Interview With Son Of Dave

The lucky attendees of this year's Dot To Dot festival had the chance to see the almighty Son Of Dave aka Benjamin Darvill over the weekend, an opportunity that we annoyingly missed. Son Of Dave takes the alternative approach to country-folk music armed with a harmonica and one exceptionally talented backing band. 

Ben is originally from Canada but moved to London where he's picked up an amazing reputation for live performances, something that's rare in country or folk. Since Ben moved over here he's released three albums titled 01, 02 and 03 all of which have sadly received minimal amounts of publicity.

We dropped Ben a line shortly after this weekend's festival to see how it all went.

SG: Your album 03 has been out for about a year now, are you happy with the feedback you've received from fans and the critics?

Ben: Never satisfied, no. Glowing reviews in all the broadsheets, music mags, online stuff, but it's not enough. Fans are rabid at the show and give me all the support and backslapping I need, but unless I'm making millions of them boogie, I'm not satisfied. The radio In the U.K. is obstinate. Apart from a few cool supportive people at the BBC, the majority just don't get what Son of Dave is dishing out. It's between specialist and pop, and they can't handle that. It's not like anything else on there, and it doesn't have breasts. Difficult for Radio programmers to fit into their media school understanding.  

SG: Who inspired and directed your video for Aint Going To Nike Town, did you have much input during the making?

Ben: Alex Amelines. He was a stranger who did a drawing of me and passed it along. I loved it and asked if he could make it move. A month later we had this gorgeous little video. The ideas were mine. Mine. All mine, ha ha ha!!!

SG: What's the song about? The title's pretty self-explanatory but what do you mean by Nike town?  

Ben: I've never liked branded things. It's not from reading about sweatshops. I just grew up distrusting things on which the company advertised. People who wear them wear them for the name, or because there isn't anything else. It's a scam. It's vulgar. It ties into bling and diamond encrusted watches and putrid displays of wealth. Status. It has become so big that it drives the economy. Fashion, advertising, manufacturing in poor nations, it's all been an obviously bad train to get on since I was a boy. Makes me angry. Nine out of ten people happily display their wealth or define their character by choosing brands. It's even more simple and backward than religion to me!

SG: You have written quite a few articles about current affairs, are there any that really concern you at the moment?

Ben: If they didn't concern me at the moment, they wouldn't be current affairs, now would they?

I'm a bar room hack when it comes to reporting on current affairs. But I can win any bar room argument I need to. Things seem obvious to me that the majority don't see. Is it any wonder, for instance, that the 7/7 bombings were not stopped, given the amount of information British Intelligence had on the nasties who were plotting it? It's no wonder to me. They let it happen. How is that hard to believe? It happens all the time. It took place right before Iraq was to be invaded, (Ed: Errr... not exactly - but we get your point) and the public needed to be made afraid of Islam. There is a long history of things going boom in Britain and around the world which sacrifice the lives of a few for a larger political agenda. It's not far fetched. Right under our noses. But I'm not going to write about that. It's not my job.

SG: Why did you move to London back in '98? Do you think the city has influenced your music in any way?

Ben: I was attracted to London because it is a centre for many things. It's part of Europe, believe it or not, and it has everything you need, for a price. It's influenced my music by making me a little louder and more aggressive. Canada was also a good place to work and be inspired. The winters are long, and the people are weird.

SG: Is there any reason why you're playing so many festivals this season? 

Ben Am I? I thought I got off easy this year. No particular reason. It's what I do. Either here in the U.K., in France, Australia, Japan, Poland...I can't think of a time I'm not playing a festival.

SG: Do you prefer playing in the festival atmosphere to a normal venue?

Ben: Apples and Oranges. I like a grubby bar room just as much as playing for 8000 on a big festival stage. Different kicks.

SG: Will you be playing any new material during this festival season or are you touring 03?

Ben I just play what I want now. The set mutates every year or so with a few new ones. Old ones get changed. I have so many party favourites and rude little ditties now, I don't think of it as "touring the new album". I jut keep the show fun. Though when there is a new album, I will lie to you and say I'm touring the new album.

Ben: What else do you have planned for 2009 and what would you like to achieve?

Ben: Anything short of superstardom is failure. Not for the fame and money, though that shit is good to have, but mostly to know that a lot of people are being well and truly titillated. That's my responsibility. Heh heh.