ben and I got on a call to talk about the new music, “Surgical Approach” and his creative process as a whole.
Brenden: It's been a while since we last spoke, man. How are you doing? How are you feeling about everything?
Ben: [Laughs] It has been a while. I think it was probably 2020 the last time we saw each other.
Brenden: Yeah, there was that show on Beacon Hill. Right before COVID. You and Caspian Coberly did stand up for the first half of your set.
Ben: Yeah, that was pretty insane. That was definitely a fun experience. At that point Caspian and I were doing a lot of split sets — both performing stuff from our first couple of albums. I had my first two mixtapes out at the time, recorded them both with an iPad and a 4-track. And since then we collaborated on the “4st Spiral” LP. I'm not sure if you've listened to that album, but Caspian's previous record.
Brenden: [Laughs] I have, “First Castle We Built” is one of my favorite songs that you guys have done.
Ben: Oh, dude, right on. Thank you. So we worked on that and then were invited to go on a West Coast tour in 2022, performing that material. Since then I've just been steadily working on my new record. It's called “Surgical Approach.” I've played all the instruments and it's very ‘70s punk inspired. But yeah, Caspian just released a new record. We've been performing in promotion of that. And yeah, now just getting ready to release “Surgical Approach.” Got the first single coming out.
Brenden: Very exciting. I've been watching some of the videos of the “Texas Sex” shows. It's been really cool to see. So for people who don't know about you yet — how long have you been making music for? And where did you learn to play all the instruments?
Ben: I started off as a cellist because I come from a classical background. I got heavily into rock music when I was around 12 and started writing songs around the same time. Then when I was 15, that's when I really started recording a lot. I picked up the bass at that point, which translated really well from the cello. That's been my main instrument for performing live. I've been steadily recording and performing since then.
Brenden: Would you say that the cello roots have been helpful in terms of quickly picking up other stringed instruments like bass and guitar?
Ben: Yeah, absolutely. The cello has a very similar range to the human voice, so it's very expressive in that sense. I find they all really translate to each other super well.
Brenden: Would you say that growing up and playing cello and doing classical music kind of set you up to be more interested in music? Like learning the theory behind it?
Ben: Maybe, less so on the theory side of things, but I think studying classical music when I was younger really influenced my melodic intuition. When I’m soloing, for example, a lot of the melodies that are in my head come from classical music. That was ingrained in me from when I was a kid.
Brenden: Okay, that makes sense. The first time we met was back in 2018 at a show that Ryan and Jack and I were doing in Redmond. I don't think we'd ever spoken before, but during the Sunray Arsenal set, you and Caspian got on stage and you were dancing around and doing like — casting spells on the crowd and shit. Your music has obviously changed a lot since back then, but you've always had a really strong stage presence. Where would you say you learned to do that and like how do you get comfortable in front of an audience?
Ben: Good question. Yeah, that was fun. We were just really young, having fun. Just messing around. I've always been a very active kid, skateboarding and just doing stunts and I was super into punk rock. I don't know if you're a fan of the Bad Brains, but H.R. is a huge influence. I don't think I could replicate what he does, but his stage presence is phenomenal. So kind of just looking up to dudes like that and this energy I've always had inside me. I think I was able to develop it more the more I played.
Brenden: Totally. Awesome. And you’ve got a single coming out this week. What should we expect from it? What kind of sound are you going for with these new releases?
Ben: The new record is very ‘70s punk inspired. The first single is called “Baby Where Are You,” and the B side is “The Aftermath II.” “Baby Where Are You” is a very raw, catchy rock and roll song. Kind of similar to — let's say Richard Hell or The Wipers, I would compare it to them in a sense. I play all the instruments on it, as well as all the vocals, and I recorded it myself. I did invite Caspian to do some backing vocals on that one as well. I freestyled the chords and just did it very, very quickly, so it captures that kind of raw energy that I love about 70’s punk. “The Aftermath II” is a very heavy synth composition recorded to tape. Also very spontaneous, very impromptu, which is similar for most songs on the record, to capture that raw energy. The record has a loose medical theme to it. I kind of visualize “The Aftermath II” as being like the soundtrack in the ICU, after the heart rate monitor stops beeping and that's that. It has a very cinematic feel to it.
Brenden: That's exciting to hear. When did you start working on the single?
Ben: The album was all recorded pretty sporadically in many different locations. I pressed record on my tape player a long time ago, probably like 2020 and just freestyled those chords. Just one take. I took that base of the song and fleshed it out later, in 2022 I'd say and recorded it all in an apartment. So it's been a long time in the making, just kind of building off of things. The recording of this whole album has definitely been very sporadic and since it's so spur of the moment with a lot of the tracks, it was kind of just like whenever inspiration hit. It all kind of follows the same theme, but there was no guarantee in the moment that I was going to tap in with that theme.
