Landfall

I know that you want to feel love
like it's pouring from the sky
I know that you need to see love
when you're looking in my eyes
to think instead of feel
is the greatest curse of all
abstracted from what's real
I can't even see the landfall

coming up against my limitations
hitting up against the wall

you see me stop and stare
like there's nothing I can do
I see you falling back
like someone's gonna save you
to dream instead of love
like there's somewhere I could hide
but do you know what's on the inside?

coming up against my limitations
hitting up against the wall
no one has to know the implications
when I can't even see the landfall, yeah

they don't even know my name and
even though they look the same and
if only this could be a real love
but you know I'm thinking when you feel love

"Start at the Beginning" on Rocknet Webzine

"Start at the Beginning" on Rocknet Webzine

Ben Averch hails from Seattle, Washington and is a very accomplished musician. He's released his second CD and plays all the instruments on it. I am always amazed at how one person can create something that [sounds like] a band effort. The record has a very heavy prog feel to it and is a combination of electronica, prog, heavy guitar, and acoustic. All in all, this is a really good release with very well written lyrics and diverse musical compositions that keep the listener entertained and basically singing along. The songs are catchy and well crafted and the vocals are very harmonious and melodic. Definitely a great combination of rock and pop.

IMPROVIJAZZATION Nation -- INTERVIEW with Ben Averch

IMPROVIJAZZATION Nation --INTERVIEW with Ben Averch

We were highly pleased when we listened to some of Ben's music at his REVERBNATION site, & invited him to to a INTERVIEW for us... a very nice effort, Ben... thanks for taking the time to really answer our questions to you... I've no doubt readers will DIG this in a big way!

Zzaj: I got the impression from some of things I was reading on your REVERBNATION page (& others) that you're from Washington state (or that you've been here for some time). Is that correct, or did you journey here from elsewhere? In other words, please give us a short biographical sketch that tells us how you got where you are now (both physically & musically).

Ben: I was born in Boston, and lived there for most of my life. I came up to Washington State in 2005, so I’m a fairly recent transplant. I do love it here, and it feels like home now. A lot of the “Washington State” album describes the sense of awe that I had as a new resident, and some of the inescapable sensations of living here: the sky seeming so vast and yet so close; mountains and hills in all directions. It is beautiful here in a timeless way that’s inspirational.

Regarding my musical upbringing, my dad loved folk music, like Peter, Paul and Mary, John Denver, and Simon and Garfunkel. So that was always playing in our house. Then, my older brother Mike turned me on to Rush when I was about 6 or 7. I remember just being blown away by the power of their music. There was something totally magical about the sound of it, so rocking and yet melodic. I was fascinated by the songs, and the arrangements, and I’ve been a huge fan ever since then.

Around age 9, I realized that I was hopelessly behind my brother as a guitarist, so I decided to take up drums. I worked on this pretty seriously till I was 17, when I decided to switch to guitar as my main instrument. Writing songs and singing them was my focus, so to do that, I felt that I needed to come out from behind the drum set.

As a guitarist and singer, I had a three year period starting in 1994 when I would play and sing as a street busker in Harvard Square, Cambridge. It was very difficult to get the good spots to play, so I would arrive as early as I could and play for as long as I could manage, often 16 hours at a stretch. My goal was to bring real arena rock energy to every performance, every time, so it was exhausting, but really wonderful. My playing and singing progressed a lot during this time.

Concurrent with this, I was in a band called Bison with my brother Mike, and my best pal from high school Matt, and a drummer that we had found. We worked very hard, and got some interest, but it ultimately didn’t work out as we had planned. It was after Bison split up that I decided to become a solo artist and make records completely on my own.

Zzaj: I was struck (hard) by your ability to integrate lyrics that feel like they MEAN something... how do you form lyrics for a song? Is it mostly "stream of consciousness", or deliberate?

Ben: Well, usually I’ll have a moment of inspiration where one phrase or one or two lines will come into my head from somewhere, usually when I’m driving. If I’m fortunate, I’ll either write it down or remember it. These usually become the opening lyrics, or sometimes song titles. Somewhere inside those lines is the basic premise of an entire song – and I usually just see where this idea leads me.

