Four years after releasing the debut album with his band, The Excess (Gold Has Worn Away), Benji Kirkpatrick ( Bellowhead, Faustus & Seth Lakeman Band) has self-fundunded an album of songs written between 2020 and 2022.
“With a bit of enforced time on my hands I found material came flowing out. New songs were appearing and seeds of ideas that had already germinated grew into fully formed entities. Where previously I may have spent endless hours refining things, the pieces fitted together satisfyingly quickly and I was able to resist the urge to tinker and move on.”
The new material felt to Benji more like a solo project than band, so he set about recording the album with engineer and producer, Pete Brown(son of Joe Brown, brother of Sam) at his studio in Oxfordshire. Work was spread over a few months, starting at the end of summer 2022 through to completion in spring 2023.
Featured guests include Pete Thomas and Joelle Barker (The Excess), Alex Hart (Benji’s bandmate with the Seth Lakeman band), veteran backing vocalist Aitch McRobbie and Pete Brown himself.
The songs range from the intensely personal – as in the title track ‘In Phase’, a song about trying to make a connection to someone in the non-physical realm – to political and worldwide issues and the search for truth.
Benji says
At a time when I was unable to have regular contact with one who is very close to me, I sought to establish a connection in a non-physical way. Life can throw curve balls at you, causing you to dig deep and in this instance I had to do that to make it known that the door was always open and to maintain some level of communication, even if in an unconventional, energetic way. The effort paid off.
“I feel there is a real cohesion to this record, Pete Brown is key to that. Our minds matched on where we were going with the sound and the songs and he really brought it together. Having recorded much of the ‘Gold’ album at his studio I knew it would work and there a certain bits of kit he has there I like using! There is one track, ‘When We Get Through’ that is a slight step away from my usual twanging, being played solo on piano. I’ve used piano (my first instrument!) on recordings before but never as a solo piece. For me it’s one of the most pertinent moments on the record.
This is Benji’s 6th studio release with his name on the disc (including his band album) and he will be touring the album in starting tonight, with the official launch date in his home town of Leamington Spa at the intimate and atmospheric Temperance Cafe on 20th October.
BENJI’S NEW ALBUM – IN PHASE – IS RELEASED 6TH OCTOBER 2023
For further information please visit:www.benjikirkpatrick.com
Details of two pre-release singles can be found here:
Benji Kirkpatrick – In Phase (lnk.to)
You Could Try Roulette (ffm.to)