Brenden: Yeah, so it wasn't as conscious of a thing where you think, “I'm making a song for the album.” It was more like - I have this idea. Let me get it down.
Ben: Yeah, and then it eventually formed a complete feeling, I think.
Brenden: That's good, that's a really good way to do it. A very natural progression. For the singles, you said you illustrated the cover. Is that going to be a common thread across the subsequent singles?
Ben: Yeah, yeah. They'll all be done by hand. They all kind of follow the same theme. I drew a few logos I'm using for the album. I’m keeping that common theme and the album cover will be a further development of that, also done by hand. Tying them all together that way.
Brenden: That'll be really cool to see. Is there anything that you would want people to know about the first single? Like a good preface for it?
Ben: I mean, I guess I was just really trying to harness what I love about raw rock and roll music and to add somewhat of a live feel to it. I would say this one's very emotionally charged. It almost has some Orwellian themes sprinkled throughout the lyrics, which I've been told by other people. Which I think is cool. I didn't really think of that.
Brenden: Super interesting. You also said it's got kind of a medical theme, like an urgency to it.
Ben: Yeah. Originally, I came up with the concept of “Surgical Approach” and I wanted to do a concept album. I loosely stuck to that, or was inspired by that, but ended up making whatever I felt in the moment. There are some scientific or medical themes sprinkled throughout and I do rely on some of those aesthetics for the art. But it's really just a testament to late 70s rock and roll.
Brenden: Sweet. Why did you choose to do “Baby Where Are You” as the single and then have the B side be “The Aftermath II?” Was there thought put into the ordering of them?
Ben: I think “Baby Where Are You” is one of the more catchy tracks on the album. It follows a pop structure. It's something I saw people resonating with and I wanted to create polarity between the “poppy” rock and roll of the A side and the B side. “The Aftermath II” is fully a synth composition. It's very intense, very tapey. I feel like they go hand in hand, but they are also so polarized, they're so different.
Brenden: So it's kind of like the aftermath of “Baby Where Are You.”
Ben: I guess so, yeah. It's definitely ambient. Very noisy and intense, for sure.
Brenden: “Baby Where Are You,” the first song in the pair, really builds up throughout and ends with a pretty intense guitar solo. You said earlier that you freestyled the chords. Was that solo also a freestyle?
Ben: Yeah, the solo was freestyle. I did it in a few takes. I was listening to a lot of James Williamson's guitar work at the time, I can definitely see that influence bleeding through. I wanted to keep it very loose and capture that emotional feeling on the tape.
Brenden: Yeah, it definitely did that. It's a very urgent or impending-feeling solo. Maybe it's because I haven't listened to enough 70s punk to really pick out the pieces that inspired it, but to me the song really does have a distinct “Ben Root” sound to it. Especially on the guitar and the bass. Obviously it's a progression from your past music, but it still has that distinct sound that I think people will recognize. Is that something you think about when you're making music, trying to put your own style in it? Or does that occur more naturally, as you pull from a mix of classical and rock roots and inspirations?
Ben: I think it's really cool that you notice that. I generally stick to what I know and I think all of my music, in the end, sounds like me. I'm not afraid to channel my influences as well, but the way I make music just sounds like me. So, typically, it will end up having that signature style. [Laughs] Or at least I hope so. I can definitely tell the difference between a recording that feels very genuine to me — Where I’ve captured the feeling that I wanted to capture. I feel like this one really sounds authentic to what I was trying to achieve at the time.
Brenden: It definitely accomplishes it too, especially with the themes we talked about earlier with the medical or ICU urgency to it. Something else I noticed is that both songs sound really good on a nice set of speakers. Even with the relatively chaotic ending of “Baby Where Are You,” and with “The Aftermath II” being a generally chaotic or noisy song, every sound is distinct. That can't be easy to achieve with all the analog equipment that you use. What was the mixing and mastering process like on this one?
Ben: I actually recorded most of “Baby Where Are You” with my iPad and four track and then did some mixing on the computer. I mixed it all myself, mastered “Baby Where Are You” myself. Caspian has a subtle harmony during the first or second line. For “The Aftermath II” Caspian did me a favor and mastered that song. I think he did an excellent job. The bass really comes through. “The Aftermath II” was almost mixed as I recorded it because I recorded it live to my four track, so I was mixing faders in and out as I mixed it.Then Caspian put those final touches on the record.
Brenden: It does a really good job of making it a multi dimensional listening experience. Did you use any special equipment to make “The Aftermath II?”
