Ben Averch Music Blog

Ben in The Digital Conglomerate Magazine

2011-03-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

There's an interview with me in this month's issue of The Digital Conglomerate magazine, featuring Boston rapper JQKA on the cover. Check it out for my thoughts on technology, music, influences and inspirations.

Thanks to Garland McLaughlin for reaching out!

Video Interview with BandsLikeRush

2011-03-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a video version of my interview with Ben Sommer of BandsLikeRush. Thanks to Ben for putting this together! Hope you enjoy it.

New Year's Resolutions

2010-12-31T00:05:00.000-08:00

It's the last day of the year and I thought I'd put together a few thoughts on the year that's passed and what I'm looking forward to in 2011. This year I spent a lot of time reflecting inward and trying to gain a better understanding of myself as a person -- my motivations, my fears and my idea of what it means to succeed. I read a whole lot of books on psychology, spirituality and relationships, including "The Five Things We Cannot Change" by David Richo, and a bunch more by him and a bunch of other stuff in a similar vein.

It has been a fruitful time -- I feel generally lighter-hearted and more self-assured so that's pretty nice. I got the chance to do a lot of jamming (and all these jams were recorded!) with a Korean guitarist named Jeff Lee, an immensely talented guy and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Jeff contributed some guitar solos for a couple songs that I had been working on, and I had some of the best times ever backing him on drums or bass, or backing him on guitar while he soloed like a demon. Great fun.

Regarding my own music, during the year I completed my "Fortune Cookie" record, which was received very well, and was a very satisfying way to draw the curtain on the thematic arc that started with my "Start at the Beginning" record back in 2008.

It was a lot of fun to complete the album, and to see people respond to it -- and one of things that struck me was how people seemed to notice the emotional directness of the record, which maybe goes against the grain of a lot of "tongue-in-cheek" modern rock music. Not quite as emotionally direct as, say, American Music Club, but I'm not sure the world (or me) is ready for that!

Basically immediately after I finished "Fortune Cookie", I set to work on a new record, looking to leave behind a lot of the heaviness of the subject matter of the last two records, and over the last six months or so I've recorded a lot of new material. I wrote about ten new songs and brought back a couple from the archives, and they're in varying states of doneness. But one of the things I really want to do with this new record (working title "E.S.P.") is just make something that sounds HUGE. I'm maybe 80% done with the writing and recording for this new record, but with any project like this, the tendency for perfectionism (and admitted lack of a real deadline) could allow this process to stretch out for another year if I'm not careful. But early indications are that this record should be pretty good, if you like that kind of thing.

So that brings me to the coming year and what I (and you, the listener) can look forward to. Obviously the new solo record is something that I am hugely excited about, but one of the other really exciting things going on is that I've been working on some material from deep in the archives with good friend producer Ed Becker. This is work I did with my brother Mike and includes some of our favorite psychedelic rock anthems like the Resident Evil-inspired "What Happened to Jill and Wesker?" and my personal favorite a wistful, dynamic powerhouse called "Memory Man". Mike wrote the music and played the guitars on these songs, I provided the lyrics, played drums and bass and vocals, and played a little bit of extra guitars in a few songs.

Having these older songs (all recorded between 1998 and 2005) back in action is really fun, and Ed is taking them to another level with his mixes and restoration. So I'm excited for this 'bonus album' of material. It's great to hear my brother's guitar playing -- it's very ambient, melodic and textured, so when the heavy parts happen it's very intense and cool. Mike and I have had for a long time a strong intuitive sense about the other's musical ideas and cool places they could go to. We have been a good team, so while it's kind of sad that we don't get to work together on music that much, when we do work it's very productive, and enjoyable.

So I'm hoping to finish the "E.S.P." record, finish the "Mike and Ben Archives" record, get those released and do some collaborations with some more artists. If 2010 was a year of reflection and growth, I'm hoping to just exponentially increase the output in 2011 and really attack hard in terms of my creativity and productivity musically. Get into "harvest mode" from all these ideas and learnings that have hopefully taken root from the last year.

So that's what I'm planning, or hoping for. Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Fortune Cookie on Sea of Tranquility

2010-11-09T16:41:00.000-08:00

Fortune Cookie on Sea of Tranquility

One man band Ben Averch has built a reputation for blending the Modern Rock sounds of the 80's with Alt Rock style of the 90's and third album Fortune Cookie finds him continuing in much the same vein. Taking his cue from the Bob Mould fronted Sugar, Averch also weaves some classic prog rock influences into his work, notably on the Rush-tinged opener "Love Me Anyway". Mournful vocals and melodies that twist and turn are much in evidence across the hypnotic loop of "The Hook" and angst filled "It's Getting Away From Me". The contrast between acoustic strumming and electric riffs contributes to the brooding atmosphere throughout with the mood lightened by the arena rockers "One and The Same" and "Something to Revolve Around", either of which would not have sounded out of place on anything by the Foo Fighters. Another track worth highlighting is "Landfall" which finds Averch at seemingly his lowest ebb lyrically but also demonstrates his ability as a drummer of note with some solid rhythms.

...Averch is an unquestionable talent and has clearly devoted his heart and soul into his work and is well worth investigating.

Keep Choppin' Wood

2010-08-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

I’m happy to say that I’ve been back to work in the studio over the last couple of weeks, and I’m cranking on some new material for what is likely to become my fourth solo album. So far, there are four tracks in process, plus a couple secret ones:

“Force Field” is a heavy rocking number with big chords, big arpeggios and a big gulp of a guitar solo. This one is about circling the sun and hurtling through space without ever really feeling it…kind of an extension of the idea in the opening refrain from Fortune Cookie opener “Love Me Anyway” (“it’s not the sun that’s setting/it’s just that you are spinning away”).

It needs a lot of work still but it’s got a lot of potential; this one sits in the ‘power progressive rock’ domain pretty squarely, but hopefully won’t feel generic by the time I’m done with it. There’s an energy to it that’s pretty groovy.

Another song, “Lift”, is either going to be a crazy instrumental, or I’m going to write some crazy words for it. But crazy is the word. This one has several movements, starting with a laid-back-yet-intense slow burn of a groove, then diving into a heavy syncopated unison part (yeah, this will provoke Rush comparisons), then into a lighter arpeggiated section, then more heaviness, more lightness and a multi-part solo section that starts dreamy and breezy, and then dives right into the inky blackness with a section that hopefully, maybe might bring to the dark recesses of the listeners’ subconscious mind some of the really evil guitar sounds from John McLaughlin on Miles Davis’ heavy, dark rocking funk stuff like “Big Fun”…which is not to say that McLaughlin and I are on the same planet as guitarists!

I whittled this one down from over 8 minutes to a more manageable 5 or so, so now there’s a whole lot of adventure packed into a short while. We’ll see whether we need that guy yelping over it to make it the best it can be.

“Morning Phantom/Waking Dream” is a mood and texture piece, with some similarities (to me, anyway) to my song “Source of Love” from Start at the Beginning. A couple months back, I spent some time sampling different drum sounds from the recordings of Jawbox drummer Zach Barocas, and loading them into my drum machine. Zach has always been one of my very favorite drummers (and Jawbox one of my very favorite bands), and I always loved his drum sounds – a snare that cracks like a gunshot on every hit, and toms that are very resonant, tonal and melodic.

So sitting around with my guitar one night, I came upon a little melody that I thought would make the perfect backdrop for a song. Add a couple more segments for a chorus and bridge and I had something pretty exciting. Feeling like I was still sketching things out, but wanting something a little more exciting than just a metronome loop to play back to, I took my sampled Jawbox drum kit and made a circular, snapping two-bar loop that runs through the body of the song. I put the loop through some filters to make it a little bit my own, and add some “feel”, and with a little bit of shaker and tambourine, we’ve got a pretty alive sounding rhythm section.

Lyrically, I’m talking about the sense of feeling like you already know what’s going to happen, and in this haze, miss out on what is happening: “In the morning, there’s a phantom of the things are still yet to be…in the waking dream, you think you know what you see/is it a fool who believes that he’s got E.S.P.” Kind of a fun idea and it goes very nicely with the other song…

“Telepath” started life on a cross-continental airplane ride, as scribbles on the back of a napkin, or a section of an in flight magazine. Its recorded life began back in April and May at my friend Ed Becker’s studio, and I’ve recently begun building it out at my own place. This one is reminiscent of some of the songs on Start at the Beginning, with a hybrid acoustic-electric kind of feel, some really fun arpeggio sections, and then that emotional warbling over the top of everything. This is the most melodic of all the songs, and the most emotionally direct – so of course it is my favorite. I don’t want to give away too much on this one. It’s pretty exciting.

My friend Ed turned me on to an EQ’ing tool called Har-Bal (I think that stands for Harmonic Balancing) that lets you input a source track that it then analyzes somehow and creates an EQ profile that it can apply to other songs that you put into it. I applied this process to “Morning Phantom” using “Back on Me” on Urge Overkill’s Saturation album as the reference and wouldn’t you know, the track sounds amazingly better. So I started wondering if maybe I could save a whole lot of money on album mastering and just do it myself by “borrowing” EQ profiles from my favorite sounding songs…this would allow me to get a lot more stuff out there, even if it won’t sound like it’s on Capitol Records or whatever. Another tool for the toolbox…

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for these tunes and other new ones!

