Former Blaenavon frontman Ben Gregory has shared plans for new solo album ‘Episode’.
The band released two acclaimed albums before dissolving in 2019, at which point Ben Gregory was receiving psychiatric care. Working his way back to full health, this process underpins his incoming solo venture.
Out on April 7th via Transgressive, ‘Episode’ was constructed with the aid of producer – and old friend – Blaine Harrison, of Mystery Jets. Engineer Matt Twaites also proved vital to sessions, which allowed Ben Gregory to work through some traumatic passages in his life.
He comments…
“Everything on ‘Episode’ comes back to my struggle to interpret, or reinterpret, my life and its core relationships, after having my concept of reality revoked. This may sound dramatic, but it’s hard to know if you can trust how you feel about a partner, a situation, a future, when you’ve sat in a hospital bed, torn a newspaper to shreds, sat back and watched it put itself back together…”
Having reintroduced himself late last year with ‘Deathbed Hangover’, Ben Gregory moves into fresh solo spaces with ‘manifest*’. He explains…
‘’manifest*’ is about feeling fated to certain situations and lacking control over your own position in life. It looks towards a potential future that is desired but unlikely, focused on a partner and an imagined future family. There are elements of a slightly tragic fixation in there. The narrative retelling is real but it questions itself and cannot commit to painting an impossible future. The attempt was to portray this process of recollection, because people choose how they shape their own memories.’
Tune in now.
‘Episode’ will be released on April 7th.
Photo Credit: Neelam Khan Vela