A performance and Q&A—produced by the team at I Know We Should—filmed at NYC’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios
———————————————————————————————
There’s certainly no shortage of talent in New York City, but it’s not every day that the space—literal and metaphorical—is created for talented strangers to gather in a designated place, at a specific time, with the sole goal of working together to make some music magic happen.
However, that’s exactly what happened earlier this month at Anti Social Camp—the world’s largest songwriting camp, put on by Anti Social Producers Club—where 150 artists came together for 100+ songwriting sessions, along with a week’s worth of performances, parties and live events, to celebrate collaboration and creation. And to demonstrate, to the utmost degree, what can happen when musicians with different experiences, specialties and perspectives are put in a room together to combine their creative powers.
As the camp’s participants took over studios across the city to unite and write, I had the ridiculously sick opportunity to host some intimate studio sessions with four of the amazing musicians at Platinum Sound Recording Studios, produced by the extremely lovely and ridiculously-good-at-what-they-do video/audio experts (and BdBK BFFs) Brad Wagner and Juan Soria of I Know We Should.
Over the course of one Tuesday afternoon, we hosted live sessions with Mia Berrin of Pom Pom Squad, Ben Thornewill of Jukebox the Ghost, Ant Saunders and Ray Angry, during which the musicians performed some very sweet sets and chatted about the camp, their craft and their experiences doing the most important thing in the world: makin’ art, man.
First up! Check out our session featuring Ben Thornewill of Jukebox the Ghost!
Jukebox the Ghost has been a band for more than 15 (!) years, and their sixth album, Cheers, just turned one year old. Beyond this project, Ben kept himself entertained/challenged/sane over the pandemic by—as so many artists did—connecting with fans over livestream. There he showcased his creativity and music mastery in a series called “Names Into Music” where he assigned keys to letters and composed tracks for fans in the chat on the spot. (He compiled his faves in an album, Names into Music, Vol. 1.) He’s also got a solo EP coming out soon, featuring songs all based on a 150-year old classical piano piece from Schumann.
Watch the video above in which Ben showcases a few of his many songwriting sides (plus mad enthusiasm and charisma) with a performance and interview in which he talks music nerdom, his Anti Social Camp experience and strolling down the BQE in a hurricane. As one does.
I’m not exaggerating when I say there’s nothing in the world I love more than doing this. HUGE thanks to Ben, I Know We Should, Danny Ross at Anti Social Producers Club and everyone else who made this happen. I hope you enjoy~
———————————————————————————————
Keys and vocal: Ben Thornewill // Host: Sam Sumpter // Video: Brad Wagner // Audio: Juan M Soria
Follow Ben at @benthornewill, sign up for his Patreon for cool bonus content and add his songs to your Spotify playlists.
Check out the YouTube page of I Know We Should for so much killer content, plus follow Anti Social Club to stay in the know on more cool opps and events.