It’s been five years since Benjamin Francis Leftwich released his first album, ‘Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm’, and this autumn, the 27-year-old lyricist from York made a stop at Glasgow’s Oran Mor on his tour for the release of the brand new album, ‘After The Rain’. Having to take some time away from making music due to personal reasons, Benjamin has been able to create a collection of tracks that makeup arguably his most beautifully and sentimentally composed album.
Just before he headed backstage to perform on the snug basement stage of West End’s Oran Mor, Leftwich had a chat with us about the new album, about Glasgow and about his postponed childhood aspirations of being a zookeeper.
Tell us a bit about how this album came together and the general inspiration that created ‘After The Rain’.
So I brought the first album out in 2011, and toured that for around the world for about three years. Then I had to take a break from music for personal reasons and family reasons. I think in life you need to be inspired by real life things and not just, you know, being on tour and releasing music. It’s about connecting with people and the world.
So did the album come together over time or was there a specific time you started creating it?
I guess the creative process for this album started around the end of 2013. I was recording so many demos, like sometimes I would send up to three songs a day to the label.
From there, as you grow up as a songwriter, your idea of re-editing and redefining your own craft kind of becomes more clear in your mind. So I wrote many, many songs and slowly, over time I got it down to the point where we had a body of work that I was proud of. I then started recording with Charlie Andrews who is an amazing producer and has become one of my close friends. We then made ‘After the Rain’, and I’m pleased to have it finally out and touring.
The artwork from this and the last album is really interesting. Can you tell us a bit about what it’s inspired by and how it’s created?
I’m really lucky to work with amazing artists because I’m definitely just a songwriter. I was never good at drawing or graphic design or anything like that in school. The artist I worked with for this album is Jade Spranklen, her artist name is ‘Sprankenstein’. We just sat down for hours and spoke about the inspiration behind the songs and generally everything I was thinking about as an artist. And yeah, we created a visualisation of the album. They’re really amazing artworks!
In the future, is there any artists’ or anyone you would like to collaborate with for an album?
Yeah, I think my number one would be a producer called Noah Shebib 40 who is Drake’s producer. Drake is one of my favourite artists. He’s such a sonic explorer and a creative visionary so I’d love to work with him and write music, and make a record with him.
Your tour is just about finished in the UK, favourite city so far?
I love Glasgow! The vibe here is always so good and people are really welcoming. We had a great gig last night at the Quay sessions. It’s never really about the city though, it’s always about the energy of the people in the room, and when you’re on the stage that’s what really matters.
And after Aberdeen tomorrow the UK tour is done, do you have plans to relax or is it straight back to work?
The day after Aberdeen, we fly to Oslo and then we start the European tour. We then have a day off and we’ll spend a month and a half in America on tour which will take us right to Christmas Day, pretty much.
So not much chill time then! Where’s been your favourite place in the world that you’ve explored whilst on tour?
I’ve been so lucky to see so many amazing places while on tour. We played in Shanghai the other week which was amazing, it was a different world. I also really like Canada, Canada is one of my favourite countries in the world. The scenery is amazing and the music is really good, and the people are beautiful.
It must be amazing to see so many places and meet so many people. We’ve heard you’re friendly with Twin Atlantic, how did you meet them?
Through Fraser who’s actually my guitar player. I think about 4 or 5 years ago or something we were playing together we just kind of became friends and we always see each other whenever we can.
Lastly, have you always wanted to make music?
Yeah, well, actually I kind of wanted to be a zookeeper when I was younger but I’ve always loved music. I used to listen to The Beatles when I was about 3 or 4 because my dad used to play it around the house.
So the zookeeper thing has been sort of pushed to the side?
For now! Who knows?
By Rebecca Meechan
Ben Leftwich photo by Pip for Dirty Hit Records
