Now This Will Always Be For You.

Hi, my name is Ben and I am as green as I am cabbage-looking.

It's almost (finally) upon us. Me. 'Us' if you, dear reader, care, I guess. In around twenty-seven hours' time, Always Choose In Person is going to hit the mean streets for your approval. I'm feeling kind of mixed emotions right now - as I've said before, this is the first time that I've ever intentionally wedged in a delay between finishing an album and releasing it, so I'm going through a mixture of excitement and a certain amount of relief. Of course, even if you discount the near-year it's taken me to go from writing the first ideas for Big Enough & Ugly Enough to eventually finalising the completed masters, I've still got a good six week's head start on all of you in listening to the album. The way I listen to my own music over time changes, as does how I appreciate each song - over the last six weeks I've gone through the stages of being intensely excited, listening to the entire album through; then picking out inevitable favourite tracks that I listened to to death; now I'm settling into the lovely final zone of being back in a place where I can appreciate all of the songs equally as parts of an album that I'm really proud of and as musical achievements on their own.

People who've listened to the first three songs online, or pre-ordered the album, have all been so kind about what they've heard - the tracks that have been made available so far are among the more energetic, upbeat songs on the album, maybe giving a slightly skewed preview of the whole, but we'll see by what people have to say over the weekend and beyond, I guess.

In an interview for Roy Grimes' show on The Voice FM this week, we talked about any meaning or theme behind the album as a whole, which I hadn't really thought about up until then. I think the answers I gave were pretty accurate, though - the album is, loosely, about what it means to communicate with other people. Whether that's relearning how to talk to people face-to-face in a world where electronic communication has insidiously taken over, or what it means to suddenly decide to take a deep breath and be completely honest with people about how you feel.

I'm probably going to hate what I'm about to say, but here we go: the new album reflects the way I'm feeling more mature within myself. Ugh. I'm not sure when 'feeling mature' happened, but when I think back to everything that has bugged me at various points over the last, say, ten years (shit), I really feel like I've got more of an understanding of what's important and what isn't. I think who I am, who I want to be, and who I need to be are all falling into focus in the same place and overall, I think that's what the album represents.

That's right now, at least - I'm sure one day I'll look back and just appreciate the album for the wicked-cool solos and righteous synth lines.

For everyone who's kind of a bit closer to home, the launch party is going to be a lot of fun. If you think you might fancy it even a little bit, come and say hi. We're going to have an awesome time at Shintori on Saturday from about 9pm.

YOU ARE UPDATE!

- Ben

Always Choose In Person

Hi, my name is Ben and my blood is the main ingredient in Monster.

Before you do anything else, watch this.

That is my good friend Frank officially announcing, in his own inimitable way, the launch of Always Choose In Person, my third 'solo' studio album. I've harped on enough about the process of recording it over the last few months and the, like, five people who read this blog will already be aware of how excited I am - but I really am.

The few people who have heard bits and pieces from Always Choose In Person already have had a lot of very nice things to say about its songs. A couple of my friends have described it as 'Hollowpoint 2012', which is a bit weird, but I appreciate the sentiment - I certainly feel like a lot of the pop-punk elements that I grew up playing have wormed their way back into my writing and to be fair, the process of actively writing the songs with more of Joe and Frank's input (at least, a lot more than on the last two records) has meant that it basically is, as Joe put it, "Hollowpoint, but with you singing all of it. You bastard". I'm not sure how much you'd agree with the comparison, but I guess it does kind of feel like if we were still writing as a band now, what we'd be writing might not be too far off Always Choose In Person.

If you've read this far on, then I'm guessing you don't mind being bored to tears by my thought process, so here's another nugget for you: the album name. Over the last few months, I've made a few choices throughout every aspect of my life that have led me to the decision that pretty much everything is better in person. In a world of wondering why someone hasn't e-mailed you back, or what exactly someone meant by a text message, it's easy to forget that we can actually talk to people and it tends to be the best way of doing things. You need to be brave and you'll probably spend your fair amount of time in freezing train stations (metaphorically speaking), but the good eventually outweighs the bad. If you're given a choice in how best to deal with a situation, or a friend, or a complete stranger, always choose 'in person'.

