{"id":12871,"date":"2012-10-26T07:30:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T20:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=12871"},"modified":"2012-10-24T22:31:28","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T11:31:28","slug":"ben-gillies-of-bento","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2012\/10\/ben-gillies-of-bento\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Gillies of Bento"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201cTo me, Silverchair did its thing and to me Bento is my baby, I\u2019ll see Bento through until I\u2019m an old man.\u00a0 As an artist it\u2019s my creative outlet and that\u2019s what most people want, like I would\u2019ve loved to have done my music in the more recent years with Silverchair but our priorities changed and I was happy to take that step back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Gilles is of course most recognised as the drummer and co-founder of Silverchair, you may have heard of them\u2026 but after announcing an indefinite hiatus Ben has now taken it upon himself to release and use his own creative juices to release his debut album under Bento.\u00a0 \u2018Diamond Days\u2019 is released this week and shows that Ben can be the front man and has the skills to write a great tune or twelve.<\/p>\n

We spoke with Ben about Bento, what it represents, the debut album, how it was created and how he\u2019s made it his baby.\u00a0 We might\u2019ve even thrown in a question about the future of his other band too\u2026<\/p>\n

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Ben.\u00a0 I guess we can start with asking why was now the right time to step out as a \u2018solo\u2019 artist and launch the Bento project?<\/strong>
\nI think it\u2019s probably because I\u2019ve had enough energy and enough time to focus on my own thing.\u00a0 Silverchair is such a mammoth and awesome kind of beast that in the last many, many years I just haven\u2019t had enough energy to focus on my own thing to such an extent, so probably the confidence and a lot of elements but that\u2019s probably the main reason why.\u00a0 So, you can\u2019t rush these things mate (laughs)<\/p>\n

How did you go into creating the songs that would end up on \u2018Diamond Days\u2019?<\/strong>
\nThey kind of span across six, seven, eight years, because when I took a step back from the writing duties in Silverchair after \u2018Neon Ballroom\u2019, as an artist and a songwriter, it\u2019s not something that you turn off or particularly want to turn off, it\u2019s always there it\u2019s always present.\u00a0 I kept writing songs and put them on my voice memos or Dictaphone or whatever it was and it just got to a point that if I didn\u2019t do something with them, if I didn\u2019t have some kind of outlet it was just driving me crazy so that\u2019s when I decided to do it.\u00a0 The whole album started off as a consolidation session with an engineer friend of mine and it just kind of snowballed from there, it took on a life of its own really.<\/p>\n

How hard was it for you to step out as a front man after so many years essentially being behind the singer?<\/strong>
\nYeah, totally scary, stepping in to the unknown, but at the same time it\u2019s exciting and I think deep down inside I\u2019ve always been\u2026 well maybe not deep down inside, maybe on the surface I\u2019ve always been a bit of a wild man and a bit of a crazy cat and there\u2019s always been a part of me that\u2019s wondered what it\u2019d be like to get out the front and have a sing.\u00a0 Purely just personally getting out there and having a crack, I\u2019ve always been one of those people that likes to give different things a go.\u00a0 Like I said, it\u2019s scary but at the same time it\u2019s liberating and exciting.
\n Kind of a Dave Grohl situation\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah totally, people are saying you\u2019re totally like the Australian Dave Grohl and I\u2019m like \u201cHere we go\u2026\u201d the funny thing is, the Nirvana comparison fits the mould very well, obviously three piece, we get a lot of Nirvana comparisons at the start, then Dave Grohl stepped out and did his own thing, so it\u2019s a very similar parallel.
\n Let\u2019s hope the comparison doesn\u2019t continue with Daniel then\u2026<\/strong>
\n(laughs) yeah exactly.<\/p>\n

How did you, if you did, set out to make Bento different to Silverchair and Tambalane?<\/strong>
\nI guess I think all three are different entities, Silverchair\u2019s got a big recording budget, it\u2019s got a really established band, it\u2019s got the record company, formula, management, it\u2019s got this massive infrastructure that we tap in to, budgets and all that stuff, even with the writing process, Dan would come in and then it would kind of be massaged in the studio.\u00a0 Then you\u2019ve got the Tambalane thing, I think realistically for me it was a bit more of like a summer fling, it was just a mates thing, it never really had any legs but it was almost like a stepping stone to do Bento.\u00a0 To me, Silverchair did its thing and to me Bento is my baby, I\u2019ll see Bento through until I\u2019m an old man.\u00a0 As an artist it\u2019s my creative outlet and that\u2019s what most people want, like I would\u2019ve loved to have done my music in the more recent years with Silverchair but our priorities changed and I was happy to take that step back, you know I love playing in Silverchair and with Dan and Chris, it\u2019s great, but at the same token I still lost that creative outlet for myself.\u00a0 It\u2019s exciting but they\u2019re all very, very different.<\/p>\n