With a few lines together, I’ll then get a guitar, and see whether there’s a melody or cadence that I can use to help bring out more ideas. As the concept behind the song becomes clearer, then the lyrics get a little bit easier. Things start to come together faster if there are some chords that fit and a melody developing that the words need to support.

But through this process, it’s very important for me to write lyrics that can hopefully stand on their own outside of the song. They need to make sense, and be cohesive and understandable, and hopefully have an emotional impact or resonance without being too overwrought.

Some songs, like “In a Dream State” were written as a stream of consciousness and are presented pretty much unchanged from that initial moment of creation. Most other songs I’ve done are crafted through the process I described.

Zzaj: Lots of words tell us that you're a "one-man band"... is that by preference, or do you prefer to play with other musicians?

Ben: Well, I’d certainly like to have a band at some point, but for now, I’m pretty satisfied doing everything myself. There are some challenges in terms of production and mixing when you are purely solo. And of course the live interpretations of the songs are much different – it becomes a guy with an acoustic guitar instead of a full-up arena rock band. I do try to create the same level of energy and excitement even in the solo acoustic format. This seems to be the right fit for me now, and I just really want to generate a lot of material for as long as I can.

Zzaj: What's the extent of your "formal" training? If you had/have that, to what degree do you think "impulse" plays into the performances you do? (This is a very important question for this 'zine, 'coz we have a lot of improvisers here).

Ben: Apart from drum lessons as a kid, I haven’t had any formal training. Most of my training as a performer was as a street player, as I mentioned, so it was kind of a learn-by-doing, (and doing…), thing. In terms of improvisation, most of that happens with guitar solos. I like to have a solo or other kind of instrumental break in every song. So, when it’s time to track a lead, I’ll just hit the switch and go, and those moments of spontaneous creation often yield my favorite moments of the music that I make.

Sometimes I’ll have to track the same lead over and over again and I’ll have some good bits and then flub the ending. So the leads are sometimes comped from multiple passes. But I’m always happiest when I get a whole lead from one spontaneous performance. Leads like ‘The Nothing Shines Through’ from Start at the Beginning are like that, where I had set aside a bunch of time to play this long lead over a ride out jam. Then I hit the button and just jammed the whole lead out in two minutes. So I was happy to have it done but a little surprised at how fast it happened!

The lead that’s on one of the new songs that I’m working on called “One and the Same” was a first pass, just to have something to go where the lead would go. It’s not perfect, but it has a certain speciallness, and as I’ve lived with it for several months making the record, it’s become ‘the lead’. That was another one that just burst out as a first take creation. Another new song “The Hook” has a lead that I really love, that was done in the same way – it actually inspired a whole vocal arrangement to sing the melody from the solo in the ending, which was really fun and different for me.

Lead segments like the one on “Levitate” from Washington State are maybe a little more labored over, and a lot of time is spent on the background guitars and sounds that support the overall lead. Also “Valley of Your Heart”, another new song, has a lead section in the second verse that is composed as a part, even though it’s lead guitar.

So I have a gamut of more structured leads, to totally spontaneous leads, to comping together a few different passes of things. The solo on “Start at the Beginning” is one of my favorites – sometimes playing leads in altered tunings (in this case, DADGAD) brings out a different sense of melody and rhythm that just takes you into more of a free-form mode.

Zzaj: Do you do more of your work/creation in-studio, or on-stage? If you're from Seattle (still or previously), how much of that is spurred by espresso?

Ben: The majority of work is on the recordings – I’m in the later stages of completing my 3rd solo record. I’ve played a few shows in recent months, and I really enjoy doing them, but I definitely am focused primarily on recording and building up these crazy rock albums.

I am a coffee drinker, but mostly in the morning. In the afternoon, I enjoy a nice cup of tea :-).

Zzaj: I hear some strange shades of players I've been listening to for a long time in your work (like Bruce Cockburn)... what part of your music is most important to you? The "music" part, the "lyrical" part, or does it all have to work together to work for you?