Fortune Cookie on Prognaut

2010-07-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

Fortune Cookie on Prognaut

You swear you are hearing a full band in full stomp, but this really is a one man show. Ripping guitars and drums that just smash along the sound shore. Ben has kind of a young Tom Petty sound to his voice, only deeper. That is as close to any major artists that I can pin that vocal sound. Those grinding and soaring lead guitar riffs are amazing.

Rating: 8/10 – This is a good album that provides this one man band with an excellent showcase for his talents. To play all of these instruments so well, write all of the interesting lyrics and sing the entire album is quite an accomplishment in itself. Each instrument on this album is well played, and then you remember this is a one man show. Putting all of this together must have been time consuming. We get to sit back and enjoy the show.

Fortune Cookie on The CD Reviewer

2010-06-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

Fortune Cookie on The CD Reviewer

By C.W. Ross

Seattle singer songwriter Ben Averch likes to stretch the genres boundaries adding in elements of both modern, and Indie Rock via thick drum parts and electric guitar solos that are found on the songs that make up his latest release, ‘Fortune Cookie’. Averch is also pretty much a one-man band playing, drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, loops and handling the vocals.

Averch’s MySpace page list his musical influences as, Rush, Jawbox, Yes, Swervedriver, Sugar, Urge Overkill, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Alex Lifeson, American Music Club, Kings X, Bob Mould, Husker Du, Jayhawks, Channels, Burning Airlines and John Coltrane.

Ben Averch waste no time getting the music flowing in the right way with the track, “Love Me Anyway” that mixes pop and rock together to achieve its style. Like just about all of the other songs found on this release the song’s lyrics deal with love and relationship issues.

You’ll find both ends of love dealt with in the songs from betrayal like found on, “You Won’t Be Owing Me”, to the true love found track, “Something to Revolve Around”.

On the track, “The Hook”, Averch brings some electronic elements to the music via its loops. You’ll also find a nice rocking guitar solo part on it. I’ve read that this is also one of Averch’s favorite tracks on the CD.

Besides on “The Hook” you’ll also find several other nice guitar solos found in the other songs.

The shortest track, (1:23 running time) is the instrumental, “Moment of Peace” that acts like a, ‘musical sherbet’ cleansing track that will refresh your musical palette.

The last track that I want to mention is, “Something to Revolve Around”. Probably the most upbeat track, lyrically speaking, it deals with finding true love and features a mixture of keys and guitar parts.

With ‘Fortune Cookie’, Averch shows that music doesn’t have to fit into a small musical box. Because it’s when those style genre boundaries are stretched that the real magic starts to happen.

Ben Averch Featured Artist of the Month at WikiMusicGuide

2010-05-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Featured Artist of May | Ben Averch

His soul and love for his craft reflects on every music that he makes. Every song that he writes has a story to tell. He is Ben Averch, the “one man symphony of prog rock!” And we at the WikiMusicGuide are so honored to have him interviewed and featured as our artist of the month.

It all started when I first heard the Fortune Cookie’s carrier single, “The Hook”. I instantly became a fan of a man whose music has a definition that is beyond the strums of his guitar and beat of his drums. More than just the hymn, it’s the story of the song, “The Hook” that made me decide to listen to his music more.

But Ben Averch did not only give me a new music to listen to. He has also cheerfully accepted my invitation to have him interviewed and be featured on our blog. Indeed, it was a remarkable experience as he is the first musician to be personally interviewed by me.

Thank you again, Ben for the opportunity to know you and your music more...

Fortune Cookie on Ink 19

2010-05-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

Fortune Cookie on Ink 19

Seattle singer/songwriter Ben Averch may sound like a band at times, but he's definitely a lone warrior. On his latest album, Averch cranks the noise level higher than it's ever been -- and every thump and crackle is the offspring of his fingers. Averch is a one-man army, one who doesn't subscribe to the water-cooler blandness of his acoustic-pop brethren. While many male solo artists are veering toward the folk route, Averch lets rip his Guitar Hero. The result is a sound that combines the slick Modern Rock of the '80s with the ominous fuzz of '90s Alternative Nation.

The greatest strength of the CD is in its first four blockbusters. On "Love Me Anyway," Averch captures the breathless heartache of Bob Mould (there's even a lyrical nod to Mould's pioneering group Hüsker Dü) with a sparkling pop sheen. It's a killer track, one that attaches itself to the ears with sticky hooks. This would've been played endlessly on Modern Rock radio circa 1992; actually, it's not even that far off from the Foo Fighters today. "You Know I Need You" is darker, creating a tense atmosphere of romantic obsession and longing with spine-tingling acoustic riffs that eventually explode in a wall of electric angst. Layers of introspective brooding make "You Know I Need You" so effective. On "It's Getting Away from Me" and "The Hook," Averch continues to unveil his arsenal of memorable and addictive melodies, all presented with a shadow of inner turmoil.

Eschewing the ironic twists and low-fidelity quirks of indie rock, Averch proudly marches with a style of his own, free from trendy inspirations. The arena-ready "One and the Same" combines the bracing grunge of Sugar with the epic guitars of U2 while ["Landfall"] finds Averch down in a hole of his own personal hell. Alternative rock used to mean something, and this record reminds us of its true definition.

By Robert M. Sutton

New Interview on BandsLikeRush.com

2010-05-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Here is an in depth interview I did with Ben Sommer of BandsLikeRush.com that covers a whole lot of ground, including my early musical upbringing, the process of creating material on my own, the "Fortune Cookie" record, the influence of Rush on my music, Eddie Vedder and the Harvard Square busking experience and much more...enjoy!

Ben Averch on BandsLikeRush.com

My guest today is the first unsolicited interviewee for BandsLikeRush.com. Ben Averch – a one-man progressive rock band from Seattle – contacted me directly at this website with an offer to talk. I’m glad he did because – not only is his music great – but he’s an avid, long-time Rush fan, with great stories to boot. Its quite rare to find a fellow musician who – like me – writes, performs and records his own music – and doesn’t SUCK! On the contrary, his music is not at all simple Rush “similac” or directly derivative from any other classic prog rock band, but are personal statements, with great arrangement, production, and musicianship. His songs have grown on me – they’re in my iPod – I suggest they get in yours.

Start at the Beginning on CrossOver

2010-04-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

Start at the Beginning on CrossOver - Network For Youth Culture

(Translated from German by Google!)

Ben Averch is from Seattle, has however not yet Nevermore Grunge something to do with with. However, Ben Averch has a certain musical individuality, which is worth to look closer to it. Music is a matter of taste, for sure, but regardless you have to "Start At The Beginning" extraordinary publication classified as. It is the second CD by Ben Averch and he has recorded all the instruments himself. At first I tended more to the singer / songwriter-drawer to put the whole thing, but ultimately it would be wrong. OK, Ben sings and writes the songs, but here also lies more in it yet. Ultimately, I unabashedly titling the whole time with all kind of rock, finally narrowed the music not so much. The music conveys all the time a pleasant Achtzigerflair (sometimes we slip into the seventies), though this whole thing as no one should dismiss as stale. The mix of rock and electronic pop reminiscent in places of OMD, only then prog giants of Rush in the mind's eye to appear that the short order, turn classical melodies to place clear which already bands like Cheap Trick and Kansas did celebrate. All songs are very catchy, the choruses and the vocals never seem cluttered very harmonious and somehow reassuring. Ben Averch is a great combination of rock and pop success. Ultimately, the perfect soundtrack to smile over it to see if the TV is just exploding onto brand-new sofa or the cat has puked. Hey, peace!

Back for the Attack

2010-04-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a new song at my good friend Ed Becker's studio. Ed runs Eltmon Productions and has produced some really terrific stuff by a bunch of musicians including Christopher Youngblood who, like your correspondent, is a play-all-the-instruments-himself guy.

It's great to be working on new material so soon after finishing "Fortune Cookie", and it's especially fun to work with Ed, who is bringing out a real hugeness to the track. It's the first time in a long time that I've recorded with a producer-who-is-not-myself and it's great to be challenged on some of my basic assumptions during the recording (such as the you-could-call-it-compulsive need to have 100s of guitar tracks). In fact, Ed even suggested that if I resist my tendency to layer and layer and overdub forever, that I may be able to get another record out in 3 months instead of my usual "18-24 month cadence."

So that has been food for thought for sure. In any case, the song has taken shape very quickly and I'm very hopeful it will turn out well. (Early returns are encouraging.) It's a welcome relief to simply write, play and sing and let someone else work on the computer! I'm not sure yet whether I'm doing a record, or just busting out a track here, but as always, the thrill of creating new stuff makes me super happy.

Hope to give y'all an update on this work really soon!

Ben Averch Interview with Bob Decker (WRKC) Part 3

2010-04-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

Ben Averch Interview with Bob Decker (WRKC) Part 3

Hi all,

Here's part 3 of my Fortune Cookie interview with Bob Decker of "Bob's Metal Show". This segment includes the following super fun topics:

1. Inspiration for the lyrics
2. Do-it-yourself vs. chasing record labels
3. Being as prolific as possible

WRKC FM Stream

Ben Averch Interview with Bob Decker (WRKC) Part 2

2010-04-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

Ben Averch Interview with Bob Decker (WRKC) Part 2

Here's part 2 of my interview with Bob Decker. This segment covers:

1. "Fortune Cookie" stylistic differences from "Start at the Beginning"
2. Approach to guitar solos
3. Layering inside the tracks

WRKC FM Stream

Ben Averch Interview with Bob Decker (WRKC) Part 1

2010-04-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

Ben Averch Interview with Bob Decker (WRKC) Part 1

Here's part 1 of an interview I did with WKRC's Bob Decker, host of "Bob's Metal Show". The topic of the interview is the album "Fortune Cookie". Part 1 includes:

1. Album title and artwork
2. Older tracks making the record
3. Sonic approach

WRKC FM Stream

Fortune Cookie FTW!