Ben: I used a digital version of the Mellotron. I love that string sound, I use it all the time. I used the Roland SH 01A, which is a remake of the 101 from the ‘80s. I generated some synth sounds on my iPad and actually sampled a recording of Slavoj Zizek, a lecture of his, which is the kind of demonic vocal you can hear in the background.
Brenden: Got it. The lyrics and vocals on “Baby Where Are You” really help add to that urgency of the track. I've noticed you use your voice to accentuate the instrumentation. Where would you say that you learned to write music and what musicians or other pieces of media might inspire you in terms of lyrics and the way that you add vocals?
Ben: I learned to write music by trial and error. I’ve always had a good intuition for melody. I learned a lot by recording, a lot of my early songs when I was about 14 or 15 were just acoustic guitar recorded to a four track and then I'd pound out a rhythm track on a guitar case or something similar, or use a drum machine. Then I slowly progressed from there and began recording songs with the full assembly of rock instruments, drums, bass, guitar. The recording process definitely developed my songwriting more than anything and just being really into pop music, listening to a lot of music.
Brenden: It definitely has that pop progression to it. The way that the vocals sit adds to the controlled chaos of everything. Instead of just having it sit on top of the instrumentation, it's blended in and it's more a part of the whole.
Ben: Yeah, that was definitely intentional.
Brenden: Would you say that that's something that you picked up because you learned to write as you learned to record so it mentally is part of the same procedure?
Ben: Totally. Every song's different. In many cases it's good to mix to the song and this song called for a vocal that was more buried in the mix, because the track's so noisy. I wanted to keep this powerful wall of sound.
Brenden: We were talking about how “Surgical Approach” has a cinematic feel, or a storyline to it. What part of that story would you say that “Baby Where Are You” and “The Aftermath II” are?
Ben: I had some pretty lofty goals, or lofty ideas about what I wanted “Surgical Approach” to be. Initially I thought about making a cartoon based around this story of doctors and surgeons in the hospital and combining a lot of those scientific aesthetics that I think are really cool. I initially thought that “The Aftermath II” would be a great portion of a soundtrack.I think you can definitely tell by listening to the recording. But as I made the album, it really came down to just capturing the best performance I could and focusing more on just making great songs. So, “Baby Where Are You” doesn't hold a crucial part of that narrative. I would say it's mostly an emotionally charged rock song. It’s a personal song. It follows the narrative of a relationship coming to an end and, as I mentioned, some of the lyrics feature Orwellian imagery, or so I've been told by other people. It adds to that futuristic feel that I like a lot.
Brenden: I can definitely see the soundtrack-esque style of “The Aftermath II” for sure too, where it feels like that critical moment — or after the critical moment in the ICU. Flatlined, kind of like it's the aftermath of an event like that.
Ben: Exactly. That was what I was picturing after I recorded it. That was one of the first tracks I did for the album. I still had this grand sense of making a very cinematic album that would lend itself well to being a soundtrack, but took a different direction as I continued to make it.
Brenden: It's definitely cool to see the bones of the original idea remaining in the final cut, even if it's taken a different route throughout the process of making the rest of the album. I'm excited to listen. What have you been listening to recently?
Ben: I've been tapping back in with a lot of classical music. I love Vivaldi and Haydn and I just discovered this Polish composer Penderecki. A lot of violin concertos. It really informs my sense of melody so I gravitate towards that stuff. Other than that, a lot of my bread and butter, punk rock, like the Buzzcocks, the Wipers.
Brenden: Do you have a favorite song that you've ever made or been part of making?
Ben: Hmm. I’m super proud of “Version of Future” from my first mixtape. I just really like the way I captured that performance. I'm super proud of “Samurai in a Grass Hat,” a song I did with Caspian. We just put that out on the 4st EP actually. I wrote and played the guitar riff. It's a guitar part that I'm proud of for sure.
Brenden: I really like that one too. My favorite song of yours is “Are You Gonna Carry Me Home.” That's one I revisit a lot.
Ben: Right on dude, I appreciate it.
Brenden: Speaking of “Samurai in a Grass Hat,” your relationship with Caspian has always been really fun to watch, especially with all of the collaborations you guys do. Like we were talking about earlier, but that show you guys did in Beacon Hill a few years back, where that first set was essentially stand up, you guys joking around with the audience. Do you think that this personal chemistry kind of helps you guys mesh better when you work together?
Ben: Totally. I mean, yeah, we learned how to record rock music together. I would say we've really influenced each other in terms of style. I think the chemistry between us is, yeah, it's crucial. It just comes down to us being really good friends.
Brenden: Awesome. Do you have any live shows coming up? Are you gonna be doing anything like that for the release of your album?
