Ben's Imaginary Band

My first album, Nocturnal Fables & Illusions (2008), is probably my most personal. I wrote it in my late teens, and it's an emotional record about loss, regret and isolation. Most of it was recorded in the basement of a waterfront house, and the first thing you hear on the album is the actual sound of the ocean outside. By the time I got to the last song I had moved, and the last thing you hear is the train that ran past my new place. Partway through, I took a hiatus for a stay in a psychiatric hospital, and finished the album after I came out. The song A Reason Why features vocals from Kasandra Fredrickson. The album found an audience on Jamendo and Canadian filmmaker Senthil Vinu used several of its songs in his feature film Waiting for Summer.

As if predicted by songs like Life in a Cave, I went to live by myself on a remote island (Thank you Rodger Moore), and that's where I recorded Trust LP (2011). Where the first album drew on classic '60s music and whatever was popular at the time, the second is more of a kaleidoscope of influences: "Slapback" runs banjos alongside a classic Nintendo synthesizer, and was later featured by YouTube star Stevie Ryan in one of her videos. I worked with a drummer, Eric Chaves, on this one, and the cover is a photo of my mom. It's a more mature record, but still very open and vulnerable. The second half was written after my brother's death.

After that I stepped away for a few years, then released The Apartment (2017), with guest vocals from Vancouver singer Badgerchild. It's a more dissociated record, in a sense an attempt to step away from the earlier ones, though a few personal references are hidden in there. Alongside my own albums, I've had a longstanding collaboration with my sister, filmmaker Sophy Romvari: my original piece "Black Sheep" appears in her short film In Dog Years. A fourth album is currently in production, and I'm hoping to release it soon.