005. Ben Thatcher, Royal Blood

'HAVE FUN & SEE WHAT HAPPENS'... Drummer of Royal Blood and all round nice guy, Ben Thatcher and I first met when we were both fresh faced babies on the scene, I can only have been round 18 and ever since Ben is always a face that I look forward to seeing. We met up at the hotel that Ben was staying in whilst the band played three sold out shows at London's Alexandra Palace. We spoke about the normal things, you know? Setting fire to gongs on stage and swimming pools in recording studios… It was an absolute please to sit down with Ben for this chat and I know you’re going to love it!  As always thank you for meeting me here each week. I hope you’re well! This podcast was edited by Warren Borg. The animations and visuals are thanks to Oisin Griffin. A big thank you to Josh Sanger and the Closer Artists team for their help. Thanks to Ben Thatcher for meeting with me. And of course, thank YOU for downloading and supporting this podcast. See you next week!

Om Podcasten

Had it not been for the introduction of podcasts into my life, my second album could well have been ready six months sooner. Who knows, maybe even seven. The world of podcasts has been an extremely welcome and comforting distraction from reality. Listening to interesting people talk to other interesting people about interesting things. New ideas, old ideas, thinkers and dreamers. A lot of the shows I enjoy are comedians talking to other comedians, candid accounts of their experiences in the industry they work in. I find them inspiring and often relieving. To hear entertainers, talk so openly about the highs and the lows of performance feels like something that hasn’t really happened before and, personally, as a performer, it’s something that really helps me. I began looking for musical equivalents: honest, long form conversations between two musicians, the unquestionable highs of creating and performing, alongside honesty regarding things they have struggled with along the way. At the time of digging, nothing jumped out at me. I sat on the idea for some time before finally plucking up the courage to try and do it myself and went out and purchased the gear necessary for me to travel and record at the drop of a hat. So far it has been better than I could have ever imagined. I travel to my guests wherever they may be and it is just the two of us in the room. After the initial ten minutes of chat we both loosen up and start to share stories and experiences from our time on the road. What started as a labour of love and somewhat of a passion project is shaping up to be one of the best and fulfilling projects I’ve ever been a part of. I hope you find it as interesting and fun to listen to, as it was to make.