Ben: It definitely all has to come together. The thing that I’m looking for is emotional impact, so the song has a real resonance to it. I’m trying to create a response in the listener, and in myself, and so the music and the lyrics need to be complementary and support one another. I would like at some point to work on at least one instrumental song, but I really depend on lyrics, vocal deliveries, and vocal melodies to anchor a song and serve as the primary focus. Pretty traditional stuff, I guess.

I think where my current material is taking me is to a kind of hybrid between a singer/songwriter and a indie/prog rock band feel. So it’s maybe a little bit unique in that sense.

Zzaj: Lots of folks who read this 'zine are kinda' "gearheads"... can you give us a brief outline of your tech setup, your favorite tools for creating sonics & your favorite instrument to play?

Ben: Sure! As far as amps go, I’m playing a new amplifier from a company in Redwood City, California called Tonic Amps. This amp is really incredible and gives me a huge range in tones from very clean, beautiful textures to really powerful crunching distortion. I am extremely excited to be playing this amplifier. I had been a Marshall amp guy forever, and supplemented that with a Fender Twin Reverb, but now I just use my Tonic since it is so versatile and easy to dial up any kind of sound with a few knob turns. My Tonic is a pre-production prototype of a model called ‘Vapour’ that’s going into production this year.

For guitars, most of the recordings that I’ve made to date have prominently featured Paul Reed Smith guitars, in particular the Swamp Ash Special model which I’ve used for most of my soloing, and the Singlecut model which I use in combination with a Les Paul for overdriven, crunchy rhythm playing. I find myself gravitating to the Fender Telecaster, which has a bright, clear and articulate sound now for some reason. So that’s kind of exciting and new area for me sonically.

I am a big altered tunings guy. I never play anything in standard EADGBE. My ‘default’ tuning is DADGBD. Then you’re just one step on the A string to open G: DGDGBD. I use open G with a capo on a bunch of songs. On my previous record “Start”, I did a bunch of songs in DADGAD, which is really a beautiful tuning. And on my new record, I’ve been using DGDGCC, which has this wonderful unison thing happening on the high strings, and makes soloing sound really rich and unique.

Often when I stumble onto a tuning that I like, I’ll write 3 or 4 songs in a row really fast just using that new tuning. It’s great to hear the guitar in a new way, and feel it differently – there are harmonies and different resonances that can be surprising and wonderful when you’re experimenting with a new tuning.

The recording is done on a PC with SONAR 8 as the audio software. I’ve got a Layla 3G sound card, which works great. I use a Mackie mixing board, mostly as a patch bay. I use a TC Electronics G-Major for delay and reverb, a TC 1210 Spatial Expander for chorus, and a TC Electronics Triple-C compressor.

Zzaj: I know it's a question that's been hacked to death, but who are YOUR musical heroes?

Ben: Well, I really love Rush as I described before, most especially Alex Lifeson as a lead player. He is so expressive and lyrical in his solos that I have always thought that was really the pinnacle of rock playing. Also I love to listen to pretty much any lineup of Yes. Michael Hedges is a hero of mine as a guitarist and innovator. Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, bands like Swervedriver and Jawbox. Bob Mould is definitely a hero of mine as a guitarist, songwriter and performer. Zeppelin, of course. Lately I’ve been listening to Jackson Browne a lot. Going back a little ways, I’ve always loved Bruce Springsteen. I really love Miles Davis, especially his guitar-driven stuff with John McLaughlin, and I really like John Coltrane, especially his mellower sounding stuff, that’s more relaxing. When he goes off on his super spiritual stuff, it gets pretty intense!

Zzaj: You seem to be making some progress in digital/online music promotion? Is that true, or just a false impression on my part? If it is true - tell all our aspiring players out there how you do it? What's it TAKE to be (even relatively) "successful" at making a living at music these days? (or is there such a thing)?