2010-03-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

<a href="http://averch.bandcamp.com/album/fortune-cookie">Fortune Cookie by Ben Averch</a>

At long last, here is my third solo record, hope you like it!

Masters of the Universe

2010-02-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

On Monday I had the privilege to work with Seattle's great mastering engineer John McCaig at panicStudios in Capitol Hill. John worked his magic on the "Fortune Cookie" tracks -- it was a thrill and relief to finally hand the project off and have another pair of ears and point of view to look at and listen to the record. Good news is that I pretty much had most things in a good place as far as the mixes and the running order go (minor changes to what had been reported before!), so we were able to spend most of the session pumping the tracks through the variety of switches, dials and mysterious computational gizmos that took all the tracks to the next level.

So there's just a little more work to do on the music itself, and then on to artwork and packaging. I’ve already got a pretty decent head start on the cover – a composite of a self portrait silhouette photograph and a map of the solar system. So it’s pretty exciting to be this close to the finish line on the project. Initial feedback has been strong and I’m feeling good that this is a cohesive, solid work.

Regarding some of the recent changes to the record, the new version of “One and the Same” I think turned out nicely – it’s kind of a slow burn, with an organic, almost Americana type of feel, but by the closing chorus finally fulfills its bombastic rock potential.

Maybe I’m almost there…!

Fortune Cookie

2010-01-25T23:18:00.001-08:00

Hi all,

Well at long last, the new album is approaching the final stages. Some major milestones: I've decided on a title, "Fortune Cookie", after living with some less-than-wonderful working titles for a long time. Not a lot of deep meaning there, but a fun title and sometimes that's all you need.

I've added three older songs to the record, re-recording "Fortune Cookie" (currently the opener), "You Won't Be Owing Me", a slow, grinder with a big solo section, and "Something to Revolve Around", one of my very best songs and a definitive tune to close out the record. Each of these three songs were written about 15 years ago, so it's kind of interesting and fun to see how it feels to revisit some older songs and make them new again.

The upside to re-doing older songs (or in the case of "You Won't Be Owing Me", recording an old song for the very first time), it's faster than sitting there trying to write a new song. The downside is, once the back catalog of old treasures has been depleted, there's no going back!

So it is. Some seemingly difficult decisions have made themselves pretty easy over the last week, such as which tracks to leave off the record. "Start at the Beginning", while I love it dearly, I think it's safe to say was just too long at 15 songs and 62 minutes. I arrived at the same 15 songs after the last 22 months of working on this project, and have decided (for now) to move the following songs into bonus tracks: "The Brightness" (despite a super fun solo), "In the Valley" (also a fun solo!), "Don't Keep on Waiting" (this one I was told I sounded like Kermit the Frog so that's reason enough), and "Moment of Peace" which is a pretty fun one-minute instrumental.

Now, I can't say that I'm really almost done, because "One and the Same" basically sounds like total mush to me, and I guess I've never really been happy with how it sounds, ever since I recorded it way back at the beginning of what has now become the "Fortune Cookie Sessions". So, re-doing this is what I have decided to do. This will hopefully come together nicely and I think I should be able to knock this out this upcoming weekend.

Not to get ahead of myself, but the next page in the manual says to make the artwork, do the liner notes and figure out what to do in terms of packaging. Despite the CD going the way of the sabertooth tiger, I'll still do a pressing because that's how I feel like I actually made something and saw it through to completion. It's just an old school mentality over here. This time, I'll work up a nice cover and liner notes either myself or in collaboration with someone.

And of course, mastering! I'm excited to get the chance to work again with John McCaig at panicStudios in Seattle. John's already given me some great feedback on the mixes (something like "these are too loud"!) which is terrific since I can kinda get tunnel vision and having any neutral observer feeding back is hugely helpful.

So, it'll only get better from here. Hopefully "One and the Same" redux turns out great and lives up to my expectation for that song. Hmm, maybe "One and the Same" is a better title than "Fortune Cookie"...nah!

Anyway the main impression that I get listening back to this record is that it is a pretty hard driving record with a lot of texture and vitality to it. It's mostly relationship songs (like any of a zillion other records), but I hope that these come across with a kind of maturity or at least perspective that's unique (and hopefully people can understand it). But at any rate, the music can just wash over you like a stream and forget about that guy yelping, and that's fine too.

I'm looking forward to putting the finishing touches together and seeing this through to its completion...so I can start another record!

This time, my brother Mike and I will be working on a collaboration record, which we have done on and off over the last several years, doing a song here and there. But this time we are pretty jazzed about doing a collection of material. So that's something I look forward to doing once "Fortune Cookie" is complete.

So, stay tuned for more rock in your future!

Landfall

2009-11-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

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

2009-07-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-05-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

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 Doug Cabot, 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

2009-03-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Nick for taking these shots.

Ben Live at Studio 7, March 12, 2009

2009-03-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-03-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

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'

2009-02-15T17:05:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-02-10T15:39:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-27T22:17:00.001-08:00

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

"Start" on Strutter

2008-11-20T22:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T11:37:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-02T21:58:00.000-08:00

"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"

2008-11-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

"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

2008-10-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, now "Start" is on iTunes!

Check it out!

Thanks,
Ben

"Start at the Beginning" on CD Baby!

2008-08-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-22T19:45:00.001-07:00

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

Ben Averch Has Unleashed His Second Solo Album 'Start At The Beginning' @ Top40-Charts.com - 40 Top 20 & Top 40 Music Charts from 25 Countries

2008-08-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

Ben Averch Has Unleashed His Second Solo Album 'Start At The Beginning' @ Top40-Charts.com - 40 Top 20 & Top 40 Music Charts from 25 Countries

Seattle, WA. (Top40 Charts/ Automatic Earth) - Seattle area transplant (via Boston) Ben Averch has unleashed his second solo album, 'Start At The Beginning' through his own Automatic Earth label,featuring standout tracks including the crushing rocker "It Ain't Me" and the epic, atmospheric "The Source of Love".
Having been called a "one man symphony of prog rock", Averch is an accomplished bassist, guitarist, vocalist, keyboardist, songwriter, producer and engineer and utilizes all of those talents throughout every second of his sophomore effort.
"It's really satisfying to create a big, arena rock feel by playing each part myself. This approach allows me to lock in to some subtle nuances of each instrument and realize the vision I have for each song," said Averch.

The fifteen song opus reflects Ben's influences which range from electronica to intricate prog rock and acoustic singer/songwriter styled ballads. "Growing up, I formed a lifelong love of progressive rock, most notably Rush and Yes," continued Averch. "When I heard some of the electronic music of the 90s, I always thought that a combination of prog rock with electronica would be something exciting. So, this record has both prog rock songs and electronic drum loop based songs with heavier, fuzzier guitar textures. There's also a strong acoustic undercurrent to the album, which represents my time as a busker in Boston."

During the mid-90s, Averch cut his performing teeth touring across the country with the hard rock act Bison, and made his living delivering high-energy, arena-style acoustic hard rock in Harvard Square, Cambridge as one of Boston's premier street musicians. This period was marked by his recognition from Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, who gave Averch a $50 tip in exchange for a Bison demo tape. "It was really exciting to know that Eddie appreciated what I was putting out there. It's cool to think our demo tape got some air time in the Pearl Jam tour bus," concluded Averch.

With 'Start At The Beginning', Ben Averch has delivered an album that speaks to people from every walk of life as well as many genre specific music fans - all in a timeframe of 62 minutes. For more information on Ben Averch, and to stream the entire album, visit http://averch.imeem.com

Looking down on the world from your airspace

2008-08-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

So, here's a brand new song called "In the Valley".

I'm excited by this one -- I've written a lot of songs with this general motif of bright, crunchy, melodic power rock and this one feels like it really comes together.

A couple points of inspiration -- Songfight.org puts up suggested titles every week, and then people record songs with those titles and they have a competition. (I've participated in one Songfight to date, called 'Sunny Again' from I think five years ago.) They often have really goofy titles that I couldn't do anything with, but a few weeks ago, they had the title 'In the Valley' and I thought that would be very cool to try. Well, I wasn't able to get the song done in five days, but it's been brought to a pretty full state now and that gets me psyched.

My wife rented this movie called "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" about this guy who writes a whole book by using just one eyelid to blink the letters of each word. It was an amazing movie, and I guess you can actually buy this guy's book. Well, there's one scene where he starts talking about the experience of dying and he describes leaving the memories of life on the shoreline as he floats out into the unknown realm. I thought that was a really moving image and so here it is in this rock song!

Musically, this has some fun elements. Big, bright guitars throughout, a bridge with a nice vocal harmony, into an instrumental break with apreggiated synth chords laying the foundation for a moody solo that seems to elevate nicely (to me, this is reminiscent of the solo from my song 'A Chance for Me to Stay').

Anyway, have at this one...this brings me to four new "Work in Progress" songs since "Start" was completed, six new ones total counting the Ben & Mike Averch songs. Thanks for listening, please let me know what you think!

