Ben Sures takes us through what inspired the diversity in his songwriting.
Can you take me through your musical history and what inspired you to start making music in the first place?
In high school I was looking for something to excel at that was not competitive. I thought writing songs. There have been some good songwriters and good songs and bad songwriters and bad songs but ultimately real craft is so individual you can't compete. So it was perfect for a short 90 pound weakling in high school.
Did you come from a musical family or is this something you picked it up?
I came from an artistic family. My mother's father did cartoons for The New Yorker, movie posters and built Carmen Miranda's hat. My mother's mother was a painter and guitar player. She actually taught me some chords when I was a kid. My mother is a painter. My father, he had the Order of Canada Governor General's Award in ceramics and he studied classical guitar in the 60s. So not necessarily music but definitely creative.
So did you start off playing guitar?
I started out playing classical guitar. Then I heard all my friends were playing Neil Young, so then I quit my lesson and got a steel string.
Can you go through how you develop your sound because every album sounds a little bit different melding different genres into each one?
[Laughs] Yeah, it's not intentional. I'm not intentionally eclectic. I just have a wide-ranging musical background. I think in some ways I have a little bit more ability in terms of what I can play compared to some songwriters so that's led to a bit more of an eclectic background. I grew up playing blues in Winnipeg and Neil Young and folky stuff. Then I learned to play a little bit of jazz then a little bit of slide guitar. I like all kinds of old music like Klezmer music and Cajun music and everything really.
Yes and No. I'm constantly writing. I've been constantly writing songs since I was 15 and they're not always focused in a certain style or direction. I just sort of write whatever fits the story. But for my Gone To Bolivia album, I had a year to prepare for that so I wrote songs specifically for that album. It kind of relied on assembling a group of musicians that would help dictate the sound rather than choosing to be stylistically this or that.
Then my next album I had a bucket list thing to do one blues record. I played so much blues when I was younger and I had never really written those kinds of tunes, so that one I did specifically blues and guitar-oriented. But otherwise, I've always kind of been an acoustic guitar singer-songwriter with wider roots I guess.
Can you talk about your new album?
It's a greatest hits version of my songs arranged for horns and strings. I did a concert two years ago funded by the Canada Council. It was a performance of my songs arranged for horns and strings so I had six horns and I had a violin, mandolin and upright bass accompanying me.
For people who haven't seen you perform yet, and because you have such a wide array of genres and songs, what can people expect when they catch you at Harvest Sun?
They can expect an overview of songs of mine from different periods and I'll be there with a great bass player, Natalie. She is world class so they can expect lots of awesome bass! My show is always a lot of storytelling, a lot of audience participation, a little bit of funny, a little bit of sad, a little bit of somewhere in between, references to food and family and sci-fi weapons and maybe some French, maybe some Spanish!
Why do you think a festival like Harvest Sun is super important?
I think it's the kind of environment that can inspire local people to play. It also brings artists in so that maybe if you spend all year just hearing the people that live in your town it gives you a sense of the outside world. There's nothing that compares to seeing bands in person. You can always hear great music on the radio but there's nothing like experiencing it live to really show the possibilities. I think festivals that bring in musicians from other parts can really do that and I think it fosters community, which is fantastic.
Catch Ben Sures at The Harvest Sun Music Festival in Kelwood, MB - August 17 - 19th.
Follow Ben Sures on Facebook, on Instagram and on his official website.
Be sure to check out @harvestsunmusicfest on Instagram on June 30th, as Ben Sures takes over our account for the day!
Janet Adamana is the Founder/Editor-In-Chief of Sound, Phrase & Fury Magazine - a Winnipeg-based digital publication dedicated to promoting independent artists and industry professionals from all over the world. More than just about inciting hype, she interviews/writes to capture an artists’ essence and their greatest passions to ignite meaningful connections between fans and really great bands.