Ear Intriguers // Dub FX

Most artists get nervous as they tentatively wait in the wings before they step on to their stage. They’re going out to an audience who knows them, loves them and has paid for the privilege of being there. For Dub FX however, he honed his craft and exposed his talents on public ground, as a travelling street artist. The general public can be an unforgiving lot, quick to judge and lacking in time, but for Dub FX, I doubt he’s ever seen that side of people, as it’d take just seconds to win them over.

He is often wrongfully described as a beatboxer. Beatbox he does, but this man is simply a musician at heart. Born in St Kilda, Australia, he formed an early relationship with music but admits himself that his path into roots music wasn’t a direct one. With Australia not giving him the exposure to the music he later found he loved, he confesses that he explored making music, but as he describes it, the “cheesy” variety. One man, one guitar, one voice were enough to get Ben Stanford, as his mama deemed him, exploring his voice.

Dub FX’s characteristic sound started to develop when the artist discovered two things; firstly, that he could make a lot of sounds with his mouth, and secondly, a loop pedal. These two things combined suddenly gave him a whole orchestra of sounds – the instruments multiplied, the noises progressed, but the solo artist remained the same.

It was on his travels to the UK, where Ben now resides part-time, that he made a very important purchase. Parting with his lolly for an AKAI Headrush loop pedal, man and machine were fused and he immediately took to the streets of Manchester on buying it and stated playing around with the ideas that have now formed his career.

The pairing of Dub and his FX pedal weren’t the only lasting relationship formed on the Manc streets. Whilst there, he met Shoshana Sadia, known simply as Flower Fairy, who he fell for infinitely more than his new piece of technology, and who since his fiancé, collaborator, merchandise seller and right hand woman wherever his travels take him.

By this time, his travels and especially time in the UK had exposed him to a new kind of music for the Australian troubadour. Roots and reggae music had since become his muse, and after some time amassing some collective songs based on all his new loves, he released ‘Live on the Street’, a live album in 2007.

Going quite against the nature of this free spirit, it must have been quite a task when Dub FX embarked upon the confines of the studio two years later to put together his first studio album, ‘Everythinks a Ripple’, which he self released in 2009. Used to feeding off his bedazzled audience on the street, he instead clearly channelled that energy, with support and collaboration from his nearest and dearest, Flower Fairy and saxophonist Mr Woodnote and came out with an album that is stunning enough to be sold at each of his performances and earns him the luxury of not selling himself to a label.

Like the consummate artist, he continues to evolve, and he is absorbent to his surroundings. As Dubstep takes hold as the most visceral music genre to emerge out of the Capital’s depths, Ben has spent some time on Dubstep side project, Kila Mega Giga Tera, with collaborator Glade Kettle (Distro), leaving even more music to soak up in his wake, via the duo’s MySpace.

As we look forward to welcoming him to our city’s biggest live music venue, we know that he’ll bring all the innovation of his craft and all the verve of the street to us, his attentive public.

You started off as a street artist, but as you play bigger venues, do you think you’re in danger of losing any of the spontaneity or crowd relationship that you have with street performance?

Not really; I was playing in all types of different bands in clubs and pubs in Melbourne for 5 years before I started street performing. My strongest asset back then was my spontaneity and crowd relationship; however, my singing, rapping and beat box skills were pretty poor. Once I started busking and workshopping the loops station idea I was able to adapt my performance into what it is now and tighten up my skills. Nowadays I still busk and do stage shows in clubs and festivals. I treat them as different shows; on the street I focus more on selling my CD, because that’s how I make my money, so I play proper songs and structure them in a pop type format. In clubs I focus more on locking down a groove and toasting over it, so in fact my stage show has more spontaneity and crowd interaction. Lately, however, I’ve had to incorporate some of the structured songs from YouTube into my stage act to keep my fans happy.

Performing quite ad-hoc as a street performer must have created some unusual situations owing to differing reactions from the public, but what’s the strangest or most memorable encounter you’ve had?

I remember one time in Camden I was busking when a police lady came up to tell me to stop, so I stopped; when she left I started up again, and an hour later I looked out into the crowd and she was dancing. I always have pretty crazy moments in the street – every city has its quirks. My favourite moments are when someone asks to have a go on the mic and absolutely rips it up. It happens from time to time; sometimes I get people who aren’t very good, but the crowd is usually pretty encouraging.

We have beatbox classes for kids in Norwich, teaching them the techniques, which has created quite a scene. What’s the importance of that sort of grass roots teaching, and how did you learn?

I learned to beat box on my own just by copying hip hop beats with my mouth. I never took it seriously until I figured out I could use it with the loop station. I think it’s great that kids are learning properly in classes but so long as they get taught the basics and then go off and figure out their own style as opposed to every one doing the same things. To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of beatboxing on its own, I find it pretty boring. I’d rather hear it with a duo or a rapper or with a band, that’s why the loop station is a great invention for solo beatboxers as it allows them to expand their sounds and lock down a groove to then improvise over.

