Interview by Adrian Ball.
Ben Poole is a blues/rock/soul singer-songwriter and his new album Anytime You Need Me is being released 14th September via Manhaton Records. The album is set to highlight Ben’s attitude, energy and talent bringing the excitement of his live shows to the recorded format. We caught up with Ben to chat about the album, what it's like to jam with Gary Moore and his upcoming tour.
Looking through your bio I see you went to BIMM in Brighton....
Yes, I did and still live there. BIMM was great and I did a degree in Professional musicianship. Being able to focus on guitar and surrounded by like-minded people was fantastic. It was a great community, being able to jam with others and all the different styles, it was great.
Did it help develop your style?
I always knew what genre I wanted to do and that was quite clear, blues-rock solo artist, and this gave me chance to hone my skills
Why the solo route?
It was wanting to be like my heroes; Hendrix, Gary Moore, Steve Ray Vaughan, Clapton, Jeff Healey. They were all front men. Gary was one of my favourites and I've played at one of the memorial concerts. I managed to play with him about six months before he died, which was a really special experience. A real pivotal moment in my career.
So, the new album - how would you say this differs to your previous releases?
Massively. In the way we approached it. Wayne Proctor (drums - King King) produced it and we wanted to keep the team really small. We really did the album in secret to avoid too many getting involved. So it was myself, Wayne and Steve Wright (co-writer) that did the writing We locked ourselves away and crafted the songs from scratch, working 10-14 hour days. We had a great working relationship and fun too! The standard is set really high and it's far more 'me'. It's still got the full-on guitar style I do, but also the soulful side too.
Do you think this album has captured the energy of your live performances?
Yes, absolutely! It's something we wanted to do. This is more aligned to the live sound for sure.
You have a tour coming up later in the year, hitting Europe and then back to the UK in November and December. Are you looking forward to getting out on the road?
It's the biggest tour we’ve done to date, up to about 60 shows from mid-September to mid-December, and we are going all over the place. It's going to be a lot of fun, hitting the road hard. After taking some time off to record the album I'm really looking forward to getting back on the stage.
Any plans for 2019?
It continues again from the end of January with a bunch of shows in the UK, then Germany and a little tour of Poland, Russia and probably America again. It's going to be really busy now.
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