So you touched on it above, but specifically to you, what does Bento represent?<\/strong>
\nLike I said, it\u2019s my baby, it\u2019s my creative outlet, a few people have been saying or mentioning to me side project or solo project but to me it\u2019s a parallel to Silverchair, if Silverchair isn\u2019t doing anything then I\u2019ll be doing Bento, if I\u2019m not doing Bento I\u2019ll be doing Silverchair, it\u2019s that important to me.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s why I\u2019m super excited, I don\u2019t have any of those restrictions as well, it\u2019s exciting times.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tell us about the corresponding art project side of Diamond Days and how that ties in to the album?<\/strong>
\nWell I didn\u2019t just want to go to a design house and say \u2018hey I need a record cover\u2019 and do some of that, I really wanted it to evolve like the record itself and happen naturally.\u00a0 I just had my good friend Aaron Kinnane, I knew him from Newcastle, and so I called him up and said \u201cHey mate, would you be interested on working on the cover of this record?\u201d He was interested straight away and he was just going to do the cover but that evolved just how I wanted it to into twelve pieces and It was a real kind of journey, so I\u2019m sure the cover I imagined it to be one way but it turned out better than I would\u2019ve imagined.<\/p>\n

Recording wise, you had a number of players on the record I believe, why do it this way rather than in essence create a band?<\/strong>
\nBento is kind of just me really, I wrote all the songs and I\u2019m the brainchild, it\u2019s just the way it\u2019s worked out, it\u2019s been a bit of a patchwork quilt and we\u2019ve got different musos along the way.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t planned that way, we did deliberately get Dave Symes, Scott Alpin and Thomas Rawle to be the main players on there and we did purposely get them as much as we could and when they played on particular songs we tried to get them as much as they could to play from start to finish as well, they kind of really tied and helped the songs mesh together as a band.\u00a0 Long term that\u2019s what I\u2019d really like to do, is have like the Bento band, have a staple of guys and that\u2019s it, we\u2019re all in it together, but for the time being it is my baby and that\u2019s just how the process unfolded.<\/p>\n

Taking on co-producing rights to the album, what did this allow you to do as an artist?<\/strong>
\nEvery facet of the record I pretty much had a hand in or overseen, it\u2019s been really exciting doing that stuff but it\u2019s been a learning curve.<\/p>\n

In listening to the album through once before it was taken away from me ha ha, the songs seem to have a sense of \u2018life\u2019 to them and a feel good mentality, is this something that just came naturally as you were creating it or was it a contrived idea to make it sound this way?<\/strong>
\nNo, I think I didn\u2019t go in to making this record with any preconceived ideas but definitely just turned out that way.\u00a0 I\u2019m a positive, optimistic kind of person and I always like to look at the brighter side of life and it was totally subconscious that it\u2019s the way it\u2019s panned out (laughs).<\/p>\n

‘Diamond Days’ itself, the song and the name is that named after anything specifically?<\/strong>
\nNo not really, I can\u2019t remember where that lyric came from.\u00a0 I was reading a lot of poetry by Charles Bukowski and Leonard Cohen and a bunch of different guys, to be honest I don\u2019t know, maybe it was a line in one of the poems that sparked an idea?\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure where it came from but it resonated with me somewhere inside.<\/p>\n

What are your touring plans for the album?<\/strong>
\nNot just yet, no.\u00a0 I\u2019m just going to concentrate in getting the album out there and the Bento name and just make a bit more aware of it, it\u2019s a big thing, you\u2019re almost trying to flip people\u2019s perceptions of who I am from being the drummer in Silverchair to being the front man in this other band, so for me because that\u2019s my reality, it\u2019s easy to think, why can\u2019t you get this really quickly?\u00a0 For fans and stuff it\u2019s a lot to swallow in one hit, so I\u2019m just going to concentrate on that and then probably begin touring in the new year.\u00a0 Give people a couple of months for people to digest the whole thing and then do some shows.<\/p>\n

Now, do you mind if I ask about the future of Silverchair?<\/strong>
\nYeah sure mate, go for it.
\n Is there a future of Silverchair?<\/strong>
\n(laughs) Yeah I mean we purposely chose the wording of indefinite hiatus or hibernation or whatever you call it, we said that because we want to leave that door open and at the moment, we hit a bit of a brick wall making a record and we all just needed to take a step away from it and we\u2019ve all got different things going on at the moment.\u00a0 When the time feels right we\u2019ll come back to it, but if that\u2019s now or if that\u2019s in another three years or however long then that\u2019s just the way it all came out.\u00a0 At the moment we\u2019ve all got projects going on and Bento is my main priority as I said, it\u2019s a parallel to Silverchair and Silverchair is a large part of my life and I\u2019m aware of it and I\u2019m happy to talk about it as I\u2019m proud about what I\u2019ve done in Silverchair, I love Dan and Chris but at the moment Bento is my baby.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your time Ben, see you at the launch.<\/strong>
\nSounds perfect, thank you.<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Australia<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Ben Gillies<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.wearebento.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> Diamond Days (released October 26) – Read our review of ‘Diamond Days’ HERE<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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