Leeds Guide Feature February 2008

Anyone who’s seen Benjamin Wetherill gently strumming his guitar around the indie venues of Leeds, or who has heard any of his darkly gentle previous releases will be shocked to know that the man once played in a rock band. The tall, arch and softly spoken folk singer doesn’t quite seem to fit in the rock mould, but there you go.

“I gradually got into folk music more and more as I got more records,” he explains, his quiet voice straining to be heard above the clatter of a post-lunchtime North Bar. “Its quite raw, and it has really good tunes. Some of them last for hundreds of years, so they’ve got to have a really good strong tune. It’s important for me to expand on what’s already there.”

One such song is ‘The Derby Ram’, a traditional folk ballad which dates back to 1867, and which Wetherill has covered for his latest single, on On The Bone Records. “It can be quite intimidating,” he says, “especially when the traditional stuff has to stand alongside your own. It spurs you on to make it as good as it possibly can be, so it doesn’t pale into insignificance alongside these strong traditional songs.” Wetherill has no need to worry. His current single is backed with a sweetly simple ukulele number of his own composition called ‘I Would Love To’, that could hardly be more charming if it tried.

Both songs see something of a development for Wetherill, as they add a diverse musical backing to his normal simple arrangements, including clarinets, saxophones and even an electric guitar (Judas, anyone?). “They both seem quite upbeat compared to the other stuff I do,” says Wetherill, “so it made more sense to release them as a single rather than try to fit them on an album with my more minor key stuff."

“I’ve got a lot more into recording at the moment, and I’ve got into the habit of buying instruments that I can’t really play but work when I make the recordings. It’s not like a conscious decision to expand the sound, it was just that the song was there and it lends itself to more of a band sound, and I had all of the equipment there.”

Of course Wetherill can’t perform all his instruments at once. For his single launched he assembled a three-piece backing band, and he’s hoping to try and use them again in the future. “It’s really quite noisy and a bit more jazzy. But it’s good because we’re playing songs that I haven’t been able to play before on my own. I’d like to do it a bit more, but it depends on availability. It takes a lot of organising.”

As well as the potential for more band gigs in the future, fans of Ben who aren’t sated by a two track single can look forward to two potential new releases from Wetherill, a split 10” with David Thomas Broughton, and an album recorded with A Hawk And A Hacksaw. It truly is the year for fans of delicately warbled and cleverly arranged traditional folk.