Ben

The Brightness

2008-06-13T13:57:00.001-07:00

The Brightness - Ben Averch

The Brightness

2008-06-07T20:40:00.001-07:00

I want something so bad
That it haunts me when I sleep
Life keeps escaping
From the worlds that I get to keep

I try to hold it but it slips right through
I try to fight it but it just comes true
In every moment it keeps coming through in waves

You want something so real
That it turns you right around
Dreams that you can’t see
Like a love that is never found

It doesn’t matter what you have been through
It only matters what you have to do
Is every moment that you’re living through the same?

When you dream of everything coming your way
In the daylight dreams just drift away

I want something so true
That it shakes me to the core
It started with a whisper
Now it’s beating down the door

I tried to see it but the darkness grew
I tried to feel it but I never knew
This hopeful vision that keeps falling through my hands

When you dream of everything coming your way
In the daylight dreams just drift away
When I hope that you won’t forget my name
Every moment that I’m living through's the same

Be seen in the brightness
Be true in the lightness
Be real in the purest
Belief in the truest

One and the Same Vid

2008-05-28T12:00:00.001-07:00

One and the Same Song and Vid

2008-05-27T10:17:00.001-07:00

Got a chance today to do a new acoustic performance video and an mp3 upload for a brand new song, 'One and the Same'.

I hope you like it, it's fun to be back recording again -- with the two songs I've done with my brother Mike, the next record is already three songs deep. This video was recorded straight up without a vocal mic, so the balance between guitar and vocal is exactly as it sounded in the room at the time.
Anyway, it's nice to have a new acoustic vid, it's been over two months, so hopefully this is a sign of more action to come.

"Start at the Beginning" is going out to a bunch of radio stations presently so we'll see what happens there, too...! Thanks for all your comments and support, it means a lot.

One and the Same

2008-05-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

Is there space around your heart
Any place for me to start
To find my way back from the edge
Where I’ve been staring down into nothing

It’s been too long
That I’ve been hiding
I’m too far gone
I just keep on sliding down

The road slips underneath my wheels
The sky melts into pools of grey and black
The sun rises from my perspective
And the daylight is leaving me alone

It’s been too long
That I’ve been hiding
I’m too far gone
I just keep on sliding down
I’m on my way
To God only knows where
Don’t feel alone
‘Cos you know we are one and the same

Bouncing off the rocks
Dig for a handhold
Years collapsed into a single moment
See the forward scene
Hurtle towards me
Measured in vertical miles

Widgety

2008-04-15T21:58:00.001-07:00

Mastering Day!

2008-03-29T21:39:00.001-07:00

Spent the day with John McCaig at panicStudios in Seattle. This guy is the best! Soon the record will be complete.

What Holds Us Together

2008-02-17T13:49:00.001-08:00

Creative Destruction (acoustic)

2008-02-07T21:12:00.001-08:00

Creative Destruction

2008-01-28T21:26:00.001-08:00

Ben is #46 Most Viewed Musician on YouTube 12/15/2007

2007-12-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

Ben is #46 Most Viewed Musician on YouTube 12/15/2007

For some reason, 'Love From the World' exploded on YouTube and a whole lot of people watched it today! It got up to #39 before I thought to take a screen shot!

Thanks, let me know what u think!

Drum Performance of 'Two Places at Once'

2007-12-04T14:38:00.001-08:00

me drumming the newest song.

Two Places at Once (Solo Acoustic)

2007-12-02T14:17:00.001-08:00

Hope y'all like this!

Two Places at Once

2007-12-01T12:42:00.000-08:00

Two Places at Once (mp3)

I'm here but I'm not really here
The wind blows through me like a ghost
All that I can think about
Is where I want to be the most

In between two worlds at once
Falling through an endless void
One side, the life we know
The other, truth I can't avoid

Two places at once, I'm falling between
Two places at once

When you see me standing near
I might as well be gone
Cos I can't even see your face
Or hear the words of your song

I don't have a blueprint
I don't have a map
I don't have a way to spring the trap

It's worse than a heartbreak
When it's only in your mind
Drunk on imagination
Leaves nothing to find
And then comes the daybreak
Same place, same time
Light floods in memories
That won't leave me behind

Dispossessed

2007-11-24T13:12:00.001-08:00

Imeem!

2007-11-16T21:07:00.000-08:00

I've set up shop on imeem:

http://averch.imeem.com

Add a bookmark!

Motherlode!

2007-11-03T15:47:00.000-07:00

Check out these new players I've embedded on the right side of the page. All of my stuff is now yours to listen to whenever you want!

Let me know what you think.

New Mixes

2007-10-20T17:18:00.000-07:00

Here's Out of My Reach and Pure Energy.

Western Sky

2007-10-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my version of Mark Eitzel's classic song, 'Western Sky'.

Hope you like it.

Love From the World

2007-10-03T20:42:00.001-07:00

Love From the World

Nobody told you not to keep it all inside
And hold all your sadness against the world outside
The things that are hurting you will never go away
The only solution is to give up and away

I know you never know
I've seen that undertow
Take you away
I've seen those icicles stick through your heart
They'll fade away

You can't cling too tightly to the gifts you've been bestowed
Cos if the world wants to, you know that it'll free, free 'em from your hold
And the things that are always hurting you
You know they'll never, ever go away
The only solution is to give up and away

I know you never know
I've seen that undertow
Take you away
I've seen those icicles stick through your heart
They'll fade away
Give up your hopes and dreams
Give up your everything
Give them away
I don't want anything
I don't need anything

Love from the world
Love from the world
When you can't find nothing left
When you can't find nothing left

The Nothing Shines Through

2007-09-30T15:53:00.000-07:00

The Nothing Shines Through

When I feel I’m falling
And the water’s rising up to meet me
And there’s no one I can talk to
About the pain in life that’s gonna defeat me
Is there anyway to turn back
And take another look at the landscape
Before diving through a frozen lake
Cos between my hands it’s the world I make

The nothing shines through
The solid world just comes unglued
And the life I try so hard to build
Illusions that I can’t fulfill

Did you ever stop to wonder
How things take on a shape of their own
And everything we started
By bringing life to the unknown
Is there room left to maneuver
Cos I feel like I’ve been cast in stone
And I hope to God you’re with me
Cos I don’t want to face it alone

The nothing shines through
The solid world just comes unglued
And the life I try so hard to build
Illusions that I can’t fulfill
The nothing shines through
The distance between me and you
Falling shy of all my dreams
Is tearing me right at the seams

In your arms is where I want to be
When I see clearly you are all I see
Wide open to the world
Wide open to the world
Wide open

The nothing shines through

It Ain't Me

2007-09-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

It Ain't Me

Under a microscope, I can see myself now, disintegrating
Under lock and key, can I free myself somehow, deviating

It ain’t me, it ain’t me
I’m not the one to set you free, no
It ain’t me, no

What does it mean to be the picture of your expectations
There’s no way I can explain, this wasn’t preordained but we know the ending

It ain’t me, it ain’t me
I’m not the one to set you free, no
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, no
I need to find myself lost
No matter what the cost
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, no

Forget about the rules, I don’t mean to be so cruel
It’s incomprehensible
If I should disappear, fulfill my greatest fear
Is it inescapable

Buried under the snow
Wherever love may go
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, no
Without a word to pretend
Beginnings need an ending
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, no

Starting back at the beginning again

2007-09-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Here's the full-up version of 'Start at the Beginning', complete with lots of electric guitars, and pretty crazy solo.

Not sure if the solo is a keeper -- it's a little manic and not 'smoothed out' like my initial stabs at this...but there's something pretty cool about it....

Edit: Yeah, this is the solo...! One of my most rhythmically interesting leads I think. It's got a chaotic kind of feel and yet seems to fit this sort of melancholy near-folk song somehow.

Beginnings

2007-09-09T18:22:00.000-07:00

Here's the first mix of 'Start at the Beginning'.

No electrics yet...but still strangely full...!

Start at the Beginning

2007-09-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

To fall in love is a beautiful thing
No matter what, no matter what it brings
The visions come in coursing streams
Flying away, my chance to be redeemed

I don't have to curse my name
I don't have to go insane
Dragging me down by my heart

What could be is all I see
The sun through the trees, it ain’t reaching me
What could wake me up or set me free
When the wind on my face, it ain’t touching me

I don't have to curse my name
I don't have to go insane
Dragging me down by my heart
Am I awake or still asleep
Burning bright or six feet deep
Dragging me down by my heart

Where’d you go now
I’m only here and I don’t know how
What does it mean to be
Starting back at the beginning again

At the Focal Point

2007-08-31T15:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a new mix of 'A Series of Pictures'.

Bigger, bigger, bigger tune than before. One of my favorite instrumental passages I've done on this one. New outro, too.

Big thanks to my brother Mike for help with this mix.

No Matter What I Say...

2007-08-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

Hope Anchor (mp3)

Hope Anchor

2007-08-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

come up from the bottom
climb up on the chain
come up to the surface
again and again
and in the faraway distance
I see a glittering light
and then a wind that blows me away
to a deep dark night

no matter what I say
it all means the same
I don't know what I'd do
if I couldn't cling to you

then when the storm falls
and the rain's coming down
you know I saw it all coming
I couldn’t turn it around
I don't know how it got started
I don't know how this could be
everything is in free fall
for what it means to me

no matter what I say
it all means the same
I don't know what I'd do
if I couldn't cling to you
and when the winds collide
you are my place to hide
out on the open sea
maybe you can find me

I can't see anything anymore
I've lost my sightline to the shore
you're my way back on
to where I belong
waiting hope anchor

Out of My Reach

2007-07-28T23:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a brand new song, at long last. For best results, play at maximum volume!