Over the next few weeks, I might throw up blog posts about some of the individual songs, if I can think of a way to get any thoughts, feelings, or recording memories to sound interesting. For now, there are a few things you can do to get into the Always Choose In Person mood:

Firstly and most importantly, pre-ordering the album at www.benjionelung.com will give you an immediate download of the first three songs (which are great, trust me), whether you choose to pre-order just the digital download, or the physical CD. I want you to own the CD. Of course, it's all about the music and at the end of the day it doesn't make too much difference how you choose to pump it into your ears, but there's something about owning a physical CD of my album, about kicking it around the footwell of your car, about lending it to a friend, about using it as an attractive coaster, that really appeals to me. To try and drive this point home in a slightly more capitalist way, if you pre-order the album for the minimum amount, I will make more money if you buy the digital album - I want you to buy the CD instead. You'll also get all the usual bonus track goodness, a personalised message and a load of other junk if you pre-order the CD, so it's kind of a good choice.

Secondly, I've designed a load of new Benji One Lung t-shirts for you to use in showing your friends exactly how cool you are. Again, I would be flattered just to have people wearing these, so you can buy them at pretty much cost price by going to the Benji One Lung Store.

Thirdly, if you haven't already, then check out the video I made of me miming along to another song from the album (it's a slightly older mix than the final, release version, but I'm pretty sure you won't be able to tell). You can listen to the song while you watch it here.

Finally, I'm pleased to announce that the lucky(ish) winners of the draw for a CD copy of the album are:

Chaundra Nelms
John Stribley
Ant Russell
Nerys Nichols
Karen Barton

You guys are all awesome and I'll drop you a line soon to sort out delivery - thanks to everyone else who entered, too; you are all pretty cool.

The official album launch is Saturday 19th May - the album goes on sale in its entirety at midnight and then that evening, we're going to party the shit out of Shintori. I don't know how clear I can make this, but I mean party, not just gig - we're going to have an awesome time actually celebrating the release, not just sitting around being polite and watching me bust out a few awesome songs (I'll probably do that too though). Everything will kick off at around 9pm in Shintori Bar, Barnstaple - if you're of the Facebook persuasion, you can get the rest of the details here.

I hope I see you there, random anonymous reader - it's going to be an awesome night. Pre-order Always Choose In Person and let me know what you think.

YOU ARE UPDATE!

- Ben

We'll Leave For You This Life we Wrote, A Gift of Ones and Ohs

Hi, my name is Ben and all of my internal organs are back-to-front.

Well, that's it. Not to get all in media res on your ass, but the album's recorded, mixed, mastered - it's finished. The last two days of studio work for it have been the most fitting ending to what is going to be the last album I record at the Big Green Door Studio (in its current incarnation); what with Luke moving away, it'll be a while before we can get together to do any sort of recording and as he put it, this album feels like the end of an era.

Over the last few weeks' recording process with Luke, Joe and Frank, there've been several 'we've had some good times, eh boys?' moments when we've thought about exactly what we've accomplished over the last few years' recording music in Woolsery. Although Luke obviously has the most memories out of all of us, and as Severezerø the rest of the guys have their collective own, personally I've spent some of my most fun times in that little green-doored outbuilding. I remember the very first time meeting Luke and recording Hollowpoint songs with Joe and Frank; how many times we went back for one-song-in-one-day sessions, recording as we wrote them. I remember settling in for a week at a time to record the two full Hollowpoint albums with Toby drumming and starting to feel like we were getting good at recording, like we'd found our rhythm. One of my favourite memories of all is the week we spent recording Halley's Apparition - Joe, Luke and I have often talked about how much that time can't be described fully to people who weren't there (although I'd like to think that some of the joy and friendship that was borne of that album made it onto the recording); I think that was probably the week where Luke finally made the transition from 'friend in the studio' to being one of my best friends, full stop.

Then, Luke stole my drummer and took my bassist, which brings us to the Benji One Lung solo period. It seems strange to describe it as 'solo', though, when one of the biggest, most important pleasures of making music is the amount of people that can be brought together by it. Joe, Frank, Luke, Toby, Kez Symes, Sam Ratcliffe, Pete Buffery, Sam Brown, Stuart Brewer, Tom Hitchins, Jackie Gibbins, Ellie Campbell, Stuart Hossack, Ronnie Reynolds... these people are my family and friends and have all laid down their immense talents in various forms. Our friendship (and on certain projects, simply trust) has let us transcend recording music just because that's 'what you're supposed to do' and revel in being able to record a passable white-boy rap track, in writing and producing a Christmas song that we went on to place as a jewel in Barnstaple's Christmas lights switch-on performance, even in writing, producing and recording an entire eight-track EP from scratch in one day.