Ben: Would that it were so! I don’t have this one figured out, unfortunately. But for me, the real joy is in the creation of the music, kind of continually rediscovering that process of making something where there wasn’t something before. That process is its own reward for me. I have a little bit of hope that I may get “discovered” by a broader audience at some point in the future. But I am at peace with the idea that this is art for art’s sake. And it has always been therapeutic for me to write and perform and record! But it’s always great when somebody stumbles onto my music and has a strong impression one way or the other.

Zzaj: If you could play with someone (group or individual artist) in a live gig next week - who would it be?

Ben: I’d like to play drums for Jimi Hendrix!

Love Me Anyway

It's not the sun that's setting
It's just that you are spinning away
From the way that you were sure to feel
From the sense that always kept you real

It's not a dream that's dying
It's just a world that's opening up
To a place you always feared to go
With a longing, desperate need to know

In the darkness, I can hear you say
That you always thought you'd love me anyway
No matter what this life throws our way
You say you always thought you'd love me anyway

It's not the life you're living
It's just the waiting to begin
Again and hope to see things new
Where all your past won't follow you

In a new incarnation
There's only joy for you to find
Towards a new day rising
Dreaming demons exorcised, it's all gone

Photos from Studio 7

Thanks to Nick for taking these shots.

Ben Live at Studio 7, March 12, 2009

Hi all,

I'm pleased to share this concert from Thursday night at Studio 7 in Seattle. There was a great turn out, and the crowd was terrific. I really had a great time and I'm happy with the performance. Hope you guys enjoy it too!

The set list:

1. The Nothing Shines Through
2. Cathedral
3. Hope Anchor
4. Love From the World
5. Something to Revolve Around
6. Sandcast
7. Kerosene

There's Only One Thing...

You Know I Need You - Ben Averch

Well, here's a new one that I'm definitely excited about. In the tradition of "In a Dream State" from WA State, and "Hope Anchor" on Start at the Beginning, this is looking like it will be the 'epic' song for the new record. "You Know I Need You" seems to hit the balance of acoustic and electric guitars just right. Kind of bouncing between melodic, upbeat parts (fans of Rush's Presto album may recognize this beat) and heavy 'Hulk Smash' rock, then into a Sun Kil Moon-inspired 'folk breakdown'. There's a two-part guitar solo that starts in this section with an almost electric-violin sounding lead line, then waits through a brief breakdown before diving in with a full on 'Maggot Brain'-inspired wah solo. Then we conclude with a giant final chorus, and I'm debating on how to bring this UP a little bit so it doesn't get too samey going through it.

So, a lot of fun influences in play, coming together to do something new sounding that I'm pretty excited about.

Lyrically, this is as direct a love song as I've written (see lyrics in prior post), so hopefully this comes off well -- I will leave this for you to decide!

Like "The Hook" (another favorite of mine from this new batch of songs), this one is in DGDGCC tuning, capoed on the first fret. This tuning seems to bring out something in me, and I'm tempted to just keep banging at it. When I was working on 'Start', I started playing in DADGAD, and "Two Places at Once", "Start at the Beginning", and "The Nothing Shines Through" all wrote themselves in the next two or three days. That was really fun.

With this newest song, I'm at 8 songs for the new record, so about two-thirds of the way there. This record I think still needs some more power rockers as I seem to be generating a lot of acoustic-sounding stuff.

Anyway, tomrrow night I'll be at Studio 7 in Seattle, so stay tuned for some videos of the gig there. Hope all is well with you, thanks for listening!

You Know I Need You

there's only one thing that you need to know
I need you with me wherever I go
wherever I go

there's only one thing that I need to see
to see you smiling next to me
next to me

there's only one thing that I need to say
I need your loving every day
every day

hey...you know I need you

there's only one thing that I need to do
is dedicate my life to you
I can be true

there's only one thing that I need to hold
your loving arms around me truth be told
truth be told

there's only one thing that I need to be
the one who lifts you up and sets you free
it could be me

if love and bliss are limitless
then why would we deny them
inner space and your hearts' grace
are there for you to find them
without your trust I will go bust
so don't give me your answer
cos I know that there's no other
way for me to go