Out of My Reach

AllMediaReviews.com Top 10 of 2006

2007-01-10T15:44:00.000-08:00

Rob's Top 10 of 2006

04 - Ben Averch: Washington State
Although he may not have a major label contract, Ben Averch has something that a lot of new and emerging major label acts don't have... talent. A multi-instrumentalist, Ben can rock out and drip emotion at the same time. There are times his music is very Rush like, and even more times when his work is very original and fresh.

Metaphysicality

2006-12-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

Here's a pretty mind-blowing review of my record and video from Tim Boucher who runs the Pop Occulture blog:

Yeah, I like your album. I perceive in your work a great deal of energy and passion for what you are doing. A friend of mine recently got me into Rush (I'd always hated them before, but wasn't I guess giving them a fair listen), and we actually spent the better part of last night listening to Power Windows and Hemispheres.

But yeah, specifically within your work I am very much getting this sense of overwhelming intensity and urgency to find something. I know a lot of your songs on that albums are phrased as romantic love songs, but I personally see within them something even beyond that - almost a questing love for God or the first-hand experience of the divine. Within Hindu traditions, there is something called bhakti yoga which is a type of yoga focused solely on devotion, on love. A kind of loose interpretation of it is that within Hinduism they recognize that the divine interpenetrates all things, and that everything is a manifestation of God. So the idea is to basically worship God through a very specific form: whether that's choosing one of the many Hindu deities, or I have even heard it described as being possible to worship through love your wife or children - which I very much see coming through in your work. I think the Bhagavad Gita is supposed to be the big work on Bhakti Yoga and you might get something out of reading it. This current also extends through Muslim tradition with the Sufis, who supposedly have reams and reams of romantic poetry written on the surface which is actually written to God (see also the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament which I think is supposed to be the same basic idea). I've heard people also interpret this idea as passing into Europe through the medieval troubadors and the concept of courtly love which they were largely responsible for introducing with their poetry and music.

It's funny, I think that theme is a much larger undercurrent than you may be realizing. If one were so inclined, you could even find it within the cover of your album - which could be interpreted esoterically as having a six pointed Star of David/Seal of Solomon hidden within the sort of fractal graphic in the background. Solomon supposedly used that seal to bind demons to do his bidding, I think in the construction of the Temple. May be a reach, but you could look at that as you trying to bind together your own sort of internal forces to get what you want accomplished. It also represents the union of the female and male elements within divinity which ties into the "love" theme described above. Then of course you have the eagle overlaid across that, which could again be interpreted as a symbol of God or the Sun, the breath of God, descent of spirit into matter, etc. But there is sort of an ominous tinge to the whole thing with the bird being darkened in this case, almost like you're afraid this bird of prey (pray?) is going to come down and swoop you away.

I'm also getting the sense through your insistence on playing all the different instruments yourself that buried within that is a struggle to sort of internally unify varying aspects of you (bind demons), so that you can get them to work in concert, and fully express the power of your will through it. Which is really exciting and important and difficult to do, but you may want to begin to consider what happens next. Once you have unified yourself internally to access these deep parts of yourself, where will you take it? You lyrics seem very concerned with remaining open to the moment and a questioning spirit, which is great as well. But one of the hardest things any of us ever will do is turn that strength of questioning back on ourselves, and begin to dissolve what we have built.

I see that theme coming through in your "Cloud Cover" music video, which has very beautiful lighting by the way. There are some moments in the video where one of you appears on each side of the screen and it almost looks like you are yelling at each other. It's also really interesting the choice of the format and props in that video. You have yourself in this pristine Northwestern paradise setting (great choice of location, incidentally - where was it filmed?), but then there is sort of a layer of absurdity within it (intentional or not) of you having lugged this giant amplifier out into the woods. Where would you plug it in?

I know it's "just" a music video, but I think when we make creative work, we have a tendency to send ourselves messages that we almost have to decode and that we become blind to because we are so over-exposed to them. In this case, the message I see (and I'm fully prepared to admit to a healthy dose of projection, which is inevitable in these areas) has to do with a clashing between images of yourself and of something greater. You have literally images of yourself fading in and out of existence (with fairly pained expressions at times) against this almost eternal primordial unchanging background of the forest. Why do these images of you blink in and out of existence? Why does the forest remain? And then there's also this sort of dichotomy between the guitar and the trees. The guitar, in essence, is a sort of refined version of the trees: it is wood which has been stripped down, carved, shaped, polished and fashioned into a usable form. Whereas the trees themselves are altogether unrefined, altogether raw. What does that tension between the two suggest to you internally? Perhaps it suggests a sort of over-reliance on the device, the vehicle or the technique you have mastered, as opposed to the more direct unmediated experience of what you are looking for. Imagine just for a second how different this video would be if you were playing a branch of a tree instead of a guitar. I know that's sort of an absurdist way of looking at it, but I think it gets more to the heart of what I mean artistically about the whole thing.

Jumping back to an earlier topic for a second: At what point, if ever, are you going to want to expand beyond your own rigorous self-control into the creative risks involved in making music with other people. I know you've gone through being in bands with people, etc. But I think the inherent nature of creative communication is itself a risk. It opens up the possibilities of misunderstanding, of people reading too deeply into things (haha! guilty as charged), and also - most scary of all - revealing yourself to others and to their judgements. Maybe since you're interested so deeply to begin with in this risky proposition of making music for other people that at some point once the process you're putting yourself through now is complete, you'll again find it engaging to jump into the "divine chaos" that other people will bring into your work.

Cloud Cover Video

2006-11-28T16:20:00.000-08:00

Check out the Cloud Cover video on YouTube and read people's comments!

Cloud Cover video is done!

2006-11-06T17:31:00.000-08:00

Got the word from good friend Brian Barnett that the video for Cloud Cover is ready to roll. Be heading over to his place this weekend to check it out. The initial versions have been really exciting, so I'm stoked to see how it's all come together.

A lot of fun shooting that thing, even if I couldn't talk for a couple days afterwards! There's a lot of moss in this video which is always great.

Anyway, I'll paste it up here once I get ahold of it.

Thanks!!!

'Washington State' on Alternative Rock Review

2006-11-06T17:28:00.000-08:00

Those expecting a typical singer/songwriter record from Ben Averch will be in for a bit of a shock. Actually, this is one of those rare cases where the credit is deceiving even though it is accurate. Indeed, this is Averch's album, without a doubt. But it doesn't sound like the work of a single person. Even Nine Inch Nails, for all of Trent Reznor's aggression and industrial apocalypse explosions, it still feels like the accomplishment of one man in a studio. Not so with Averch. Songs such as "Cloud Cover" and "No Division" are exhilarating, combining cerebral AOR with melodic guitar and vocal hooks. "Through the Chain Reaction" has mesmerizing riffs, and Averch's voice is better than ever.

Lyrically, Averch is an introspective fellow. In "No Division," Averch sings, "Last night I met my future self/He was strong and sure and confident/He said 'everything we've ever done/Has brought us here to this place.'" Sometimes in life we don't see the point of anything until years later when the waves have cleared and we can read the message in the sand. And when was the last time that a rock album actually made you think?

For more details, visit: http://averch.blogspot.com

Reviewed by: Elizabeth Jacobsen

Heya!

2006-10-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. Things have been pretty wild in the life of Ben. Here's a new song, 'A Series of Pictures'. This one is more straight ahead hard rock than some of the other recent songs, but there's still some neat vibiness and atmosphere.

I've been taking a little break from working on new music (I actually did 'Pictures' a few weeks ago), although ideas continue to percolate. We got a piano, so I've been spending some time there and have a couple pretty nice ideas that I'd like to work on once I can free up some time.

I got a new job last month, and that has been pretty much all-consuming. But I'm sure once I start trying to translate my piano songs into rock anthems, I'll get into another groove and crank out another 6 or 8 tunes...

Stay tuned!

Storms Are Rolling Up on the Horizon

2006-08-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

The Source of Love (pre-release) mp3

I'm really excited about this one. Let me know what you think!

the source of love

2006-07-31T22:23:00.000-07:00

everytime I wake up, it's the same
the rain is pouring down all over me
and when I think I'm burning through the clouds
storms are rolling up on the horizon

in a silent morning
the space for me to be reborn in
in a blinding rainstorm
the space where everything is transformed
can my world stop spinning
can I find my way to the beginning
'cos I know I'm missing
the love that's at the core of my existence

everytime I'm flying down the highway
I can feel the places left behind
and when I think I've reached my destination
how come I never feel like I arrive

pass through me / renew me / define me / align me to the source of love

Falling Through the Daybreak

2006-07-27T23:44:00.000-07:00

Falling Away (pre-release) mp3

Wow, darkness! Kind of a fun mood and texture to explore on this one.

Falling Your Way

2006-07-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

'Falling Away' is coming up next.

This one is real different. For the folks who thought my stuff was 'too upbeat', this one is for you!

I had to put a ray of hope in, though it wasn't on my initial version.

If I can find some more time over the weekend, it should be up soon to shock and confuse you all. It's sounding pretty cool, I think.

WA State Interview with YTSERob

2006-07-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

WA State Interview with YTSERob

Shortly after completing his 'New Neural Substrate' album, Washington State resident Ben Averch went to work on the follow up. Where 'Neural' was a concept album, telling an epic tale throughout the duration of the disc, the follow up has a definite theme, but tells ten different stories. As with the last album, Ben has given me the pleasure of conducting an interview to allow you, our dear reader, a glimpse into the mind that has crafted this music.

I give you now, my 2nd interview with the always insightful Ben Averch.

