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Ben Brown and Funky Dracula - Chilling Holiday Music |
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Bobby “Boris”
Pickett gave us the “Monster Mash,” in 1962, cowritten with Lenny
Capizzi and The Rocky Horror Picture Show gave us “The Time Warp,” but
now we have a new full-length album just in time for Halloween, “Funky
Dracula,” courtesy of Ben Brow, from Austin, Texas.
Ben Brown talks
about how he arrived in the studio with this collection of songs, “For
some reason I was listening to a lot of ‘80s Prince music, so that was a
sonic strand. At the same time, I revisited reading famous satire
stories, like Orwell’s 1984, Voltaire’s Candide Ou l’Optimisme
and I have also been a fan of low brow horror movies, as well as
science fiction. I like the idea of a horror movie that works as satire,
and you don’t have to know anything about what the screenwriter was
interested in to enjoy it. A lot of cheesy horror and science fiction
movies function as cultural satire. I am a product of the
eighties and nineties, so Return of the Living Dead could be
construed as a film about militarism. H.P. Lovecraft’s Reanimator
could be construed as a story about what happens when you tinker with
medicine, biology and genetic experimentation. One day I had a bunch
of material that had a spooky gothic sound to it. I thought it would be
(interesting) to combine those songs and somehow the title Funky
Dracula came to me. To me it represented the seductive synth Pop of
the ‘80s Prince and the spooky gothic, romantic literature of Bram
Stoker’s Dracula. The title was so bad that it was good. Working again with my
friend and producer Mick Flowers who owns the studio where I record,
called The Shire (label Shire Recorders). I told Mick what I wanted to
record and what I wanted it to sound like. I also told him that I wanted
to call it Funky Dracula and he said you can’t call it that and
that is when I knew I had to call it that. I will add that my
mother Linda Brown has encouraged me to make a holiday album. I pictured
myself with a pipe, like Bing Crosby and I could never envision myself
doing that. Afterwards I realized I actually do have a seasonal album,
but it is for Halloween, not Christmas. This album is really a
satire. It is really a comedy. That is how I view it. I have no idea how
listeners view it. I am using horror as a skin to satirize modern
culture. I think of this album, almost like a film. If it was a film,
the tag lines would be Nothing Is Scarier Than Modern life. I
feel that encapsulates what I am trying to do. When I was a young boy
around the age of eleven, I was fascinated by horror. Some of the first
books I read were Dracula and Frankenstein and comic books of that
nature. I couldn’t get enough. This was pre-internet. Something about
the darkness attracted me. It is a safe way to explore the darker side
of life.
There is a song on this
album called “Reflector,” and it is a catalogue list of all of the
things that in character I am saying an artist is not an advertiser, not
a marketer, not a salesman, but a reflector. Art is communication and
whatever the medium, the artist is trying to communicate some experience
of life to people. I hope that people can see what I am trying to do
when they listen to the album, but honestly it doesn’t matter. If you
enjoy it for the sound of it and for the fun of it that is just as
valuable to me. When I really vibe with art, whether it is a painting or
a film I really like that it has layers that can be interpreted or that
have a message. If you can appeal to those different audiences and
people that are looking for that or you can appeal to people who aren’t
looking for it, that is an achievement. I don’t know how much
of this was planned in the beginning, it sort of came together when I
had this stockpile of material, and I compiled it into this specific
project.” The title of the song
“Until the Dead Rise,” suggests a zombie like theme and one might
interpret the direct hits modern society takes with the lyrics, that
perhaps we are not far off. The song is worth listening to for the
unbelievable electric guitar playing of Ben Brown. When we ask about the
counterculture aspect of this song and of others, in more of a pushback
against what is happening in society, rather than in a revolutionary
sense, Ben Brown says, “In that sense yes. I don’t know if it is a
product of my age, but I don’t feel very connected with what is going on
in modern music. Even here in Austin you can go to the bars, clubs and
theaters and the music could be forty years old. There are bars in
Austin and but for the cell phones in the room, you would think it was
1974 and you were in a Country bar. That can be a fun night out, but I
follow my curiosity. The writing of the music comes from a mysterious
place, and I would be surprised if a lot of artists didn’t say that to
you. My process of writing is I just have to eliminate distractions and
get quiet. Usually, I get ideas for songs that way. I hear them if I
listen. Now I will say as a lyricist my music is always in the
counterculture. It is always on the outside of the mainstream. I don’t
dislike things, because they are popular. I don’t always understand why
people like what they like, and I ask them. I have learned with age,
rather than tell someone I don’t like something, I say why do you like
it? You never got to meet
my brother Jeff who passed. He was a great mentor to me. We were
partners, but I learned a lot from him as my older brother. We used
lyrics as clearly defined targets for things in the culture that caught
our attention and not necessarily in a positive way. I think most
artists and whatever their motivating (factor) is whether it is ego or
curiosity they are pushing against what they see in the culture. They
are reflecting it, but also in the most cynical sounding lyric there is
a glimmer of hope there towards another possible future. In that sense
you could argue that it is counterculture. I have always been interested
in characters that exist on the fringes and on the outside. “ In humble fashion when
we comment on his stellar playing, Ben Brown responds, “I play all of
the instruments except for the live drums. A few friends of mine have
heard that solo and commented on it, so I guess I have to play more
guitar in the future. (he chuckles) I don’t know what else to say. I
guess more of that is in order. My girlfriend would
tell you that I have too many guitars, so I can’t lie about that. Any
guitar to a non guitar playing person is too many. With that said, I
consider myself to be a minimalist when it comes to gear and equipment.