It's Getting Away From Me

whatever world may come
whatever time undoes
without a word to say
I loved you all the way

so when you're looking back
at the love you lacked
please know the honest truth
is that I'm here for you, now

it's getting away from me
the vision that I know we could see
while everything hangs in the balance
interpreting one another's silence

and as the moonlight glows
and the nighttime slows
if you could dull the pain
you know the dreams remain

so if there's no way back
from our love's setback
please know the honest truth
I don't know what to do, now

don't think about what has been
just think about how we could begin
with a vow of an open heart
and a love that was fated from the start

Updatin'

Hey all, just wanted to hit you with a quick update. Last Thursday, I played an acoustic set at the Blaubak Gallery in Kirkland, WA. Check it out here.

Also, got another shot of inspiration from somewhere and have got another song percolating, this one titled 'It's Getting Away From Me'. So it's fun to be in the swim with new material. This one I think will go for a nice balance between acoustic and electric guitars (think 'Totem'), and has a straight-up Rick Springfield pop breakout in the bridge section -- so this should get interesting. I actually really like listening to Rick. One of these times, I'll get around to doing that covers album I've always wanted to do.

So, as I posted a few days ago, the 3rd album (I guess I'm not counting 'New Neural Substrate' as an album 'cos it was never really finished) is taking shape and while it partly feels like an extension of 'Start' (which was already extended, you say?) I think there's enough newness in the feels and textures and moods to justify the whole "not just staying in one place" notion.

It's been a long cold winter up here in WA state, and the idea of a nice warm spring sure is welcome...

So, the concert vids, and the new song (coming soon), the idea of a new record coming into view, these are all pretty fun and exciting. I probably need to overhaul the blog template and get into more fun stuff with web design, but for the moment, the focus is on music creatin' and updatin' stuff.

Thanks for listening!

Thoughts on Work in Progress...

I'm hard at work on my 3rd solo record, which I've been calling 'Work in Progress' for a while as a kind of non-name name. Now I'm thinking of calling it 'The Brightness' (hence the above photo), which is the name of what I think will be the opening track.

"Brightness is an attribute of visual perception in which a source appears to be radiating or reflecting light. In other words, brightness is the perception elicited by the luminance of a visual target. This is a subjective attribute/property of an object being observed."

Kind of fun to think about the subjectivity of perception and how we create our own world by assembling all the different clues that our senses give us.

So far, I've got 7 real songs in different states of doneness:

The Brightness
In the Valley
The World Fictive
One and the Same
Valley of Your Heart
Don't Keep on Waiting
The Hook

And, I've got a few ideas for new things germinating. I found an older cd in my car today that had some of the early early stuff that ended up as 'Start at the Beginning', and there were a couple songs, "Falling Away" and "A Series of Pictures" that I hadn't heard for a long time. They sounded pretty good to me, and I started to wonder if they would fit in with this new record -- using songs that are already done certainly is faster than making new ones! Although, one could argue that going through the leftovers of the back catalog is cheating for making a 'new' album.

What I think I've learned from 'Start at the Beginning' is that 15 songs, 62 minutes is probably tooooo long. So for this one, I will shoot for no more than 12 tunes -- these tracks are mostly coming in around 4 minutes or so, so I could be looking at a fairly concise 44-48 minute record.

There are a few dimensions that I look at as I'm working up these records, the emotional vibe, energy and tonality of the songs, the lyrics and the vocal approach. While it's early yet, I'd say this is looking to be fairly diverse in terms of emotional vibe from song to song -- 'The Brightness' is rocking and observational, 'The Hook' which, although I love it, is pretty much as big a downer song as I've done, and 'Valley of your Heart', which is maybe more hopeful and kind of forthcoming.

Musically, I've got some drum-loop based songs, some 'rock group' sounding songs, all of which feature guitar very prominently. So I don't think I've headed off too far from what I've done with 'Start', but I think it goes for more extremes -- the rocking songs rock harder, and the depressing songs are even more depressing!

