Getting To Know: Ben Waugh

Ben, your musical journey began at a young age with classical and jazz influences, but it wasn't until university that you found your passion for dream pop and folk pop. Can you share the pivotal moment or experience that led you to discover and embrace these genres as your true musical calling?

I suppose there wasn't necessarily one pivotal moment, but there were definitely lots of key influences during these early moments back in University. I went to a Lumineers gig in Dublin around 2016 with my wife and it was just epic. Their folk-dance style just got the whole of the o2 in Dublin rocking and from that point on we just kept going to more and more folk-pop gigs. Kodaline, George Ezra, James Bay to artists getting big on the music scene like Wild Rivers and Ocie Elliot. The musicians around me at that time loved folk-pop (including former bands I was in at this time)  including my wife who plays folk music on the violin! If she was answering this she would say meeting her would be the biggest of them all that made me embrace this genre truly. When I was in my teens I also loved just listening to indie-folk or lofi artists on YouTube. The well-known channel MrSuicideSheep being a go-to channel amongst many like Alex Bird Music. I just got the bug for listening to raw, upcoming folk-pop and electronic artists. Then it really caught on in university when I started to see everyone performing this live as well! 

The pandemic brought about significant challenges, both health-related and in terms of managing anxiety. How did these struggles influence your songwriting process for your upcoming debut album, "Fight or Flight"? Can you elaborate on how you turned personal adversity into artistic inspiration?

Like many, I found lockdown a bit of a challenge for many reasons and time just felt like forever back then when we were trying to find things to do in our own homes. I'm truly claustrophobic (I hate lifts, I once got stuck in one for an hour and half in London in 2019). The pandemic spiralled my fear of being trapped. So much so, it formed new anxieties like a fear of flying which I had never had before. I just really needed something to focus on. Something to change my mindset and to give me hope that actually these are passing moments. I learnt how to let my fears go and the creative process of writing help me envisage letting go of these fears and to focus on winning over them. I found the whole process empowering for me. Like it gave me my happy-go-lucky self back and to focus on what truly mattered. It helped me to get over my fear of flying. It also become a personal diary for me over the last three years to write how I was feeling and to just let all those emotions go so I could focus on the here and now and look forward to the positive times with everyone and of course more travels! 

The title of your debut album suggests a theme of internal conflict and decision-making. How did you conceptualize and weave together the various themes, such as post-pandemic travel, health challenges, and personal milestones, to create a cohesive narrative in the album?

I had often heard the term "Fight or Flight" to describe that feeling when we go into panic mode when we're anxious or dealing with a highly pressurised moment. I just felt like it worked on so many levels. I had often felt like the past 3-4 years had been this constant rocking motion and back forth of uncertainty and surprises! So many things that had changed my life and key life changing decisions. Creating this album is something I've wanted to do for a long time and over the past year or so, I've just removed any inhibitions and internal conflicts/reservations. These years of stuff happening to me and the pandemic taught me that time doesn't wait around for anyone and you have to go for what you truly want in life, be that travel, personal milestones or starting a business or album. The fight or flight concept also worked on the fact that I overcame these internal fears and conflicts (directly fear of flying and health) and that I wouldn't let it stop me from getting in the way of travel and ambitions. Travel is also such a large part of my life and some of the greatest memories with my wife, family and friends have come from trips away. I've also been lucky to go to Canada & all over Europe in the summer of 2023 and before that in the years before Covid (Australia, India). I just felt like this was all about I wasn't going to let these fears stop me from doing what I love... to spend quality time with loved ones in memorable places! 

Writing about personal ups and downs, including getting married in the Isles of Scilly, moving house, and battling anxieties, can be a deeply personal and cathartic process. How has the act of putting pen to paper and expressing these experiences through your music aided in your own healing journey, and what do you hope listeners will take away from the emotional landscape of "Fight or Flight"?

It helped me find myself again in terms of losing my fears and just being happy within myself. It helped me to overcome my fears by having a more positive mindset but more crucially the whole process let me leave those thoughts and feelings that I had behind... almost like writing a diary and just letting it all come out so it's not all stored up and festering. It helped me to find hope in the future, to know that if you ever feel like you can't overcome a fear or any anxieties that you truly can. That's what I want my listeners to know that know matter how bad your fears get, that there is always a way of overcoming them and finding a way to get back on that road. There are always bumps along the way but at least you're on course and you're stronger for it. It will empower you and you can go on to better things to make it your time to do what you truly are passionate about.