"My Body is Tired but My Brain's on Fire" by Willis Benjamin

For this week's summer track, check out this jam by Willis Benjamin. It's equal parts down-home and modern, and I can't stop listening to it.

This is such an interesting title for an instrumental piece - how did you come up with the name?

The title of the piece comes from something I've said to my girlfriend on nights where I've got too much on my mind to sleep. I had been trying to write a song with that lyric in it but the music and words just weren't coming to me, I generally don't work well when I have a preconceived notion of what I want to do, so I decided to use it as the title of this instrumental.

What was your methodology for recording this - did anyone else play on the track?

The song was written the day it was recorded and posted. I was pretty exhausted from an event my friend (Jay Tripper) had thrown the previous night and was just waking up on Sunday afternoon. I sat down to practice some banjo, I've been trying to learn the claw hammer technique, and I really liked what came out. I decided to grab my mic and recorded what I'd come up with, I then overdubbed some simple strumming and picking on a 12 string guitar and lastly added the slide guitar with my dobro. Lastly I did a really quick mix down (compression, EQing, and panning), even though I didn't have my proper headphones, and posted the track.

What was your inspiration? To me this song says relaxed, down-home afternoon. Am I anywhere near the real meaning?

For instrumentals meaning is often more ambiguous. I suppose this song is the result of sleepy, lazy, sunday afternoons getting treated like sunday mornings and the recording captures that feeling. Although the title of the song comes out of a place of anxiety. Maybe theres a connection to be made there somewhere.

Who are your greatest influences?

As for influences I have many. Ranging from the very old to very contemporary. My focus recently has been on folk and blues. My biggest influences in those genres are Son House, Charlie Patton, Mississippi John Hurt, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits, The Grateful Dead, and The Devil Makes Three. I'm also going to have to list Frank Zappa as an influence or my father would be very disappointed.

I'd also like to make mention of my musical mentors Bruce Brooker of Big Daddy G and Caution Jam, and Mike Eckhart of The Treasures.

You can catch Willis Benjamin on Soundcloud or gigging around Toronto - if you're in the area, stop by and take a listen! 



***As always, if you or people you know are Musically Notable, drop me a line on Twitter @AngelinaPanozzo!***