Even at this stage, I can feel that there's a kind of progression happening which is really satisfying. This record seems to have more 'rock power', and it fairly cries out for more anthemic power rockers to be written for it, to reinforce this particular quality. So, hopefully I'll be able to answer the call of the wild on this one.

Certainly, my new Tonic amplifier helps hugely with adding the rock power! 'The Hook', which features the Tonic exclusively, sounds really great and I'm excited to have this much rich, saturated crunch in my sonic arsenal. So get ready for more rocking tunes to come soon.

Valley of Your Heart

it was a long time coming
but you finally told me how it feels
to be left alone by no fault of your own
already half way down this road we're on

I know I've strayed so far away
from the place where you needed me to be
and I don't know how I can come back now
into the sacred place of your heart

tell me there's a way back to the valley of your heart
even as these waves are breaking our love right apart

I need you to know just how far I will go
to heal the pain of your loneliness
if there's a tiny thread of your love unshred
maybe that's where I can start again

to see you feeling so alone
so far away from the love that we had known
it's always been that your heart is wild and free
but now I know that your world is lost to me

Ben Averch Interview WRKC 11/20/2008 Pt. 1

"Start" on Strutter

BEN AVERCH 'START AT THE BEGINNING'

Multi-instrumentalist BEN AVERCH is coming out of Boston, USA and has already released a few albums as well as playing in a band called BISON during the 1990s. Now he has released his second solo-CD titled ‘Start at the Beginning’. Musically we are listening to a mix of catchy 80s Poser Melodic Rockchoruses (sometimes), a lot of Poprock in a sort of almost DONNIE IRIS type of setting and some Punkrock, which is kinda weird as it is mixing DEAD KENNEDYS, CHEAP TRICK and SLYBOYZ, which you can hear during the first couple of songs, namely “Two places at once” being a very catchy melodic rock tune with a chorus a la SLYBOYZ, whilst “It ain’t me” is sounding like a CHEAP TRICKish Poprock version of DEAD KENNEDYS. But most of the CD is a pure Poprock bliss, some call it Powerpop… Ben is doing everything on his own and although the production is a bit thin, this CD is nice to check out and will mostly attract fans of catchy Poprock. More info at: http://averch.blogspot.com

Note to self, who is SLYBOYZ?

Ben Averch Announces Endorsement of Tonic Amps

Hi everyone,

It's my extraordinary pleasure to announce my endorsement of Tonic Amps, a boutique amplifier builder in the Bay Area of California, founded by mad tone scientist Darin Ellingson. Tonic Amps feature huge singing sustain, complex harmonics and crunch that positively rages and lilting, pure clean tones, giving me a huge variety of tone options in a single unit, without the need for channel switching.

Tonic is ramping production of a gorgeous new head called the "Vapour" that will altertnatively sing you the sweetest lullaby, and then just completely rip your face off. It's got the kind of timeless crunch that can never sound dated, bringing out the unique character of each guitar that runs through it.

In the weeks and months to come, I will be working closely with Tonic Amps as I complete the recording and production of my upcoming third solo record. You can expect a variety of audio and video clips that take you 'behind the scenes' of the recording process, and learn exactly how Tonic amps fulfill my lust for tone.

Check out this video of Tonic amplification in action with a PRS Custom 24 and stay tuned for more to come soon!

"Start" on Lords of Metal

"Start" on Lords of Metal

The 32 years old Ben Averch from Boston started his musical career as street musician and later he was singer/guitarist in the rock band Bison. He does everything himself on ‘Start At The Beginning’ and he reveals himself as multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer. It seems that Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam once gave him fifty dollar for a Bison demo.

The album includes fifteen songs and has a length of an hour. The roots as singer songwriter of the neat-looking American are obvious. ‘Two Places At Once’ is inspired by Bob Mould. ‘It Ain’t Me’ is a smooth rocking track, while the title track has an atmospheric tinge. ‘Pure Energy’ is one of the better songs. One can hear some grunge influences and repetitive guitars. The best feature on this album is the guitar skills. The album occludes with an acoustic version of ‘Western Sky’, a cover of American Music Club.

