You may not know it but if you’re the least bit involved with the local Nashville music scene you’ve probably encountered work in some capacity from Ben Marcantel. He is, quite honestly, one of the busiest and most prolific creators about town. So, I decided to have him catch me up on everything he’s had his hands involved with over the past year or so.. and he delivered. It’s a lengthy read but such is the nature of the beast when you’ve got your hands in as many projects as he does.
2010 has been an odd one, I started the year by getting three stitches in my ring finger after the fluorescent light fixture I was replacing at work fell through the ceiling and ripped my digit open, yum! Since that bloody brush with nearly passing out, I’ve taken the lack of flying cars etc. promised to us in this futuristic year of 2010, as a sign that much fun should be had. I’ve fashioned a timelinesque thingy to organize the numerous going-ons.
Late Winter/Early Spring: The Forrest Bride LP Cats with Wings, Hands off Cuba LP From Arrival to Survival, both released by the incomparable William Tyler via sebastian speaks. Later I did a stop motion short for the Hands off Cuba song, “Defibrillator” – Ryan Norris helped out when we were snowed in during the er blizzard; It was like the Shinning except we had all the booze and French synthwave we wanted. At this time Ryan and I began working on a film soundtrack for local film maker Jefferey Stanfill, shot on some serious soviet film gear and it includes a few notable locals – the film should be screened next year. I believe Mr. Stanfill is setting up a kickstarter account to complete funding for the transfer/processing of the film, worth checking out for fans of cinema.
Late Spring/Early summer: I began curating, collecting, recording tracks for an experimental music compilation for emerging Swedish imprint Ptroleum. In Europe they actually give grants to enterprising young people to support the arts, one of these particular aesthetes: Giuliano Medici visited Nashville last winter with a friend Austin Alexander and we took him to Betty’s to catch a few shows, they were thoroughly floored by the quality and quantity of music here. Giuliano already works with a publishing group and had been thinking of starting a vinyl release label. We were asked to collect tracks, so I pestered everyone I knew doing anything in this vein-the result thus far is 30 tracks or so of three minute explorations, a variety of sounds and fidelities-it should be a very unique and fun listen upon completion. There are a wide range of contributions from people like Sewanee prof. Greg Pond, studio wiz Joe Macmahan, Joeseph “the Shelby Street Brawler” Hudson, the brilliant Derek Schartung, etc. too many to list right now. The compilation should be completed and released next year.
Late Summer: I decided to dig in and make a stop motion short for “my” own music, and completed a video for the Forrest Bride track “blue tiger“. Hands off Cuba also went into the illustrious House of David to lay down some sweet jams to tape, engineered by our own boyishly handsome Adam Bednarik. Around this time, the new round of Forrest Bride recordings were finished (tentatively called Oviary Apiary). There’s talk of doing a split 12inch release, FB vs. HOC.
Fall: I started recording my solo project, Sugar Skulls – I have an unhealthy obsession as of late with sub bass and synths-so I plugged my tiny casio into a guitar pedal then straight into my sound card and began using the pre-programmed backing tracks and blownout cheesey sounds like a Rubik’s cube to create what i hope to be a pizza party in a box (no overdubs!).
I also did a bit of animation for a wonderful multi-media experience created by Kelli Shay Hix and Kyle Hamlett called The Singing Shadow, it was performed recently with great success and there are plans to create a longer version of it for next year. It was at this time that one of the more exciting things began for me, after trading numerous texts of lyrics from the Bowie records Station to Station and Low, one Kyle Hamlett and I started writing songs together for a new band tentatively called black glitter; Roy Orbison meets The Cure-big open minor key glam-all the lyrics will be about sex, drugs and the occult- as all good white boy guitar rock should be.Late Fall: Forrest Bride did an ambient set to score a portion of found 16mm punk/stoner rock film live at the Zeitgeist gallery, there plans in the works to do more of this, fingers crossed. Also, Tony Youngblood put together a fantastic program around circuit bending at the Open Lot. I pulled out a few of my tweaked toys and weather alert systems and made a racket and a bit of film with Austin Alexander for our two cents. The performances by Tim Kaiser and Dave X in particular are incredible and are worth seeking out online.
The remainder of the year looks to be spent tying loose ends up with these projects and putting energy toward an exciting series in the works for next year.
On a personal note I’d like to share that Amy’s (Marcantel of Forrest Bride fame) solo release, engineered by Kelli Shay Hix, is done and will be released soon (anyone who caught the NBN performance is aware of the spell she casts, one of the most underrated vocalists in town!), also be sure to check out Scott Martin’s solo project: Hobbledeions, which was released via Lee Noble’s label: No Kings…. Scott is just a f**n genius.