BMA Autobiog-RIFFy / Photo by Sharna Grahame
“My name is Ben Drysdale, and I’m a born and bred Canberran with a 20-year music career and a 35-year obsession with music. As an only child who struggled with schoolwork (due, as I only found out last year, to undiagnosed ADHD), dealt with pretty bad bullying in high school, and struggled with mental health into adulthood, music has always been a refuge. A place where I could escape and feel seen, heard and understood.
When I started songwriting, I realised it was an amazing way of analysing and processing my experiences and feelings about the world. The physical and emotional workout of belting out that creativity live is a high unlike any other when everything is working. Sharing those parts of yourself with others in your community, being and feeling seen and heard, and connecting through what you have created is phenomenal.
After 20 years fronting bands, including Beth n Ben and East Row Rabble, I released the first single of a new indie folk/pop project under my name last December. My solo songs span from vulnerable and visceral ballads exploring the darker sides of life to upbeat foot stompers full of energy and hope.
After some songwriting study in 2019, I developed a studio sound that incorporates the good ole guy-and-his guitar vibes with modern pop production elements. For bigger live shows, I like to play with keyboardist, Niall Howe, who brings his folk and jazz roots to add unfathomable extra character and dynamics to my songs. My more well-known influences that have crept into my songwriting span Cat Stevens, Counting Crows, Damien Rice, John Butler, Xavier Rudd, and Vance Joy, and I’m obsessed with Noah Kahan right now.
Trigger Warning: Suicidal ideation.
My new song, Listen Now, is a heartfelt ballad about a deeply personal experience.
I got a midnight call from a friend. He had a belly full of whiskey and a head full of despair, and he revealed he had tried to end it all. I felt utterly unqualified to deal with the situation. All I could do was listen to his thoughts and feelings, and share my own experience of mental health struggles.
After talking for a while, we planned to meet up the next day to try and build a better support network and a plan to seek professional help. What struck me the most was that so many negative thoughts he expressed were familiar to me and so many others I’d talked to. It was just that his list of potential solutions was so drastically different. I was humbled and grateful that this friend reached out, and I am happy to report that he is doing well.
I started writing Listen Now shortly after that experience but needed help finishing it. So, I took it into a co-write session with Nashville-based songwriter John Clinebell, mentor of the course I had just completed. John liked it but wanted to ditch the chorus. As the song was so personal, this was a true test of ‘not being precious with your art’. So, we threw it out, reframed the bits I wanted to hang onto, and ended up with a much better song with a stronger chorus. I recorded it at Amberly Studios with Guy Lilleyman with the help of an artsACT Homefront grant.
Listen Now is an ode to those experiencing mental health challenges and a message of assurance: you are not alone. It is also a plea for men to defy societal stigmas, embrace vulnerability, and seek assistance.
Listen Now will be launched on 22 June at Smith’s Alternative from 6-8pm with Niall on the Keys. The set will include a range of songs around my mental health journey and those of people I know, but we always finish on a high and hopeful note.
50% of Bandcamp sales of the song to suicide prevention work. “
Drysdale Delectables
· Listen Now won 2nd prize at 2023’s Hawaii Songwriting Festival
· Debut solo single, If I Don’t Lie Down, released independently in December, debuted at #7 on the AMRAP regional charts, jumping to #4 the following week. Accolades include a feature on the Australian Independent Record Labels Association website; rave reviews from music publications worldwide, including the US, UK, France, Mexico, Ghana, and Serbia; streamed in over 100 countries
· 2021 duet release, Either Way (with LA artist Justina Shandler), was featured on Season 3 of the US TV show ‘Good Trouble’ in March 2021 and MTV’s ‘Ex On The Beach’ in 2022
· Unreleased track I’m Flyin’ Now has featured on The Young and The Restless and received an honourable mention and Win Some Love prize in Nashville’s 2022 Unsigned Only Music Comp
For tickets, pre-saves and news head to https://linktr.ee/bendrysdalemusic