A good chunk of who I am today is as a result of the time I've spent recording at the Big Green Door Studio. The more I write this, the more I realise I could pen an entire book about our experiences there and I'd still be no closer to putting across exactly how I feel about it - the time we got super-drunk of crates of cider, the time Luke got so tired he started throwing juice cartons around the control room for no reason, the Mr. Driller conspiracy and Stanley the cow... I cannot do it justice.

If a picture is worth 1000 words, we're going to need a lot more pictures.

As well as all of the non-musical memories, we actually got pretty good at making music too - we've learned and relearned so much about our art over the last few years; not least how to work well under pressure from time. In the spirit of 'you are the sum of everything that you've been before', this weekend definitely drew on this and more. After having spent countess hours over the years learning how to lay down perfect and emotional choral harmonies, Luke and I knew that this album didn't need many at all; after finding out how to work five or six synths into a song with perfect effect, we could hear these songs insisting they didn't want them; after working to do the impossible in terms of fitting twenty hours of work into eight, we now weren't even conscious that our work rate let us comfortably take time out in the middle of the most hectic day to go and see Luke's folks (Bill and Sue are lovely people, by the way).

There isn't really a lot to tell about the musical aspects of finishing the album that would either make sense in writing or add any insight into the finished album - we got our snacks in, we loaded up on Emerge! and we got to work. I played some guitar, sang some harmonies, Luke programmed in some synths. I think a 'compressor' was involved somewhere along the line, but ask Luke if you want the technical details - actually do, he'll love that. Whoever I make music with, a recording very often ends up with me and Luke sitting at the desk on the final straight, checking mixes and mastering. We talk a lot of shit, a lot of the time, but this is exactly how our friendship has been formed - I don't think either of us realised exactly how much we're going to miss it until it came down to the wire. In how we chatted and the things we talked about, there was definitely an air of 'fuckfuckfuck this is our last time here', that this album was our own full stop on the Big Green Door days, but as I said to Luke, it's kind of the same as moving house when you're a small child. Moving away from everything you've known and loved is the absolute end of the world, until you settle in to your new home.

With this new album, I feel triumphant, proud and just generally happy. It's the music I'm most excited about ever having recorded and I can't wait for you to hear it. It's the perfect way to end these chapters of my musical life, but, in my own ego-filled words, 'like I said before, please don't mistake this for the end'. Luke will find a way to record in Bristol; I will record with him there some time in the future. We'll still have as fun times making music (if not better) and one day we'll look back on this bit of life not as 'remember how that all ended', but as 'remember how this all started'.

YOU ARE UPDATE!

- Ben

It Even Includes The Cold-Gel Feeling On The Stomach

Hi, my name is Ben and I dispense blueberries from my nose.

We're going to need more than one page for this.

It's the night before the weekend where we finish the album. This post shouldn't be too long, but I thought you might like an insight into what's going through my head right now:

We've got a lot to do over the next couple of days - Luke and I have chatted about the best way to approach the work we've got to get through before the album's done and we feel like it's the time in the recording process to switch from part-by-part to track-by-track. Basically we're going to sit at each song until it's done (done at least before, next week, spotting all of the things that we've missed), mixed and ready to be mastered. 

We've got extra guitar parts, vocal harmonies, synths and a whole bucketload of other little tricks to finish off before the songs are even fully recorded and that's what I've been working on over the last couple of weeks. At least, I'm supposed to have been. As far as vocal harmonies and synth parts go, those are fine; it's fairly straightforward to start hearing those as I've been listening through the songs as they stand. On the other hand, additional guitar parts need actual figuring out and practicing - which is no problem for me normally, until life slaps a hand on my shoulder and says "you have to do it now". What is normally, as you can imagine, one of the happiest and most satisfying facets of my life soon becomes a whole lot like work when I put a deadline and actual aim to it.

I'm actually in a bit of a quandry over these extra guitar parts - when I'm noodling through the tracks, there are several parts that work (and some that work so well as for it to be criminal to leave them out), but I can't decide whether my general feeling that 'less is more' is a symptom of unfortunate laziness on my part or a sign that the songs genuinely don't need any more. I don't know, but I'm kind of hoping I'll figure the answer out at some point over the next two days (although tonight would be nice).

