An Interview with Ben of the band Arizona – part 1 from Dave Allen on Vimeo.
You may have noticed a dearth of new posts from me since last Thursday but I have a good excuse – Pop Asheville. Pop Asheville is an annual music festival and conference that takes place in Asheville, North Carolina and I believe this was their third year. This small but vibrant town in the NW of the state has a music festival that reminds me of the early days of SXSW. Anyway I was invited to give the keynote speech this year. I spent an hour reminding the musicians in attendance that they are no longer in the music business, they are in the T-shirt business and they all seemed to agree. The music industry is not hurting, it’s the cd business that is in decline.
Anyway I’ll be writing later about the festival after I have gathered my thoughts. What I do want to say today is that I discovered a wonderful band while I was there. Arizona. There were many great bands performing over the weekend but Arizona stood head and shoulders above the crowded field. Perhaps it was just my own sense of the decline of standards in rock music that always leaves me pessimistic but I was shocked at how good these guys were playing live. The next day I had the honor of interviewing their lead singer Benjamin. It turned out to be a lengthy video so I will offer it up in parts. Part 2 will follow real soon.
Benjamin Morris Wigler, the self-described ‘Keith Richard Dreyfuss’ of rock, has much to say. And he says it very well and wittily too. Worth a watch. Listen as Ben talks about his four year old tub of urine that he collected from his stoned friends to load into super soakers to be used to hose down a local child molester. Listen to him sing a beautiful song a cappella and then talk about Dream Theater, Tool and Radiohead.
Arizona – Heath from the album Glowing Bird. Buy it here.
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Dave, of anyone to focus your first brief popa post on, I’m glad you chose Ben. What a stellar performer, incredible musician, and all-around awesome guy.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:06 pmGreat interview, and I’m glad you got all this background info. everyone should know about the band name’s origin and all the rest of the silliness therein. thanks.
I look forward to reading your full retrospective of the weekend full of music, debauchery, fun, and ridiculousness.
Nicely done Dave. Kudos to Ben and the band. It’s gonna be hard for me to visit AZ and not think about their “stream.” Here Come the Warm jets was of a similar bent. What camera are you using?
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:09 pm[...] I interviewed lead singer Ben on video for the Moose blog. After I posted the video I said I’d soon be posting part 2 and then I got a call from Ben from the road [in this video he is actually talking to me on the phone]. He said thanks etc but also said that he and the band wanted to send me an exclusive video and MP3. They have a new unreleased song, Where Is Wallace, and they decided that during a sound check they’d film and record the song and send it to me for posting. Smart boys. They got my attention and some prime time on the Moose, I get an exclusive video and MP3. A win/win if you ask me. [...]
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:08 pm[...] I recently posted about discovering a wonderful band called Arizona. I found them while attending PopAsheville in January and I wrote – “I was invited to give the keynote speech this year. I spent an hour reminding the musicians in attendance that they are no longer in the music business, they are in the T-shirt business and they all seemed to agree. They also agreed that the music industry is not hurting, it’s the cd business that is in decline.” The whole post is here. [...]
February 10th, 2009 at 4:03 pmYeah, we all waiting for the Detox LP waaaaaaay too much. Dre said in an interview for ABC News that Detox should be done in 2009 and released at 2010.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:32 am