-Rob

Rob: Ben, I must first say that I am very impressed with Washington State. You have managed to outdo yourself, and have written an album that I have no doubt will rest easily in my top five of 2006.

Ben: Thanks Rob! I'm really happy that you like the record. The response so far has been really positive, which is great.

Rob: New Neural Substrate was an epic concept disc, and an excellent one at that. Was it a conscious decision to stay away from the concept story this time around?

Ben: Yeah, most definitely. The concept of 'Substrate' was a little bit out there –"What happens to people when they can upload their minds into a universal supercomputer, and live forever? Is it really living? What's missing?" So these are some really big, abstract questions about future scenarios – which don't have too much relevance to life today, just kind of hopefully interesting fiction writing.

What I wanted to do with 'WA State' was to take things out of the realm of science fiction and plant them firmly in the here and now. I wanted to write songs that didn't really need a lot of explanation – stuff that had a direct emotional impact. After working on 'Substrate' for over three years, and never really feeling like it was finished, I really needed to take things in a new direction. So my goal was to write really direct songs about humanity and being alive and some of the decisions that we have to make. Having the awesome natural beauty of Washington all around was really inspiring too.

Rob: I have had the distinct pleasure of hearing these songs in their embryo stages, and while I believe the sound was excellent at each turn, I understand you brought in an outside ear to help polish these tracks. What was that experience like? Do you feel the final results were better afterwards?

Ben: I did take the finished mixes to John McCaig at PanicStudios in Seattle for mastering. He has a really strong ear, a lot of awesome equipment and really did a nice job making the songs sound great. During the recording and mixing, I would run the songs by as many people as I could to get their feedback. It was really motivating as I was going through the process to have people get excited about the work and tell me that I'm on the right track. My wife Alycia, my friend Chris and my brother Mike contributed a lot of constructive ideas, and I'm sure the finished songs benefited a lot from their ideas and perspective.

Doing everything myself, it's easy to get lost in the process – so having that outside influence is really vital. In a regular rock band, there are checks and balances where each guy will want to hear his part sound a specific way, and a specific volume. I'm trying to get good performances, get good recordings of those performances, and then get good mixes that emphasize the sound and impact of the performances. It's a lot of stuff to juggle so I'm grateful to everybody for their contributions…especially to my wife! This thing took a lot of time and energy to put together. She was very patient and supportive.

Rob: I hate to pick favorites, but Cloud Cover and Through the Chain Reaction are two definite favorites of mine. I love the keys that you added towards the end of the writing for Cloud Cover. Could you tell us a little more about these songs?

Ben: 'Cloud Cover' was the first song that I recorded for the record. When I moved up to Washington from California, I actually came up in advance of my wife and son by about a month, in order to start my new job up here. That feeling of being away from them, and being all alone, was definitely hard. Now there's also the awe and wonder at the whole Pacific NW experience, which is really something. There are trees and clouds and lakes and the sky is just so huge up here – it was definitely inspiring. So what I tried to do was draw those two threads together, and 'Cloud Cover' basically meshes this sense of isolation with the feeling of the impact of the natural environment.

There was an experience that I had, waking up one morning and kind of experiencing the day that was about to come before it had even happened. The verse which closes the song, 'when the dream ends/and you're up with the sun again/and the rain falls/you can already see the future', was about that feeling, and I ended up using that feeling as the foundation for 'Reset the Clock' as well.

I actually shot a video for 'Cloud Cover', directed by Brian Barnett, which has got me in the woods rocking out with my PRS Singlecut guitar. There's some animation stuff I want to do, and there's a few more production stages left. It's a lot of fun to bring in more collaborators and do mastering and videos and get to work with talented people.

'Chain Reaction' is an interesting song – I had recorded the music with some lyrics in mind, but after I recorded the initial vocals, I realized that what I had written didn't really fit the song. So I ended up re-writing the lyrics and came up with what is really a love song, about whether love between two people on earth can go with us wherever we go when we die. This one is probably the most 'outside' of the central theme of the record. I definitely struggled with this song, more so than the others. The sound quality on this song I was really happy with immediately. I was getting some really good sounds from all the instruments and felt like I had dialed in what I was looking for. The bass sound in particular is big and rich, so that's really fun. The second half of the guitar solo stands out to me on this as well.

'Chain' probably has the most keyboards on it, or the most pronounced keyboards. 'Cloud Cover' is the only song with a keyboard solo, which was really fun to do and added another dimension to the music of that song. I've been a real eBay addict for a few years, kind of trolling for gear, especially guitars. Mid-way through the recording of 'WA State' I realized that the songs could benefit from the additional color palette that some keyboards could offer – so I ended up building a quick and dirty keyboard rig to add some pads, some leads and some general weirdness and atmosphere to the music. The keyboard rig consists of a Roland D-50, Roland M-VS1, a Korg Wavestation SR and Novation A-Station. Probably the coolest keyboard moments on the record are the intro to 'Sandcast', and the solo on 'Cloud Cover'. I think they fit nicely in 'Reset the Clock' as well.

Rob: You are an excellent lyricist, and there is an abundant supply of though provoking lyrics on Washington State ('Step Up the Stairs', 'Reset the Clock', 'Levitate', and especially 'No Division', to name just a few). Tell us a bit about your lyric writing process. Obviously on this album you draw a lot of inspiration from your home state, but there is more than meets the eye here, isnt there?

Ben: Thanks very much! I wanted to write an album that was really direct, and just tackled head on what it's like to be here and live life now. In the earliest stages of working on this record, I started my music blog ( http://averch.blogspot.com). When I wrote 'Substrate', I did a stream of consciousness of lyric writing for a couple of weeks into a little notebook. This time, I wanted to do the same thing – just generate as many lyrics as I could without self-editing them as I went. The difference being, I posted everything to the music blog as I wrote. After a few days of this, I had a lot of ideas and pieces, and even some finished songs, like 'In a Dream State', which basically were complete straight out of that stream of ideas.

So what I would do next would be take the guitar or the bass, and see if there were any chords or melodies that sync'ed up with the lyrics that I had, try to piece some verses and choruses together from different streams and try to construct songs out of these lyrics. Sometimes, I'd just have the music, and I'd go in and write lyrics to the music. 'A Chance for Me to Stay', the final song recorded for the album, and one of my favorites, was written this way.

During the time I was writing, I was also reading 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle, which is an amazing, life-changing book. The main idea being, don't worry about stuff that's out of your control, or hasn't happened yet, or has already happened. Focus all of your attention to the present moment, and this is the gateway to joy, ease and lightness. It's really a simple, straightforward idea, but totally counter to the way most everyone experiences life – which is total identification with the mind, with thinking, analysis, words, worrying about the future or reliving the past. So the idea is, just be here now, fully. As I wrote in 'Life Size', 'don't think so much, just do what you need to do.'

This book was really powerful and had a huge impact on the lyrics on the record. It was also interesting to me how much the stuff I had written before reading 'Power of Now' was really aligned with these ideas, so it was apparent that I was on this wavelength and reading the book helped me clarify a lot of the feelings that I'd been having.

'No Division' was inspired by a blog posting called "My Favorite Meditation" by Steve Pavlina, who's a personal development writer. It's basically about a vision of meeting your future self and your past self – and what you might say to each of them. I thought that idea was really fascinating and it pretty quickly turned into 'No Division'. It syncs up well with 'The Power of Now' (which was also a big influence on Steve), which basically is to take time out of the equation of being, and feel the depth of being alive, instead of the surface noise of thoughts, TV, worrying, and all that.

So I think 'presence' and awakening to being alive, and feeling empowered to build the life you want to live is probably the main theme of the record.

Rob: When listening to the music I hear a definite Rush influence, a little Floyd, in fact there is so much here that I was hoping you would talk briefly about some of your biggest influences and how they helped to shape the music on the album.

Ben: Yeah, I definitely love Rush, and that's been just huge for me ever since I was a kid. My first show was Rush at the Worcester Centrum on the 'Power Windows' tour in 1985, when I was ten years old. My older brother and his best friend were obsessed with Rush and turned me on to it. I remember hearing 'Limelight' as a six-year old boy and just thinking it was the most amazing thing I'd ever heard. I wanted to play guitar but both my brother and his friend Dave were so far ahead of me on that, that I knew I needed to play something else -- so I started on drums when I was 8 or 9.

During high school, I switched to guitar when songwriting became my primary focus. I became a street musician in Harvard Square, Cambridge after that and basically tried to bring arena rock energy to acoustic street busking. It was really intense, I'd play for hours and hours and just wear myself out. But I learned a lot and got a lot better as a player, a singer, and a songwriter. I had a few near out-of-body experiences while playing that I still think about sometimes.

But yeah, I love Rush, Sugar, Jawbox, Yes, Swervedriver, Urge Overkill, Jimi Hendrix and I've been listening to Journey quite a bit lately. Jawbox was an amazing band. They had the same musicianship as Rush, but were so intense, they would just thrash and sweat and their veins are bulging out of their necks and they never missed a beat – they were incredible.

But I dunno about how it shapes the music, other than I try to record music that I'd like listening to. So it's going to be rocking, it's going to hopefully have texture and dynamics and a sense of richness about it. Also, I get bored easily, so while I love bands like Stereolab, I probably wouldn't do like a 20-minute drone rock song hoping that people just vibe out on it – although it's possible!