Having possibly made this blog entry sound like I'm dreading the next two days; possibly having made them sound like a horrific ordeal of work and effort that I might not even reach the other side of, you have to believe I'm really more excited than I've been in a long time. It's been a long process writing and recording this album - in fact I was recently looking back to the blog entry from early on last year when I'd first starting writing the songs for it, which now feels like a long time ago - but it's nearly done. Not to draw too strangled a metaphor, but I've been looking at the ultrasound scans of this album, watching it develop eyes and ears for weeks, but now it's time to get the hell in with the caesarean and drag this sucker kicking and screaming into the world.

YOU ARE UPDATE!

- Ben x

Why The Hell Would You Want To Drink Bull's Blood Anyway?

Hi, my name is Ben and I'm an expert in Krav Maga.

The end of the recording process is pretty firmly in sight now. In a spectacular display of bullet-dodging, my throat managed to sort its shit out in time to record the last three main vocals yesterday, including two of the hardest songs to sing on the album. I'd like to go on record and say that Luke's invention of a cocktail, the Swiss Tony, probably had a lot to do with the last-minute recovery (you should ask him about it here), as well as a few cans of Emerge. Don't ever ask what goes into Emerge, because you probably don't want to know. Just know that it was chemical-ridden enough to get Luke and I through a very long day of recording.

I would say 'unscathed', but it did get weird.

Long days in the studio always have the potential to become a bit soul-destroying if you're not careful and to be honest, I don't know who to say has it worse: after the first hour-and-a-half's worth of recording vocals, Luke had to wade his way through a lot of technical mixing (so things like chopping up toms and making drums sound right before they can sound good) - on the other hand, I had to watch Luke do it with very little ability to have any useful input through this stage. Don't get me wrong, I am totally dedicated to my album recording, with every second spent in rapt attention to what's going on with it at every stage, but it's still pretty tough when you get to hour six of 'the back of Bondy's head'.

I should probably point out that we still have a great time together in these duller, more grinding recording days. Not only do we get chance to talk a lot of shit, but these are also the days when song 'set pieces' tend to come together. At the risk of this being an infuriatingly vague point to make, I don't really want to tell you much about the specifics of what I mean, but a few of the songs on the album have sections or ideas that in themselves are taking a lot of work to get right. I'm incredibly lucky that I can come to Luke with ideas like these and have him know, almost instinctively now, what I'm talking about doing - as well as have him suck up my woolly, unhelpful descriptions of what I'm thinking and exude more than enough patience to stay sane when an idea for a ten-second section of music ends up taking two hours to get right.

For once, I'm not referring to the time taken to record my vocals.

Where we stand so far, then, is with all of the main vocals recorded, most of the album's synths laid down and most of the boring legwork of mixing done. We're next back in the studio in a couple of weeks to lay down vocal harmonies, some secondary guitar lines and the rest of the synths; I should have a pretty much finished album after that coming weekend. Scary.

With that in mind, I've continued laying out the initial thoughts for the album release schedule and the launch party. Once a couple of the dates and venues are set in stone, I'll announce plans - I can say, though, that I do mean 'party' and not just 'gig' for the launch. This album's shaping up to be my favourite thing that I've recorded, with a writing and recording process that so far has been as fun as the end result is going to be good - the launch party is going to be the end to this process that it deserves, not just a celebration of some pretty good new music being born.

Ok, so the really interesting stuff will start happening soon - for now, I need to get back to going over these songs and figuring out what they're trying to tell me they need. With the stage they're all at, they're finished enough that my subconscious is starting to judge them as finished products - unfortunately, they're really not finished yet, so it's all too easy to start fretting about how a vocal doesn't sound right, or an instrumental section sounds empty. In this uncanny valley of recording, where the album is just close enough to being finished (without being finished) to be off-putting like an almost-human robut, it'd be easy for confidence in the recording to begin ebbing away with every listen. It's absolutely the time to keep the faith and know that it's going to be refined into a pretty cool album very soon.

YOU ARE UPDATE!

- Ben

That's one big green door

Oh, I Thought You Said 'Goat Team'

Hi, my name is Ben and I'm completely immune to sore throats and illness.

In actual fact, it would be more accurate to say I feel like shit today - I don't know whether it's just a coincidence that my throat feels like I swallowed a sharp, mucousy cheesegrater overnight after spending the day recording vocals, but if the two are related, I have to admit it seems totally worth it.

