JOHN BENCE
EXPERIMENTAL CLASSICAL COMPOSER Illustration: Sophia Jowett
Creating breath-taking classical compositions, intriguingly warped through a deliberate and imaginative process of electronic manipulation, you have established yourself as a remarkable and vital new force in Bristol’s avant-garde music. I understand that you grew up in a very musical household and produced your staggering, remarkably moving debut record Disquiet when you were just 19 years old. How did you begin composing? Joe Bence: I did grow up in a very musical household, that’s correct. I began composing at the age of five, making little scores and recording my little songs on my ‘Tweenies’ themed tape recorder. My house was full of scores, CD’s and two pianos. My mum downstairs playing cello or piano and my dad upstairs making strange electronic music. I am the perfect amalgamation of my two parents. Disquiet seems like the record you would write if you grew up in such a household.
Disquiet is a composition in three movements for vocals and cello, subjected to a complex process of electronic production. As far as I understand, you record the cello and vocals live, then cut up the recordings, and layer them with new scores. What inspired you to alter these compositions in this way? Do you see this intersection between electronic production and classical composition as a defining quality in your music? JB: It’s what I do- my music exists in the digital audio workstation, not the concert hall or day-long recording of tired session musicians or something. The generation of sound in my music must come from a natural source or, at a push, feedback from the room microphones. No generation of sound digitally and absolutely no synthesisers, just feedback and real acoustic sound. If a musician plays on my record they must be instructed by me via the score or some other means of communication what to do, no jamming or anything horrible like that. Absolute instruction. Yes, this intersection between classical and electronic is where I stand…alone and very comfortably. It is the future of interesting music.
Disquiet, as a noun, means ‘a feeling of worry or unease’; how far was this record a deliberate attempt to invoke feelings like that, and what inspired this choice of tone? How far do you think the emotional themes of this record, which to my mind is an overwhelmingly sad piece of music, relate/spread to your other work? JB: I don’t think I was deliberately attempting to evoke anything, writing music just feels like a diary entry for memy current mood comes out in the music, that’s why you must get it down really quickly. I am an extremely depressed person. It feels funny talking about Disquiet now it’s the first record I released to the world, it took a while to come out. I actually wrote it when I was 17 years old but it didn’t come out until a few months before I finished my Alevels. I had no friends in sixth form when I wrote Disquiet. I was a psychotic virgin who weighed about 20 stone and had never talked to a girl or even looked a girl in the eyes for more than a second or so. But when Disquiet started gaining success I lost about 6 stone, got a haircut, a new shirt and started playing loads of shows around Europe and having loads of girlfriends around me backstage for the first time ever. It’s coming up to three years after Disquiet was released now and my SECOND RECORD called KILL has finally found a suitable home on Yves Tumor’s new label called ‘Groomed Records’. As you could imagine it’s about my first relationship, losing my virginity, the afterlife and alcoholism. KILL still has that feeling of worry or unease but my work from Kill onwards has lost that virgin childlike innocence, and I will never get the innocence back that Disquiet had- sad really.
What inspires you to compose? Does knowing you’re going to distort and rebuild your compositions alter the way you write them in the first place? JB: Yeah, you’re always thinking about what you can do with the digital audio workstation. For example, I am half way through writing my THIRD RECORD now, for cello, violin, percussion and computer- there are so many overdubs, mainly of the strings. The recordings are starting to sound like a small orchestra. It’s going to be an amazing live show. If I can get people dancing to live strings, it will be the first time people have danced to contemporary classical music since the 19th century. Elegant and punchy. You were brought under the wing of Chilean composer Nicholas Jaar, who released Disquiet on his label Other People; how did you come into contact with him? JB: I put some music on my Soundcloud page and he got in touch over email. I then spent a year or so sending him stuff until I made Disquiet and he said he would love to release it. Pretty simple really, no networking. You sang in a choir for many years; I imagine that must have endowed you with a particular understanding of how vocalists work together (harmonies etc.) to composed pieces. How has that influenced your use of vocals in your work, and your own style as a vocalist? JB: Yes, I have sung in my local church choir for the majority of my life with my mother. It has really helped me. Waking up all anxious and hungover from Saturday night not knowing what happened the night before. Or even after an all-nighter on some occasions. Then singing some Gibbons or Byrd to get some mental sanity back before continuing the drinking in The Bell on Sunday afternoon, that has been my routine for the past eight years. I love singing in polyphony with other choristers, singing beautiful music. I am quite in the dark about contemporary classical composition; are you aware of any other young UK artists creating work similar to yours? Do you draw inspiration from any contemporary sources, or are your influences principally the artists you were exposed to as a classically trained musician? JB: No, I feel alone. I take little bits of influence from everywhere. I’m classically trained and do get the majority of my inspirations from classical repertoire, but I don’t see a future in acoustic music. I want to play next to Giant Swan but delivering interesting and varied contemporary classical music via the sound system. I feel alone in my practice, which is great.
How do you find performing these songs live? I’ve spoken to ambient artists who find performing live very frustrating, having their music placed at the mercy of the venue’s acoustics and sound system. However, in your performances you are known for appearing completely lost in your music, even screaming as you play it. What do you hope people will take away from your performances? JB: This music is great to perform live, I try to get it to sound as good as possible in sound check but as soon as I start performing I get lost in the music. I have a good sound engineer that helps me out a lot at my concerts which is a huge help. If you’re spending all your time worrying about getting the perfect sound, then your ambient music probably isn’t interesting enough. While I don’t know anyone in the city making music like yours, the city is certainly full of artists employing electronic production in interesting ways, and artists who seem to share your interest in the relationship between harmony and disharmony/ cacophony; the first that springs to mind is the noise-band Spectres, who I saw you open for at Howling Owl’s New Year: New Noise festival in early 2016. How far do you feel as though you are part of a community in the city, and are there any local projects that have inspired/influenced you as an artist? JB: Well, I’ve known these people since I was 15. I don’t even phone anyone before I go out for the night anymore, I just walk out my front door and bump into people in the dance. I have good conversations with people about electronic music tools in the smoking area and then have a think about if these techno tools could be useful in my unique artistic practice in any way. But yes these are my fwends for ever and ever: Giant Swan, Spectres, Young Echo, Silver Waves, Dr. Loveridge, Jesuits and Withdrawn to name a few. What do you have planned next for the project? What impact would you like to imagine your music having on listeners? JB: Well you’re always one step ahead: over the last few years I have been playing lots of Disquiet shows around Europe and it’s been amazing. When I wasn’t playing Disquiet concerts I was in my home studio, writing Kill. Now I have stopped playing Disquiet shows and am about to start playing Kill shows, when I’m not playing Kill shows I am at home writing my third piece. When I start touring my third piece I will simultaneously be writing my fourth piece and so it continues. My production line will continue this way until I die.
I’ve never thought about the audience really. I crowd surfed the other day so the audience must like it. I think if the music affects other people the same way it affects me, I’ve done my job.