Ben: We plan on playing in Portland pretty soon. I don't have shows slotted for “Surgical Approach” quite yet, but I will be playing at some DIY venues in Seattle and really getting that rolling once a few of the singles are out.
Brenden: Awesome man, we’d love to see you come up to Bellingham for one of them. And then it might be a bit soon to ask, what with your new single dropping next week and then the album later this year, but what's next for you musically? Are you gonna be kinda sitting on this album for a bit, doing the rounds to tour for it? Or are you gonna be working on new stuff after.
Ben: I have some of the material written for another record following “Surgical Approach,” but I'm mainly focused on the single rollout right now. I'll be putting out a series of double singles in promotion of “Surgical Approach” and then I’ll drop the full LP later in 2024.
Brenden: Okay cool. I ask because in the past you put out “Various Sports” and “The Hits” in the same year, right?
Ben: Yeah, that was a lot of fun. It was almost a double album.
Brenden: How long is “Surgical Approach” looking to be? Like how many tracks?
Ben: I think it's somewhere between 12 and 13 tracks. A full LP for sure.
Brenden: Okay, nice. That's a solid number. Kind of a fun rapid fire question: What are the five best things? It could be anything,concepts too, It doesn't have to be physical things.
Ben: [Laughs] I'll try to make it rapid fire, but let me think. I love learning about microbiology and neuroscience. Any sort of science on a microscopic level. Something I'm very passionate about for sure. I'm a big fan of matcha. That's something that gets me going everyday. I'll say Kraftwerk. Great band. Been listening to them a lot. Dogs. Very inspirational creature for sure. That was four, right?
Brenden: That's four, yeah.
Ben: Four. I guess number five would be just building strong relationships with people that you care about. Getting inspired.
Brenden: Definitely, super important. Very solid top five. It's always fun to see where someone's gut reaction takes them with that question. Now that you've got the album coming out, are you planning on any videos for that album?
Ben: Yeah, I'm actually filming a video for “Baby Where Are You” this month, it will be out shortly after the single's out. I want to really try to capture the raw energy of that track and incorporate themes of ‘70s culture and ‘70s skateboarding, to be honest. I definitely will do more videos corresponding with each double single, but that's the one definite video that I have scheduled right now.
Brenden: That'll be cool. You're living in Seattle right now, right? Do you think that living there influences the way you make music? Being a place just steeped in music history, especially rock.
Ben: Honestly, if I had to choose one aspect of living here that influences my music, it would be, like, the nature. I've just drawn a lot of inspiration from the geography and just being in the beautiful nature of Washington State.
Brenden: You ever pop over to the Arboretum?
Ben: All the time, man.
Brenden: Hell yeah. Such a nice place for a walk. Outside of music do you have any other creative pursuits that you're really interested in?
Ben: I've always been drawing, doing illustrations. As we talked about earlier, I did the text by hand for the cover art for the new single. The album cover is also a combination of text and drawings I've done in ink. And the “4st Spiral” EP, I did the illustration for that too. So I've always been doing ink drawings and stuff like that to accompany the music. That's a huge part of it for sure.
Brenden: Do you use fountain pens, or?
Ben: I use pens that are typically used for manga and comic book illustrations, like a lot of the micron pens. I guess they'd be felt tips.
Brenden: Okay, that's super cool. I still have a “Smiling Wolf” shirt. It was you who did those, yeah?
Ben: No way, awesome. Yeah, that was me. I actually had a friend do the text for that, but I printed those myself. Very, very DIY. I will be doing more merch for the new album. All hand drawn by me. I'll have somebody else print it for me this time.
Brenden: Okay, super cool. I feel like merch is kind of becoming the best way to make money off of music. Both for the buyer and the artist. It's very permanent. Whereas, with selling digital albums, it can totally be lost to the sands of time. It's not something tangible, but with merch, or physical albums, you get a ton of use out of it. I’ve worn that shirt a ton of times.
Ben: Dude, awesome, yeah. You're totally right about that. I think that's crucial. I've always been a fan of vinyl. I'm a little more selective with which vinyl I collect though. I mean, I love using Spotify. I love the accessibility, but with physical stuff, there's really a tangible value to that. So that's why I think it's really cool to put out cassettes and records and CDs. And you know, just have that physical product.
Brenden: Yeah. I feel like vinyl is kind of the ultimate in that because, I mean, it's one of the oldest forms of recorded audio. Due to hobbyists it's always gonna be around. You can always use it.
Ben: Totally, yeah.
Brenden: Well, cool man. Thanks for making the time to talk with us, we’re very excited for the new singles and the album later this year. Hopefully we can get a show up here in Bellingham to see it in person.