Don’t get me wrong I am thinking about my next purchase right now, but I
like simple quality instruments that for the most part you can depend on
in a live setting. I also play keyboards, as you know and when I play
live I have too much equipment. Generally, I am a Fender guitar player.
Years ago, I started with a Rickenbacker and then I moved on to Fender.
I had a Stratocaster and a Telecaster, but now I play a (Fender) Johnny
Marr signature Jaguar. That is what I played on most of the tracks on
this album. At The Shire Mick Flowers has a collection of lovely
guitars. On the song “When the Sun Goes Down,” I played a Les Paul, but
that is rare for me. Usually, it is a Fender guitar and a Jaguar or a
Telecaster.” Before we continue with
the songs tell me why you enjoy working with Mick Flowers and Erith
Wenkman, your sound engineer. “They are very
different. Mick Flowers is sort of a mad genius. He is someone who walks
into a room, shakes everything up, encourages you to dream bigger and
then he gives you the freedom to go places where in other studios with
other producers I have never had that luxury. He is a true collaborator
as a producer, and I have a lot of trust in him that I have never had
with anyone else. On King of Air (album) for example, I hadn’t
even demoed the song yet and I would walk in and play the song on an
acoustic guitar or on a piano and then Mick and I would listen to it,
and we would build the song. We would start with him playing drums and I
would play most of the other instruments unless we used horns, which I
don’t play. I would play bass guitar and then I would play a synthesizer
or a piano, acoustic guitar and then we would layer electric guitars,
percussion, vocals, keyboards, harmonies or whatever it was. Mick is a
true collaborator and someone who always encouraged me to go beyond
where I thought I could go. Erith
has a skill set that is like magic to me, because I am not a (sound)
engineer. I can play all of the instruments, but I can’t do what Erith
does. There would be no album without Erith, who is very easy to work
with and has golden ears, pristine ears. Erith knows everything and
knows the relationship between the instruments and how to mix them. With
Erith there is a certain amount of mysticism there, not only with the
technological element, but there is a mysticism that brings the magic to
the final product and to the process, “ Brown explains. Our introduction to the
song “Rules of the Game,” features a harpsichord or at least a keyboard
emulating that sound. “A lot of the songs for
Funky Dracula were written on a keyboard. I have what is called a
Juno DS61. It is not a wildly expensive keyboard, but it is the first
keyboard I ever owned that was a decent enough quality that I could
bring it to a gig. All of my life I was a singer, much of my life I was
a guitar player and none of my life was I a keyboard player, certainly
not in a live setting. I acquired this keyboard, and I could play chords
and things like that. I was self-taught. I had never used a keyboard to
write, I had always used a guitar. It is not a particularly good
keyboard, so it gives it a certain character. On that song in particular
there is a premade patch that lives in the computer, and it is called
Amadeus, and it sounds like a cheap harpsichord mixed with synthetic
strings. To my ear it is not a great sound, but something about the
synthetic harpsichord spoke to me about this character Funky Dracula
and I could picture this character playing the harpsichord. In the music world
there is a lot of snobbishness about the right recording technique and
gear and those things matter, but for this particular project, we
weren’t concerned with doing everything right, because it added to the
overall cinematic texture.” The lyrics for “When
the Sun Goes Down,” are not exactly the kind you sit around the dinner
table singing with grandma and grandpa, but after all this is album is a
Halloween, mood altering experience. Ben Brown does not take the high
ground and looking down on those types identified in the song, but
rather questions the mores. Mick Flowers backstops this song playing
drums and the beat, the groove, the rhythm gets into your head and long
after “When the Sun Goes Down,” has stopped playing they will not leave
your head. “Rhythm played a big
part on this album. Previously, I have tried to make sure the voice is
the loudest instrument. I spend as much time on lyrics as I do anything
else. I am trying to communicate ideas as much as anything else. On this
