Benji Kirkpatrick has racked up an impressive 25 years in the business playing in some of the most successful acts on the folk circuit today, including Bellowhead, Faustus, Steeleye Span and Seth Lakeman’s band. In 2020 he managed to find the time to release the ‘persuasive and impressive’ Gold Has Worn Away with his band ‘The Excess’ which Peter Shaw called “solid gold stuff from a veteran artist who deserves to come into the spotlight.” Four years on, Benji has self-funded a new album of songs written between 2020 and 2022.
‘In Phase‘ will be released on 6th October. Talking about the album, Benji shared how the enforced situation he found himself in proved to be a fortuitous one leading to a burst of creativity:
“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 a band project, 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’, released as a single today, which can be heard below. It’s 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.
You can also Save/Stream it here.
Benji shared the following on ‘In Phase’:
“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 through 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.”
Talking about the album and working with Pete Brown, Benji said:
“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 record in October and November 2023.
Bio
Benji Kirkpatrick is a singer, songwriter and musician and has been performing and recording music for 25 years. A key member of folk big band and recently re-formed Bellowhead, Benji is also a long-term collaborator and band member with Seth Lakeman. He was one-third of the ‘bloke folk’ trio, ‘Faustus‘, along with Paul Sartin and Saul Rose, whose hard-hitting brand of English folk hammered its mark onto the scene until the untimely and tragic death of Paul in 2022.
Lauded releases such as ‘Boomerang‘ (2008) and ‘Hendrix Songs‘ (2015) – an album of acoustic re-interpretations of the work of Jimi Hendrix – have punctuated his exploits over the years alongside extensive work with others. 2019 saw the release of ‘Gold Has Worn Away‘ on German-based label Westpark Music, the debut long player from Benji’s band’ Benji Kirkpatrick & The Excess‘; a roots-based power trio comprising of Pete Thomas (Jackie Oates, Megan Henwood) on bass and Joelle Barker (Edwin Starr band, Del Camino) on drums. Pete Flood, also of Bellowhead, occupied the drum seat until 2022.
Benji was headhunted by folk-rock pioneers Steeleye Span in 2017 (40 years after his dad, John, was in the band) and was a member until 2021, featuring on their 50th-anniversary album ‘Estd. 1969‘.
Benji is a long-term collaborator with Seth Lakeman, featuring on the successful releases’ Kitty Jay’, ‘Freedom Fields’ and ‘Make Your Mark’ and continues to tour regularly with Seth.
Website: https://www.benjikirkpatrick.com/