I really like recording vocals. Even though, like with playing any instrument, you kind of get good and bad days in the studio, the nice thing is that I'm pretty sure the good are starting to outnumber the bad. Coming from a person who would probably describe his singing as pretty much a 'competent vehicle for well-written songs', it's nice to think that over the last couple of years especially, I've been able to start worrying less about being able to execute what I've written without having to battle with my own voice.

Having said all that, and having now laid down most of my vocals for the album, I would humbly submit that the best part of yesterday was getting to hear Joe, Ellie and Jackie record their vocals. Joe's singing the main vocal on one song for the album, which I wrote specifically for him - there's not much I can describe properly in words about it (you'll get to hear it soon enough), but I can at least say that I'm glad that another song I've written specifically for Joe to sing is turning out exactly as I imagined it would.

On that note, we come to Go Team. This song is going to be great. Again, there's not really much that there would be any point in talking about, except to say that Joe and the girls killed it. The song kind of loosely tells the story of a great night out that we had at the end of last year and I'm very excited about it - it's going to be a bastard to mix properly (especially considering there's more to add to it yet), but when it's right, it'll be very right. Jackie and Ellie are both jaw-droppingly effortless vocalists and to hear them do what they do with words that I wrote made be feel something that I can't really describe properly, but that I think sits next to happiness - a completely different kind of satisfaction and friendship that's born of the moments in the studio where things just work with talented musicians.

I have the feeling I'm going to spend the days before we finish the vocals (assuming I can even talk by then) carved up into four-minute chunks while I listen through the rough mix of Go Team on repeat. Once I've finished the vocals, I'll sit back, take stock and make a proper blog post (with pictures and everything). Until then, I need to go and get some more Lemsip.

YOU ARE UPDATE!

- Ben

Feels Kind Of Like I'm Back Home.

Hi, my name is Ben and I have a USB port where my belly button should be.

Yesterday I actually had to do some real work on this album and do what, out of a limited range of musical skills, I do best. It was electric guitar time!

After primarily playing acoustic guitar for a while, it's all too easy to forget a little bit of where my roots lie - especially when my amp's been sitting at Joe's for a few months and the Les Paul's been suffering some input-related-illness. However, with the amp back at home and the Les Paul sporting a brand new lead-hole, I've been rediscovering some of the reasons why I started playing guitar in the first place. Not that I can tell you exactly what they are, but I can say it always just feels very right. Within a few minutes of playing around the new songs with a properly-powered guitar, all of the parts and noises that I knew I could hear when I was originally writing them are totally there; the intricate, instinctive finger-movements that don't do anything for an acoustic reveal their power on an electric - I guess it's what it must feel like to go from living in a foreign country and having to constantly translate English thoughts into an alien tongue, back to at least being able to think and talk in the same language (even if that's still an imperfect way to express what's going on).

I've been away from home for a couple of weeks doing proper, real-life stuff, which has given me plenty of time to sit and figure out the different guitar parts for all of the songs and if you happen to be keeping score, that's like, score one million for this gradual, extended recording process. Who needs to learn about eyes when you can concentrate on working on your lovely fingertip calluses?

More efficient guitar recording = more arty photos!

By the time I got back, I was raring to go and so yesterday's recording process felt like a very nice release indeed - working through a mercifully-mild hangover (that was totally Joe, Ellie and Kez' fault, not the tequila's), Luke and I loaded up on snacks and got to work. There isn't really much to say about the actual recording bit itself, since it went relatively smoothly. The result, on the other hand, is more worth a mention - we've definitely broken the back of the recording process now and with the majority of the electric parts laid down, the more subtle ideas have started to raise their head. The actual faces of the songs are in place now and when I describe how they're going to end up to people, I don't have to ask them to take quite so much of a leap of faith any more. Synth ideas have started to come out of the woodwork and secondary guitar parts are beginning to take shape. The plan is to record vocals next, then to sit back and work out any complementary guitar parts, then on to synths and the big M&M.

It feels weird, but so good to actually be able to talk about the end of the recording process like it's some time soon. I almost want the recording to not end as much as I want the finished album, just because of how much fun everyone involved is having - as I've bollocked on about a load before, music is a world that's where I've both found and forged some of my best friends and the recording process is one of the largest, most intensely fun countries in it.

OK, so next up: vocals with Joe, Ellie and Jackie. Let's do it!

YOU ARE UPDATE!

- Ben

Beep boop boop beep