Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Stranger.
Hi Benjamin, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve spent the better part of my life chasing songs and the rest chasing stories. As a songwriter, screenwriter, videographer and director, my topographical biography has been marked by where I’m performing, what I’m writing about, and where the story I’m searching for is hiding. Baltimore. New York. DC. Philly. Canada. Texas. Tucumcari. Macon. Los Angeles. Italy. Nashville.
Every place I’ve performed on tour or traveled a creative path through has come with me after I’ve left. In Baltimore, I founded and fronted the indie rock band Payola Reserve, releasing two LPs (One Long Apology & 200 Years) before decamping to LA. While there I released solo singles (“Los Angeles Lightning” & “The Past Is Doomed”) and worked in film scoring (Forever Blue) under the name ‘crooked letter i.’ With some stops in between, I relocated to Nashville and founded the country rock outfit The Lonely Bastards with songwriter / producer Trace Faulkner (Paisley Fields, Mercy Bell), mysterious pedal steel legend Tony Paoletta (Cowboy Jack Clement, Elizabeth Cook), and drummer Adam Mormolstein. We were a live staple in Nashville in the late 2010’s, releasing two LPs (Live Wildwood Sessions & Murder Ballets), the Barely Born EP, and the single “If God’s On Your Side.” Since then, I’ve released a full-length concept album (Fare Thee Well, Follower) and four solo singles as Benjamin Stranger.
Throughout all that time, in addition to writing alone, I collaborated with and fostered other musicians and songwriters, giving “lessons” in both formal and informal settings. Sometimes employed by an area company, sometimes freelance, I always thought of my teaching as a sideline to whatever else I was chasing. Recently though, I’ve been surprised to really miss the rush of writing someone else’s first song with them—discovering, demystifying, then re-mystifying the art of songwriting together. Watching anyone, especially a child, feel the electricity of true creation as we realize and receive a song together is POWERFUL, and something I’ve taken for granted at certain times before. Not anymore. I’m excited to announce a new business venture in songwriting, the House of SongCycle.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Do smooth roads exist? Definitely not here in Nashville. There have certainly been struggles. Crises of confidence. Crises of health. Letdowns. Unrealized opportunities. Over the last few years my family and I have been through the mill with medical challenges big and small. Somehow, as a writer, you must always find time to voice memo the idea, jot the chorus, outline the screenplay. I’ve literally written songs on the hospital chapel piano at 4am, and likewise finished scenes for a recent screenplay adaptation I was hired to write in the empty, quiet hospital meditation room. If you can write through the struggles, you can write anytime, anywhere.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
SongCycle is a word of mouth song lab where ideas lead and instruments follow, and it’s open to ANYONE. Want to learn a songwriting instrument like guitar, piano, bass, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, dulcimer…? Want to arrive with a notebook full of unfinished ideas, titles scribbled in the margins, poetry needing music, melodies needing words…? Want to arrive with nothing and build from there…? All of these are open doorways to enter the SongCycle House.
The old formula for getting into songwriting was to learn an instrument. Learn the theory. Practice for years. Write songs later. But songwriting resists instruction. It responds to attention. It is discovered. Fostered. Shared. Along with important collaborators like my chief co-writer Trace Faulkner, I’m proud to have developed a Montessori-style guide, aesthetic and lexicon for the House of SongCycle that is less like a “brand” and more like a publishing house with its own methods, vocabulary, editorial voice, sequencing, architecture, and artifacts.
ANYONE interested in songwriting with any level of experience—or none at all—can reach out via HouseOfSongCycle.com or communicate directly to SongCycleHouse@gmail.com.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
1. Writing through the obstacles. Working through the struggles. Even if you can only spare a few minutes a day, a few thoughts a day. If you can keep the creative pilot light lit even through suffering, then you can always start a fire.
2. When to be quiet.
Pricing:
- Negotiable pricing starts at $60/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: https://houseofsongcycle.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/songcyclehouse/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-pranger-writes/
- Other: https://linktr.ee/benjaminstranger
Image Credits
Photos 1-2: One Long Apology & 200 Years by Payola Reserve, photos by Paul Hayward
Photo 3: Forever Blue by crooked letter i, photo by Abigail Bean
Photo 4: Live Wildwood Sessions by The Lonely Bastards, photo by Trace Faulkner
Photos 5-8: Barely Born & Murder Ballets by The Lonely Bastards, Misshapen I.D. & Fare Thee Well, Follower by Benjamin Stranger, photos by Benjamin Stranger