I feel a little of that Floyd sound in the solo in 'No Division' in particular, but can't say I'm really a huge fan of Floyd. I've listened to that stuff and I of course love David Gilmour's playing. He's an absolutely magnificent soloist. Really lyrical and fluid. There's just some kind of angst or darkness in that music that I could never really relate to. I'm really looking for positive vibes and experiences, in music, and everywhere I can find them. But there's no doubt those guys are a great band. Generally, I prefer Yes, Zeppelin and The Who when it comes to UK super groups.

But for sure the Rush thing is there in the playing, songwriting and arrangements. I just embrace it now rather than really trying to get away from it. I'm trying to build something that's unique and special by itself, but those guys were and are so key to my love of music that I think that's always going to be in there somewhat. To me, the greatest thing about Rush songs are the guitar solos. Alex Lifeson plays with so much emotion, it's amazing. There are leads in Rush songs, like 'Available Light', or 'Between the Wheels', that just bring tears to my eyes when I really listen and feel the impact of the songs fully.

Recording guitar solos is probably my favorite thing to do. I learned from Neil Young that you don't need to have perfect technique or know lots of scales to play good leads. So I just hit record and go, and hope for something good to happen. 'In a Dream State', 'Reset the Clock', and 'Levitate' are a few of my favorites on the record.

Rob: I noticed that you are already at work on the next album, is there any specific direction youre headed in this time?

Ben: Yeah! I decided a while back that I just wanted to be as prolific as I possibly could for as long as I could. Just try to build a whole catalog of music and just be a real high output kind of songwriter. One of the biggest things that's different about what I'm doing on this newest material is, for the first couple of songs, I'm using drum loops rather than playing the drums myself. This offers me the ability to have really robotic precision in the drum part, and lets me change arrangements around. I can also just find a groove I like and play it back and just jam to it. It takes a lot of the pressure off to nail the perfect drum take before any of the other instruments can go on. The drum loops really instantly give a song a different feel than the live drummer, so it's interesting to me to hear that difference, and it's a new thing for my music. I'm using Fruity Loops 6 and so far, enjoying it quite a lot.

I had always thought that a project that was like a merger between Crystal Method and Rush would be the coolest thing. I don't think there's anything like that out there. Kind of like heavy, rocking, futuristic, lots of guitars, yet danceable. But I'm not sure that's where I'm headed on this. So far I'm going for a lot more experimental types of sounds, a little more dirty and trashy sounding, a little bit like 'Achtung Baby' by U2 -- and then bringing in super clear, bell-like guitar tones as a counterpoint. Lyrically, I don't know if I've established the theme or direction. I'm hopeful that will start to emerge soon. I think it's likely the record may be darker thematically than 'WA State'. I've got three new songs so far, a couple more that I've written (which I will probably play drums on), and after that it's anything goes time again.

Rob: One final question and I'll set you free; Is there any chance of hearing some of this material live in the near, or even distant, future?

Ben: I would really love to do that. Basically, I need to find a bassist and drummer out here in Seattle that really like this material and want to take it to the stage. I'm going to make a real effort to see if I can get that moving. At the very least, I'm planning to do some acoustic sets that will hopefully be exciting for people as well.

Rob: Thanks again Ben for taking the time out to talk to us here at YtseReviews once again. Its been a pleasure, and I look forward to any material you release in the future.

Ben: Thanks Rob! Talk with you soon.

"Washington State" in Ink 19

2006-07-06T08:28:00.000-07:00

"Washington State" in Ink 19

The title is certainly apt. For an album that ventures into wide-open spaces, Ben Averch made the best decision in naming it after the Pacific Northwest. This is a heavy album, but not in terms of volume. Yes, it's quite loud; but these days that adjective has a different definition. Loud as in Korn or Pantera? Good Lord, no. Averch has no interest in dissonance. Instead, he is a one-man symphony of prog rock, utilizing Rush, King's X and Queensryche as reference points to launch his own vision of thinking man's metal.

Playing every instrument himself, Averch manages to splice the parts together and produce an album that is cohesive and intelligent. This is some pretty brainy music, taking listeners back to the time when rock bands could make people think. To today's generation, the modern blueprint for that belongs to Radiohead. Not to Averch, though. Averch's musical heroes are obviously in the progressive rock camp, top-notch musicians that believed in stimulating the brain, not annoying us with pointless avant-garde moves.

Averch includes the lyrics in the CD. Read as you listen. In order to properly experience this record, you have to absorb everything -- the words, the music, the production, which is sparklingly clean and beefs up the instruments, resulting in an epic rollercoaster ride for the ears.

Kyrby Raine

Falling Away

2006-07-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

I've lost sight of what I wanted
I've made so many bad choices
that I don't even know how I got so far away

when you and I were starting out
that was what the world was about
but now I know that we're falling away

falling away from what is real
falling away from how I truly feel
from everything I love, I'm falling away

and everyday I curse the morning
'cos I can't even count the warnings
that I always ignored along the way

now you know that I can't bear to see
the look in your eyes when you see me
and everything we've been is falling away

falling through the whipping wind
falling through the dead beginnings
falling through the time
falling through the daybreak
falling away

do you think that I could find a way
to hit rewind on the replay
and somehow reconnect
begin a new day

Never Knowing is the Answer

2006-07-03T23:13:00.000-07:00

Pure Energy (pre-release) mp3

Here's what I've been up to the last couple of days...I'm pretty excited about this one. Let me know what you all think about it out there in internet land...

"Washington State" on CDReviews.com

2006-07-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

"Washington State" on CDReviews.com

Written by Michael Sutton

Avoiding the Pac Northwest gloom, Ben Averch creates a hard rock album with life in it. [7.3.06]

Having lived in the place of Ben Averch’s album title for nearly 20 years, I can confidently say that the music does capture the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest. Averch named it that simply because the album was recorded and mixed in Sammamish, Washington. And, yes, it does have a largeness of sound to it, the direct influence of driving through long, empty roads filled with mountains and trees.

Averch avoids the gloom that the Pacific Northwest has been famous for since the rise of grunge in the early ‘90s, and that’s a good thing. Frankly, it’s been done to death for the past 15 years, and it feels longer for people like myself who was there and listened to grunge when it was still percolating in the underground. Averch takes a different approach, applying life-affirming lyrics to hard rock that echo the Emerald City’s thunderous icons in volume but not in precision. Averch isn’t into sloppy riffing or punk rock aesthetics; his songs have the weight of grunge but not the dirt. Instead, one can hear the science-lab clarity of Rush, especially on the thrilling “Cloud Cover” and the toe-tapping “No Division.”

Those who are alienated by progressive rock for its coldness and lack of pop hooks will find Averch’s take on the genre to be highly accessible. Averch doesn’t lose his soul in the technical details of his instruments although considering he played everything by himself he easily could have. Being a writer myself, Averch’s ability with a pen was even more impressive. He writes songs that might take you a minute or two to fully comprehend, but when you do you don’t feel as if you’ve eaten a pound of baloney.

Energy State

2006-07-01T00:28:00.000-07:00

Look out!!!

I've got a new tune I'm working on, "Pure Energy" and I think it is going to be pretty sick.

I'll put it up here when it's ready. The new new album is already showing me what it's going to be about. Big fat beats and heavy distorted bass. Funky yet rocking guitars counterpunched with elegant clean bell-like guitars.

And then my lyrics about the meaning of life and stuff.

Stay tuned, got a lot done tonight, could be ready soon!

Pure Energy

2006-06-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

never knowing is the answer
never needing is the cure
always beginning is our true state
always yielding to what's pure

it's pure energy, your true heart
it's pure energy, this new start
in waves of red and gold I feel your soul fly through me
in undulating light between the sky and sea

in a fight for freedom that I need to win
in a quest for victory over the state I'm in
I'm going deeper than the surface waves
to the ocean floor where no light escapes

I don't need to remember where I've been
I don't need to know anything
when I feel your arms around me
when I feel I'm pure energy

Video Vertigo

2006-06-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some stills from the "Cloud Cover" video shoot this last weekend, directed by Brian Barnett:

"Washington State" on Sonomu.net

2006-06-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

"Washington State" on Sonomu.net

By Roger "Red" Byrne
Freelancers United, Inc.

Definitely among the year's most ambitious independent releases is this 10-track project from Ben Averch (http://averch.blogspot.com).

Drawing upon both the molten metal of early '90s grunge in Seattle and the futurist, high-I.Q. progressive rock of Rush and Yes, Averch raises the bar for today's modern rock bands. The only difference is that Averch doesn't have a group. Each note on "Washington State" was played by Averch himself. If you didn't know that, it's doubtful that you would've figured it out as Averch has exceptional skills.

Much has been written about Rush being a super-powered trio, but what can you say about a solo act such as Averch, who can minimize Pearl Jam's amp wallop on "Reset the Clock" without any additional player? Averch must be an octopus, each tentacle having mastered every instrument, from guitar to drums to Moog synthesizer to bass.

This is a truly impressive effort, produced with muscle and smarts.

"Washington State" on Whisperin & Hollerin

2006-06-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

"Washington State" on Whisperin & Hollerin

Our Rating: 8/10

It doesn't sound like it, but there is only one Ben Averch (http://averch.blogspot.com).

That is Ben Averch on vocals.

That is Ben Averch on guitar.

That is Ben Averch on bass.

That is Ben Averch on keyboards.

That is Ben Averch on drums.