You’re always accompanied by your lovely fiance, Flower Fairy, who splits herself between performing and selling your merch – did you first bond over music?

Yeah, we met at a rave in a forest through her sister. We started hanging out in Manchester, walking around the city with 2 pairs of headphones plugged into the same mp3 player. We would take turns with each of our own players showing each other our favourite songs… in fact she pretty much introduced me to jungle and liquid DnB.

What do you do to find time together as a couple away from performing?

We go to the cinema or watch films on our computer in bed, we practice our songs or write and record new ones, we go to the park and walk around, or into the city and go shopping. We kind of just amuse ourselves with whatever is around us… but most of our time is taken up with music.

You beatbox, you use a loop pedal and you sing, which many beatboxers don’t, but which came first?

I started off playing the drums when I was 12 for a few years then switched to guitar because my dad refused to buy me a drum kit! I later realised that I wasn’t very good at guitar in my last year of high school when I had music as a subject, so in order to make my exam easier, I switched to singing at the last minute. I wasn’t a naturally good singer – in fact, I was pretty shit – but I managed to pick it up a lot quicker then guitar. I didn’t do very well in the final exam but I realised that I could get pretty good if I stuck at it. When I was 18 I started beat boxing and rapping but wasn’t very good at any of it. Now I’m 26 and I’ve had a lot of experience and practice over the years, so naturally I’ve gotten better.

Your solo material has strong reggae and dub influences, but your recent work as duo Kila Mega Giga Tera with Glade Kettle, you’ve explored Dubstep a bit more. Has this come from relocating to England?

Yeah, I had never heard of Dubstep until I got to Manchester a few years ago – in fact I hadn’t heard of Grime, I didn’t know the difference between Jungle and DnB; I had no real clue of the UK music scene. Now I’m releasing an album with Glade (Sirius) called ‘Across Worlds’, which isn’t made with my beatboxing or anything like that, we just produced a heap of Dubstep together and tried to expand its possibilities as much as possible using jazz, classical etc… that should be ready in a few weeks.

You’ve said previously that in Australia, they have been limited in the sounds they’re exposed to and don’t have so much roots influence, but recently we’ve seen lots more successful bands come out of Australia – do you perceive that the same, and why do you think that is?

I cant speak for anything other than UK-style music that comes out of Australia. Pendulum are an exception because they come from Perth where there is a big UK influence, but in Melbourne and Sydney, the majority of the people there listen to House and Electro… maybe a bit of of Hip Hop and Rock, but because the population is so small and the land is so big, it’s really hard for anything underground to really take off without commercialising itself. I believe it’s also down to the fact that Australia is a predominantly white country… there are very few Caribbean or African influences, so their music in my opinion is quite stale.

How have you found living over here for creativity, and how does the scene differ from what you’ve experienced around the world?

I find England to be the best possible breeding ground for music. Everyone in England appreciates music differently to anywhere I have been. I look at it from a population perspective as a whole and I believe that music is a number one priority in England, whereas in Australia the number one is sport, Italy would be food etc… I’ve also seen that in England everyone wants to hear something new. The freshest possible thing is the ‘in’ thing. Australia is less open to that.

You have worked intrinsically as a solo artist, even making what you classed as ‘cheesy music’ before you had the change of heart and courage to make music you believed in – at that time, did it seem at all lonely or futile?

Well the reason for that was I hadn’t yet been to England. In Australia you can’t land a record deal unless you sound like something that’s doing well in England or America and if you don’t have a record company booking your shows and tours, then it’s almost impossible to have a career in music without working in a pub pouring beers as well. Again, this is because of the small population and their closed minds towards new music. When I started busking, I was making watered down pop reggae which sounded like Jason Mraz or Jack Johnson; this was because I didn’t see another way of getting popular, but once I got to Manchester and the rest of England, I realised that I wasn’t going to get anywhere with that horrible puke, and what people wanted there was the filthiest bass line and the grimiest possible beat mixed up with some intense lyrics… I could never have conceived such a thing from Australia because it would be too out there for anyone to appreciate.

You have now found yourself collaborating with different artists, so I wondered how you found working with others after being solo for so long?

I love jamming and I do it all the time with DJs. I used to do it in Melbourne with a house DJ but once I got to the UK, I started working with DnB, Dubstep, Breaks and Jungle DJs, which is how I started learning about the different styles and what the crowd was loving. I also jam with bands from time to time and do the odd improv jazz gig. I started there and I will always go back to that type stuff… Dub FX is only a small part of what I like, it just happens to be an expression done by my self. I love collaborating with other people and I’ll do a lot more of it, but for now, I’m focusing on Dub FX because it’s gotten me to this point.

You’re coming to Norwich in June for a gig, but what would you ask of your audience?

Just to be themselves…

Emma Roberts

Dub FX will be performing for Roots ‘n’ Culture at the UEA on June 11^th along with Flower Fairy, Snareophobe and Foreign Beggars.