album, I asked the mixing engineer to make the rhythm or the groove of
the drums to be more present than anything,” he says, before adding, “I
also have to give credit on that song to Mr. Marc Bolan, because that
song is something of an homage to T.Rex (seventies Glam Rock band), who
for me there was definitely some Dracula style going on in that group.” As far as the song
sequencing on the album is concerned it seems to our ears that the order
starts with darker themes and becomes more romanticized as the album
approaches the end. Ben Brown considers our
observation, “It is an interesting observation. That was a
semi-conscious choice. When you sequence an album, there are all kinds
of thoughts. Some people say we have to put the best songs in the
beginning, because that is all people are going to listen to. I don’t
work like that. I try to have a narrative that goes through,” and they
sit well beside each other. They tell you without telling you where they
belong. I sequenced the album myself, but previously Mick and I have
sequenced albums two and three times, before we feel we got it right. On
this album particularly we talked about sound and texture. There was a
song that I wrote late in the game called Nothing Is What It Seems,”
which is a pretty strong Prince homage, and it leans pretty heavily into
that world. Prince was very inspirational for this album. If you look into the
character of Dracula and excuse me, we are about to get into very silly
territory. I would like people to appreciate the album on several
different levels. If you looked at it as a narrative with Dracula being
the main character, he was (someone) who lost his soul. I really like
Bram Stoker’s Dracula. That is a strong text for me as far as it goes.
It is sort of elevated, If you have ever read it, there are a lot of
journal entries and some of it is a bit plodding. It is a Victorian era
novel, and it is a little dated to read now. (As for) the character of
Dracula, he renounces god, and he loses his soul when his love is taken
from him. I feel like everyone can relate to that, not losing your soul
literally, but losing someone and throwing your life away. That is a
very relatable feeling. I am mixing metaphors
and Dracula narratives. That is what we do on the album. He loses his
love. He renounces god and he becomes damned and a demon. The original
idea I had for the album is Dracula is undead. He is cursed to live
forever and now he has to live through the modern age, and he is bored.
That was the idea that got me laughing in the process of recording it.
What would Dracula be like now having to live through TikTok culture for
example, when everything in our culture is commodified and everyone is a
salesperson, who all day long is selling their lives on their phones. The album does end on a
hopeful note, where there is a two-song suite if you want to call it
that with “Nothing is What It Seems,” a song about loss and trying to
come to terms with loss. Then there is a short song that almost feels
out of place called “Do You Still Love Me?” The lyric is a laundry list
of things that happen to a person over the course of a lifetime or in
the case of this character over many years. Also, it could be seen as
what happens when culture moves forward when values change, and the
character asks over and over again “Do You Still Love Me?” All of the
cultural changes that we are going through right now that to me are
ephemeral and throw away people, are still just trying to find love.
They want to be loved. If that is a hopeful ending, I will let you be
the judge, sonically the album is a nighttime album, but that song to me
sounds like the sun is just starting to come up. I hope this doesn’t
sound too dark, but I think we are living in a dystopian (time) now. I
think it can be improved upon, but I think we are living in a dystopia,
but I just think nobody can tell that. I have to think there
is hope. I don’t think any of us could live in a world when we can’t
make a difference, but things don’t look too promising at the moment. As
an artist there certainly is a lot of material to explore.” You can listen to and
buy Ben Brown’s
Funky Dracula
here.
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The
horror that I always like was not slasher or gratuitous gore or
violence. I liked things that were fantasy when I was young, things that
took me outside of the facts of life. It is slightly ironic that I am
using this vehicle now, this thing that is pure fantasy and I can be
more honest than I can be with a serious album title