Pandora reviews "Start at the Beginning"

"Start" on Pandora.com

Two Places At Once

a subtle use of vocal harmony
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
major key tonality
a vocal-centric aesthetic
electric guitar riffs
a good dose of acoustic guitar pickin'
an emotional male lead vocal performance
acoustic rhythm guitars
prominent percussion

It Ain't Me

a subtle use of vocal counterpoint
a subtle use of vocal harmony
varying tempo and time signatures
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
minor key tonality
a vocal-centric aesthetic
electric guitar riffs
an emotional male lead vocal performance
acoustic rhythm guitars

Start At The Beginning

basic rock song structures
folk influences
varying tempo and time signatures
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
minor key tonality
a vocal-centric aesthetic
electric guitar riffs
a good dose of acoustic guitar pickin'
an emotional male lead vocal performance
acoustic rhythm guitars
vocal harmonies

The Source Of Love

major key tonality
electric guitar riffs
an emotional male lead vocal performance
vocal harmonies

Out Of My Reach

basic rock song structures
folk influences
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
major key tonality
a vocal-centric aesthetic
electric guitar effects
an emotional male lead vocal performance
acoustic rhythm guitars
heartbreaking lyrics
vocal harmonies

Creative Destruction

basic rock song structures
a subtle use of vocal harmony
acoustic rhythm piano
mixed minor & major key tonality
twangy guitars
an emotional male lead vocal performance

Love From The World

folk rock qualities
a subtle use of vocal harmony
mild rhythmic syncopation
a twelve-eight time signature
acoustic sonority
major key tonality
an emotional male lead vocal performance
acoustic rhythm guitars
triple note feel

Hope Anchor

folk influences
mild rhythmic syncopation
mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation
minor key tonality
twangy guitars
a good dose of acoustic guitar pickin'
an emotional male lead vocal performance
acoustic rhythm guitars
prominent percussion
romantic lyrics
vocal harmonies

Pure Energy

basic rock song structures
a subtle use of vocal harmony
varying tempo and time signatures
extensive vamping
minor key tonality
a vocal-centric aesthetic
electric guitar riffs
an emotional male lead vocal performance
acoustic rhythm guitars
prominent percussion
romantic lyrics

The Nothing Shines Through

a subtle use of vocal harmony
mild rhythmic syncopation
varying tempo and time signatures
minor key tonality
twangy guitars
an emotional male lead vocal performance
prominent organ
acoustic rhythm guitars
subtle use of acoustic piano

My Darling Ruin

basic rock song structures
punk influences
extensive vamping
major key tonality
a vocal-centric aesthetic
electric guitar riffs
an emotional male lead vocal performance
vocal harmonies

When You Were Born

mellow rock instrumentation
folk influences
a subtle use of vocal harmony
extensive vamping
minor key tonality
electric guitar riffs
an emotional male lead vocal performance
prominent organ
prominent use of synth
upbeat lyrics

You Can Only Feel

a subtle use of vocal harmony
minor key tonality
dirty electric guitar riffs
twangy guitars
an emotional male lead vocal performance
use of techno synths
prominent synth drums
prominent percussion

What Holds Us Together

a subtle use of vocal harmony
varying tempo and time signatures
extensive vamping
minor key tonality
twangy guitars
electric guitar effects
an emotional male lead vocal performance

Western Sky

folk rock qualities
a subtle use of vocal harmony
extensive vamping
acoustic sonority
major key tonality
an emotional male lead vocal performance
acoustic rhythm guitars
heartbreaking lyrics

Heavy Metal Resource Reviews - Metallica, Buckcherry, Joetown, Crash Test Kids, & Ben Averch

Heavy Metal Resource Reviews - Metallica, Buckcherry, Joetown, Crash Test Kids, & Ben Averch: "Ben Averch - Start at the Beginning © 2008 Ben Averch

You have heard of the one man band eh? Ben Averch is literally that. His latest effort showcases him playing everything and doing vocals. You can tell he is really a fan of Rush and a pretty decent era of Rush in my humble opinion. The sound of the guitars and the structure of the songs remind me of Rush around the mid to late 80's. He manages to hit the technicality that is progressive Rush, but not get so overly technical that it becomes boring. I would love to hear this record performed with a complete band and maybe hand off to a different vocalist. He's not bad, but does have a different quality in ways. Keep your eye on Ben Averch!

