Benjamin Wright, AKA Benjamin Jayne, zoomed in from his home base of Brattleboro, Vermont prior to the release of his upcoming album, Broken. The album was recorded in Benjamin’s own bedroom, co-produced by Drew Skinner. Broken was released on streaming today, October 13th.
Benjamin grew up playing music, playing the piano at age 3. “There’s a lot of us kids in the family, there’s six of us, and I was the youngest. My mom was a piano teacher, and all my sisters played instruments, so it’s just what we did. And my dad played in college, and my grandfather played in big bands back in the day.” Wright said. From there, he played in the school concert and jazz bands, eventually getting a guitar from his stepfather, and started creating bands outside of the ones in school. In his early 20s he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts to study film scoring and jazz performance. Since music school is expensive, and so is living in Boston, Wright moved first to Philadelphia, and then out to Las Angeles where he continued to pursue music with his friends, who owned the event production company, Do LaB.
Benjamin entered into the field of psychiatry after moving back to Boston with his then girlfriend-now wife, and returning to college while she was in graduate school. He is now the Director of Psychiatry at “the smallest hospital in the country.” Wright’s experience in the field of mental healthcare has given him good insight into “Melancholia.” The general theme of Broken is stated as “ It primarily deals with people trying to reconcile who they are now compared to who they remember themselves to be before the current of time got a hold of them. It is about seeing our reflection and being unrecognizable to ourselves and then facing the challenge of unraveling all of the elements we have wrapped ourselves in that don’t feel genuine. The album is seeking truth and rebirth.” Benjamin paraphrased it as “We fall asleep at the wheel, a lot of people fall asleep at the wheel, you know? They forget who they are.” This concept is psychedelic, a reflection that many people who have used psilocybin mushrooms have probably had, however these aren’t your standard 1960s psychedelic hippy songs, these are abstractly psychedelic. “Like me, I’m 43, I wake up and I’m like ‘well how did I get to 43” and I don’t know, I remember me doing all this stuff, and then I just got swept away with so much responsibility, and time just moves so fast. Sometimes we’re just lucky enough to wake up and just challenge where we are.” He said on the topic.
Wright recorded the album in his bedroom, finding time in his busy life to piece together and layer the songs on Broken. “This one was recorded on the window sill of my master bedroom” Benjamin said when describing his recording setup. He uses a MacBook, interface and a MIDI trigger, and microphones. According to Wright, and friend/co-producer Drew Skinner, the crisp and clean vocals are credited to the carpet and king sized mattress that absorb the echo, sort of like an accidental vocal booth. Wright met Skinner while attending Berklee, the two were awkwardly walking to the same dorm after riding the elevator before realizing they were roommates, they have been friends ever since. Broken is an album that is recorded as an act of expression, he said “Like most art that I engage in, it was just necessary, cathartic. This stuff just needs to come out of me, the whole process can be surprising.”
While Benjamin’s musical roots are in jazz, he also has been a long time enjoyer of folk. With Broken he dips more into his folk background, while using MIDI synthesized tracks to complement his acoustic guitar and voice to create the sounds on Broken. The sound is a mixture of electronic and folk elements, the blend of the two creates an interesting dynamic. The ambient and spacey tracks also have heavier electronic elements sprinkled throughout. Wright stated that he laid down the basic MIDI tracks, and then co-producer Drew Skinner went in and tweaked some sequences with different MIDI sounds.
Broken is out now on streaming which will be linked below. Benjamin Jayne is playing October 13th, in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Links:
Benjamin Jayne Website-
https://www.benjaminjayne.com/#home-section
Spotify-
Apple music- https://music.apple.com/us/artist/benjamin-jayne/1438161769