For a solo project, "Washington State" has enough thump and widescreen soundscapes to fill a dozen bands. Hilariously, most rock groups these days seem thin compared to this. Averch kicks out the jams from the first cut, "Reset the Clock." Featuring the booming bass and drums that characterizes the rest of the LP, Averch aims for a big arena feel and nails it, slamming together U2 and Blue Oyster Cult to create a heavenly noise. Lyrically, Averch is a poet, finding spiritual renewal in the beauty of nature: "Open up to the shattering sky/As the red-tailed hawk begins to cry/It's a promise that I need to make/To find the center of the lake." Like Live, Averch has a wondering - and wandering - soul yet he's able to avoid any pretentiousness.

"In a Dream State" echoes the title of the record, recalling Seattle's Soundgarden in their mid-'90s form without the rainy Emerald City angst. "No Division" and "Levitate" are both reminiscent of Rush with their propulsive and magnetic guitar work. Averch is an amazing axeman; check out the scorching Stone Gossard-ish solo in "Sandcast."

At a time when real rock seems to be going extinct, Averch arrives to breathe new life into the genre, even if it's all by himself.

author: Adam Harrington

You Can Only Feel

2006-06-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

You Can Only Feel (mp3)

sometimes in the daylight
I can see everything
the tops of the trees
concentric rings

underneath the static
I can feel the transformation

sometimes in the shadows
I can't feel anything
the void of the sky
the emptiness so full of life

underneath the tension
I can feel my soul escaping

you can only feel
what you let yourself feel
you can only see
what you want to believe

sometimes in the starlight
I can feel gravity
the pull of distant planets
is as heavy as the earth

underneath the motion
is the stillness of creation

it's a wide-eyed stare
it's the life you dare
it's overstimulation
it's the driving force
ultraviolet source
it's solar radiation

Pictures!

2006-06-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

Congrats to PRS

2006-06-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

The highest court in the land says PRS can sell the world's greatest guitar:

(STEVENSVILLE, MD) June 5, 2006 — Paul Reed Smith Guitars is very pleased to announce that the United States Supreme Court today denied Gibson Guitar's final appeal of a Court of Appeals decision upholding PRS' right to make a single cutaway-style guitar. The court observed that Gibson conceded that only "an idiot" would ever confuse a PRS Singlecut® and a Gibson Les Paul. Based on that concession and the overwhelming evidence, the Sixth Circuit found that Gibson's trademark case had no merit and summarily dismissed the suit.

Paul Reed Smith, the company founder, stated: "I am delighted for our employees, our dealers, our customers and the industry. Everyone was extremely supportive of our cause and our company over the last six years, fully embracing our decision to fight back against Gibson's charges." Smith added: "My thanks especially go to those in the industry who helped educate the court: the media, our industry peers, guitar craftsmen and industry scholars. Their help was invaluable."

PRS Singlecut, along with the PRS Swamp Ash Special were used for the vast majority of the guitar tracks on "Washington State".

Review!

2006-06-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a review of "Washington State" from Rob Mallory Sr, author of The Lair of The Rob and one of the guys who writes YTSEReviews. Thanks Rob!

Album of 2006 Contender

I was just sent a copy of the second Ben Averch album 'Washington State' by Ben himself. I have had the extreme pleasure to hear these songs in their writing stages, and while I was impressed with them at each turn the finished product is incredible.

This time around Ben has crafted ten songs about his home state of Washington, and there is not a dull song on the disc. There are some very Rush like moments ("Cloud Cover", "Reset the Clock"). In a perfect world I would see this thing rushing up the Billboard charts. The music is fresh, inventive, and destined to be a classic, and is already a contender for album of 2006 for me.

BEN AVERCH DELIVERS "WASHINGTON STATE"

2006-05-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

BEN AVERCH DELIVERS "WASHINGTON STATE"
Artist's Debut Solo Album is Powerful Achievement

Seattle (May 24, 2006) – Seattle-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ben Averch stands to build a devoted following in the rock community with his debut album, Washington State, from Automatic Earth Recordings. Featuring ten tracks, including the progressive riff rocker ‘In a Dream State’, the anthemic ‘Cloud Cover’ and the plush, evocative ‘A Chance for Me to Stay’, Washington State introduces Averch as an accomplished solo artist.

Formerly the guitarist/vocalist for Boston hard rock band Bison, Averch cut his performing teeth touring across the country during the mid-‘90s. In addition to serving as the frontman for Bison, Averch made a living delivering high-energy, passionate acoustic hard rock in Harvard Square, Cambridge as one of Boston’s premier street musicians. This period was marked by his recognition from Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, who gave Averch a $50 tip in exchange for a Bison demo tape.

Washington State was recorded and mixed from August 2005 through April 2006 in Sammamish, Washington and was mastered by John McCaig at Panic Studios in Seattle. Produced, performed, recorded and mixed entirely by Averch, Washington State is a showcase of masterful songwriting, featuring complex arrangements that interweave driving hard rock and creamy, blended vocal harmonies. The album lyrics are thought provoking and highly visual, describing personal and spiritual growth, resplendent with the natural imagery of the Pacific Northwest. The album is distinguished by Averch’s remarkable melodies, universal lyrics, and powerful vocals layered over broad swaths of crunching, textural guitars, angular drumming and propulsive bass playing, forming an extraordinary and distinctive sound sure to find a place in the hearts of rock music fans.

"I wanted to create something that was autobiographical and universal at the same time," said Averch. "This record achieves what I set out to do – create a unique hard rock album that describes the possibilities in life that are open to each of us. The common thread through all the songs is the idea that every moment in life offers the chance for renewal and a new direction.”

For more information, including pictures, lyrics and commentary by the artist, please visit the Ben Averch Music Blog at http://averch.blogspot.com.

Light Glows in Interwoven Strands

2006-05-22T15:54:00.000-07:00

When You Were Born (mp3)

When You Were Born

2006-05-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

When you were born, I felt the world change
Everything drew into range
Now my life is changed forever
And we are held together
When you were born, I felt the world change

Time stops, feeling life expand
Light glows in interwoven strands
I feel it overwhelming me
Tapped in to the soul of eternity

When you were born, I saw the sun rise
Over secret worlds behind your eyes
Although your words are voiceless
I can feel their nearness
When you were born, I saw the sun rise

Out on the road that's before us
I'm gonna seek out a place for us
I feel like there's no boundary
Tapped in to the soul of eternity

Anywhere time's gonna find us
These are the ties that will bind us
And in the life that you build
Will be my destiny fulfilled

The Album is Done!

2006-05-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

Well, at long last, the record is done. I shipped the artwork and the final master off to Disc Makers and in a few days, an enormous pallet of 'Washington State' albums will arrive on my doorstep.

Should be fun. In the meantime, the wheels are starting to turn about the next record...

Stay tuned for information about where you can buy the album!

Amazing Day

2006-05-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

Our daughter Leilani was born today. An amazing experience that I will treasure forever.

Best wishes to everybody out there!

Ben

My True State, Pt 3

2006-05-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

Songs 7-8

The presence that is underneath the surface noise. The song ‘No Division’ was inspired by an article called ‘My Favorite Meditation’ by Steve Pavlina on his personal development blog. The character in the article (and in the song) visits with his past and future self in a dream. This idea really captivated me – what would I tell myself if I could see myself from years ago? What would my future self tell the Ben of today? What do I want my future self to be like?

Thinking about yourself as not just a point on a line in time going from start (birth) to end (death), but rather as something that ‘exists outside of time’ is a pretty mind-bending thing to do. We are so rarely in touch with any sense of permanence in our lives -- we’re just so rooted in the transitory stuff that make up our lives, like money, work, food, and things that it’s hard to grasp the idea that there may a presence about us that is not just another thing that arises and fades away but is actually a part of nature itself.

Trippy stuff to think about. This song is pretty interesting musically – I put the bass through some delay effects which was new for me and not something I remember hearing too much of out in the world. The echoing bass and chaotic, slithering twin guitar lines eventually coalesce into a repeating riff and a solid foundation for the rest of the song. This song features one of the longest guitar solos that I can remember recording – when I listen to it, it reminds me a little of Pink Floyd, which is really new and fun for me.

What you don’t resist is the world that persists. ‘Levitate’ was a song that came together musically very quickly, but lyrically was a lot more challenging. After several revisions, I arrived at the song as it’s recorded and I’m really happy with it. What I’m talking about here is pretty much an extension of the ideas on ‘Sandcast’, and would revisit again at the end of the record on ‘A Chance for Me to Stay’, which is that the ability to find what you need in life is always there. The power, energy and enthusiasm to get up when you’re down and to take life forward in a positive, meaningful way, is there for everybody, all the time. We don’t always hear it, because we’re all hearing voices in our heads, just like crazy people. The only difference is that we accept these voices as our own, even when they’re telling us things that beat us down, or deflate us, or cut off our opportunities for happiness and growth.

So the idea is, listen to what’s inside of you, below all the noise, below what can be expressed in word-thoughts. That’s where the peace and strength are that are always available to help rise to the occasion and transform the world.

A couple notes about the music in this one – the chorus vocal reminds me of Fleetwood Mac for some reason, which I really enjoy. The keyboards in the choruses are also a fun little flourish that helps things feel lighter in that section, like it keeps rising up. There’s even a little break from the action in the middle to help people catch their breath from the prior forty-some minutes of non-stop hard rock action – immediately followed by a hard-won (and fairly long) guitar solo. That lead, and the build into it, is among my favorite moments on the album.

Mastering Session!

2006-04-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

Me and masterer extraordinaire John McCaig at Panic Studios in Seattle. The album is finished and sounds great! Now I just have to get some artwork and actually print it up and then try to sell it and stuff.