30/8/05

Ben's Biog

Ben Kidd, (Drums, Loops/Samples.)

Adam and I had worked together musically when we were younger. I played bass and drums with rift at varying points in their career (which I enjoyed greatly), and Adam sang with my band, Sunburst in it's formative era. However, we did each other's heads in and went our separate ways musically.

I was lucky enough to work for many years with Tristan McLenehan and Dom Carrol on a number of interesting projects, (notably Rainmaker and Dr.Pussy). We had all played for most of our lives and could play each other's instruments, so we learned a lot from each other, wrote some very offensive music and had a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, fate transpired to end our sick japery and when the dust settled I found myself in a post-apocalyptic pit of despair. It was at this time that I created the Heavyman character and proceeded to go mad trying to do the whole thing myself, in my home studio, redrebel.

I wrote an 'Instrumental Hip-Hop Horror' EP, Psychotix and a Hip-Hop Ep called 'Americanisation' with my rapping on it as Heavyman. I also wrote and recorded 'the trip' with Psalm37, a 'crazy, warped, psychedelic experience...'

Before Dr. Pussy split up we worked with Neville, who later helped out on a couple of Heavyman tracks; Heavyman theme and U.S.A. contributing keys and vocals. Tristan played guitar and sang on Anything.

Heavyman sounds unfinished, because it is. I will undoubtedly revisit some of this material at some point, but as much as I enjoyed working on it and as much as I learned doing it, I was itching to get out of the studio and play live again.

Adam and I had been working on some collaborative tracks back and forth for a while. Dom had played drums on a version of Blueprint, we had recorded demos for All u believe in and some really quirky stuff that we might forget aboutÉ Adam had demoed loads of new tunes and was gagging to get on with something too,É

Joy of joys the first thing we do is go back into the studio for two years, refining the material, writing and recording fresh ideas. We played out live a bit, joined by Steve Hoile of the mojo-fins on bass and the infamous Psalm37 on keys. But Steve was a mojo-fin and Tim had to go to London to study. We played with a bunch of other guys when we were developing the material, but the sound only really started to come together when Neville got involved. It wasn't long after that we decided to apprehend Sean and tell him he was going to play bass for us. He wasn't sure at first, as he was busy working on a number of other projects, but we didn't give him a choice. I now work with Sean on his smooth project and his drum and bass material, U.S.P.

By writing and performing this material I hope the band will remind people of their responsibilities to themselves and their brothers and sisters all over the planet. It takes a couple of minutes at the most to sign a petition on an issue that you care about. It's not 'Spam' or 'Junk mail'. It's not charity or 'bleedingÐheart liberalist guilt mongering'. It's a practical way of using the new technology at our disposal to force world governments into action and eventually make their political processes transparent.

Equal representation!

Campaigns like www.makepovertyhistory.org have clearly demonstrated that we do have a choice in what decisions are made in our name. The infrastructure is there to make our collective opinions heard. But the trust of the masses in their leaders to act (or even react) has gone. After generations of unresponsive, corrupt governments, we find ourselves sedated with MTV, Playstation, drugs and shitty, corporate bling music.

I love this band.

I like Turning Green, the mojo-fins, Twelve Stone Toddler. I also like Chasing Ayres, Illuminati3, Killing mode, Brighton represent! I'm into Mike Patton's stuff, Ipikak (Bungle, Fantomas, Tomahawk, Lovage etc) I like Zappa, I Like RATM, SOAD, Slipknot, Manson, I Like Cypress, Wu-Tang, Killa Kella, Razel, Herbaliser, Snoop, Em, Dre,ÉI like the Neptunes stuff, Britney, Timberlake, Kelis, I like John Lee Hooker, BB King, Muddy waters, and Howlin' Wolf, I like Elvis but I prefer Chuck Berry, good cheesy pop, Aguiellera, sugababes. I like Led Zep, Hendrix, Chilli Peppers, I like Prince, George Clinton, Sly and the Family StoneAdam F, Goldie, LTJ Bukem, Roni Size, I like Aphex Twin, Plaid, Warp records,

I like music that makes a point.

Biog