Photo via Thomas Diasio
Interview by Jordan Kirkland: Live & Listen
To say it's been a busy year for multi-instrumentalist Benton Crane would be quite the understatement. The previously Alabama-based musician spent much time balancing time between his multi-year project, Ice Station Zebra, and a new venture as keyboardist for Birmingham's Manic Vision. All the while, Crane was finding time to continue working on his debut solo album, Welcome to Paradise, which is officially available on all major streaming outlets today. He has recently relocated from Birmingham to Boulder, where he will continue his musical journey in one of America's richest musical hotbeds.
We recently had a chance to catch up with Crane to learn all about the new release, which has proven to be much different than any of his previous work. You can find his official bio and the full conversation below, as well as links to stream the album in its entirety via Spotify. Make sure to check out Crane's newly completed, official website (BentonCraneMusic.com) to keep up with all of the latest happenings.
Official Bio: Benton Crane
The mind behind the madness is what provides beauty to art, and Benton Crane has an ambitious head on his shoulders. The twenty-six-year-old Birmingham native grew up on classic rock and rollers like The Beatles and Bob Dylan, listening to music that added vulnerability and creativity to the genre like never before. It is in these pockets where Benton’s psychedelic take on keyboard-driven pop/rock music finds its feet. His lyrics strive to provoke thought, feeling, and introspection in a world that can seem to lack such humanistic values. Benton hopes the listener finds something meaningful in his upcoming debut album, “Welcome to Paradise”.
I know it must be quite gratifying to release your debut solo album, Welcome to Paradise. How long has this project been in the works?
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Benton: I started working on this project in December of 2020. I came down with COVID during the holidays and had to be isolated for two weeks. Fortunately, my symptoms stayed relatively mild. At the time, I hadn’t defined much vision for the project. I mainly just wanted to experiment with recording and arranging some songs that I’d been working on. Soon after starting a few songs, I decided to turn the project into a concept album that tells a story.
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Throughout this pandemic, I lost a bit of faith in humanity and making this album was rather cathartic. Issues such as the climate crisis, as well as racial and gender inequality, had been deeply weighing on my mind. Welcome to Paradise tells the story of a society that is way off the mark…neglecting their home planet (I call Paradise I), and are fueled by greed and hate. Environmental crisis along with societal decay leads them to a catastrophic decline. They decide to evacuate Paradise I into space.
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Their new home, Paradise II is a beautiful place, until they arrive. They soon discover that it’s only a matter of time until Paradise II is a barren wasteland…and the cycle continues. My goal was to tell a story, while still leaving enough up to the imagination for the listener. This is the story that these songs tell me. It may mean something different to you.
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You've been a part of several bands in your past, most notably, Ice Station Zebra and Manic Vision. While your time with Manic Vision was limited, you were a founding member of ISZ. How did the writing process for this album compare to that of your past projects?
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Benton: It was a lot less collaborative and a bit more experimental than my previous projects. Some of the sections to these songs weren’t written until I hit “record” and followed my ear. Sometimes it would take weeks to figure out exactly what I wanted or how a part was "supposed" to go. In Ice Station Zebra or Manic Vision, we would go into the studio knowing what songs we were recording and more or less how we wanted to play them. We usually couldn’t afford to do much experimenting in the studio, so things were pretty set in stone going in.
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The songs were also typically road tested a bit before recording them. For Welcome to Paradise, it was pretty much the opposite. I had the time and freedom to write and rewrite these songs until I was happy. “These Chains” was written during the summer of 2020 and it just seemed to be a good fit for the album. A few other songs went through several re-writes until I was satisfied.
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When and where was this material recorded? How was this experience unique from past studio sessions?
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Benton: I recorded the entire album in my home studio. Doing it myself, I had a lot more time for experimentation than in the past because I wasn’t paying anyone for the studio session. I had the freedom to hit record and try something new, and not have to worry about running up the bill or going over budget. Being able to take risks with these songs really made a difference in terms of developing a new style for myself. It was all very freeing, which is probably why it took me nine months to produce an eight track album.
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Stream Welcome to Paradise in its entirety here:
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I'm guessing that there was a fair amount of collaboration involved in this project. What other musicians contributed to the album?
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Benton: The writing and recording for this album by nature was not very collaborative. I took my ever-changing vision and just ran with it, recording everything myself. I wanted to see what I could come up with while being as self-sufficient as possible. My partner, Anna Alford, sings some beautiful backing vocals on the songs “Paradise I” and “Everything We Touch.”
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I did have some other great folks help me out in the post-production phase. My friend and Manic Vision bassist Hayes Laporte worked with me on mixing and mastering these songs. Artist Katelyn Simmons made some amazing artwork for each track to help add a visual element to the story (I will be sharing these one at a time after the album is out). You can see her work in the artwork for the two single releases for this album "Everything We Touch" and "A New Dawn." Josh Clark, guitarist for Tea Leaf Green, made the incredible album cover art. It was so beautiful seeing these pieces come to life after months and months of working on the album. I self produced the entire album, and I feel like I’ve grown a lot as an artist throughout this process.
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Of course, after working on the same eight songs for nine months, I needed some fresh ears on the tracks. Before I released "Everything We Touch" as a single, I met with Marco Benevento to get some feedback and suggestions for producing the track. He was super helpful and gave me some great tips that I was able to use on the rest of the album. My friends and former ISZ bandmates Ethan Maas and Jack Fagan were helpful in checking my work and providing some feedback as well.
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This release happens to coincide with your recent move to Colorado. Do you see yourself assembling a backing band to try and play these songs live in the future?.
Benton: That is definitely something I’d like to do at some point. It would be a new approach to performing from the rock/jam bands I usually gig with. It may be a little while before that comes together. In the past, I’ve written songs by thinking about how to perform them live, with standard live instrumentation, but this time I didn’t want to consider the live performance, because I felt it would limit the expression of the songs.
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Some of the arrangements were influenced by The Beatles' work towards the late 60's. The instrumentation gets crazy with tubas and french horns and violins and weird sounding pipe organs, and lots and lots of synths. Many of these arrangements and production techniques can be tough to reproduce live, but it would be a lot of fun transforming them into a live performance one day.
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What can your fans / friends / family expect with your solo career moving forward? Do you see any new projects in Colorado on the horizon?
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Benton: I’m definitely in the market looking to join another band in Colorado. I’m going to take my time finding a good fit and not rush into a new group. As far as my solo work goes, I’m going to keep on releasing music. After Welcome to Paradise, I plan to start releasing singles every 1-2 months, and I’m going to do an acoustic video series on my YouTube channel where I play my upright piano or acoustic guitar. .
I have written so many songs in so many different styles over the years, so I’m excited to have this platform for them and to share them with people. I’ll be collaborating with other musicians as well. I’ve recently finished my website, bentoncranemusic.com, so check that out. Also, there is an Ice Station Zebra EP that has been in the works for a while. Even though I have moved on, we are still finishing it up. Hopefully, it will be released by the end of the year, I'm really excited about that.
