Ben Keyes: For the Love of Monsters, Album Release

For almost a decade I have been writing songs in vague preparation for my second solo album. During COVID I made a lot of rough recordings in my office at home, and I started to get a sense of some recurring lyrical themes: the frustrations and comforts of getting older, wonder and confrontation with the natural world, questions about personal character that I stumbled upon while recalling childhood memories.... How much do we really change as we become adults? What does growing up really entail? 

Musically, I think the album will bounce around within the loose genre of 'roots- Americana.' A few of the songs were written on the 5-banjo and have a claw-hammer thing that provides the rhythmic drive. The piano-based songs tread the line between the blues and gospel music of a bygone era. I have also spent the last few years reconnecting with my electric guitars- dusting off some old friends and getting to know some new ones. I am very excited to share some of the sounds that are coming out of my office these days!

Starting new projects is always much easier than finishing them, and I have had a growing anxiety that if I do not finish, package, and release  these songs they will never be heard by anyone but me. I will move on to new songs and the old ones will metaphorically 'fall off the back of the cart.' 

And so- to use a different metaphor- booking studio time will be a helpful 'gun to the head' for me, forcing me to make the necessary final decisions about songs. To book studio time is to commit. I look forward to committing to this project and seeing it through, and I think you will enjoy the result!