"Start at the Beginning" on iTunes!

Hey everyone, now "Start" is on iTunes!

Check it out!

Thanks,
Ben

"Start at the Beginning" on CD Baby!

At long last, my new record is finally available to the public through CD Baby! It's been a long road -- "Start at the Beginning" was started back in May of 2006, right after I finished "Washington State".

I started off on this new adventure with a trio of drum-loop based songs, "Pure Energy", "The Source of Love" and "You Can Only Feel". These satisfied two needs for me; to enter into some new sonic territory, and to be able to write and record without starting with a perfect drum performance as the basis for the songs. It was really satisfying to be able to just lay down a rhythm (a robotically precise, perfect rhythm, no less) and then play with arrangements, sounds, etc. It was a new experience to play bass lines along to a drum loop and not have to worry about any 'anomalies'! These songs took some time to come together, and as it evolved, "You Can Only Feel" benefitted a lot from some arrangement ideas from my brother Mike.

I then started to work on songs in my traditional writing/recording approach, where I'll write the song on acoustic, figure out the arrangement and then take a hack at the drum part, and then build up the song from there. I did a big chunk of the record in a few weeks including "Hope Anchor", "Start at the Beginning", "It Ain't Me", "The Nothing Shines Through" and "Two Places at Once".

During this process, I would spend my driving time going through mixes of the songs, listening for places to put more guitars, more vocals, and try to do the most I can with the songs given that the arrangements are pretty well locked down by virtue of having the drum tracks complete. So, a lot of time was spent driving around, listening to rough mixes, and kind of hearing the songs as I wanted to hear them.



In March of this year, I visited my Dad, brother Mike, and childhood friend Dave down for some skiing in Taos, NM. I took advantage of this opportunity to run some mixes that I thought were almost there by these guys, who all provided good insights into how to make the songs better -- probably the most notable of this advice was to drop the bass out of the first half of "Nothing Shines Through", which gives the song a lot more momentum.

These are the kinds of pointers and ideas that are so valuable for a guy who writes and records everything himself; an objective ear of a bandmate or a producer isn't available, so you lean on friends and family to listen to the rough mixes and offer their advice when they can give it.

In April, I took the mixes to John McCaig at panicStudios in West Seattle, who again did a great job mastering this record (he also did "WA State"), and encouraged me to turn up the guitar solos (which I did and I'm thankful for it)!

Of the finished record, I will admit that there is no objectivity after all this time working on it. So I'll leave it to the listeners to experience -- but I will share some of my favorite moments with you: the verse wallop in "Creative Destruction", the guitar solo in "Start at the Beginning" (of this lead, my brother commented, "this is like your 'Limelight'" -- the highest praise!), the ending jams in "It Ain't Me", and "The Nothing Shines Through", and what I think is a faithful version of one of my favorite songs, "Western Sky" by American Music Club.

So, here it is, at long last. Now I turn my attention to my third record, as yet untitled, already five songs deep! These songs are so far, shorter, brighter and (with one exception) a little lighter in mood, but hopefully still hard rocking. But, let's not get ahead of myself...the world first needs to hear "Start"...be sure to let me know what you think!

The World Fictive

we all have to live
in a world where all you have is what you can give
like the moon chasing down the sea
I can always feel your presence pulling me

and everytime that I feel this way
remember it's all a dream, insane
when I don't have anything more to give
remember this time

the air or cold, hard ground
you're the sum of blinding light and pounding sound

and everytime that I can't get through
I'll realize it's the world come true
when I don't have anything more to give
remember this time

and now I can't outlive
the world fictive

my heart yearns for you
and this hopeless disillusion of the truth

and everytime that I see the sky
remember that it's a dream on fire
when I don't have anything more to feel
remember this time