Conversations with Ben Wenk

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Wenk.

Hi Ben, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up on my family’s fruit farm in Adams County, PA and played a lot of different kinds of music in my teenage years in the high school band and in our own high school garage band. I could never really decide which thing was a passion project and which was a career opportunity so, all these years later, through college years and multiple business startups, I’m still doing both! Along the way, we’ve started taking our fruit to metropolitan farmers markets in regional areas – Baltimore, Philly, DC, locally and we’ve started an alcoholic cider brand. Through the cider business, we’ve been hosting music festivals, summer concert series’, and provided a venue for the music scene at Ploughman Cider Taproom on Lincoln Square, in Gettysburg. When my friend and frequent collaborator Robert Leib made his way back to our hometown area, it spawned the most recent new enterprise, Guernsey Beat Records. It was something that was missing from our local music scene, so we joined forces with friend and lifelong prolific musician Dean Vaccher to start this new project that just celebrated our first year anniversary in May. In short, we’re out here in rural, agricultural Pennsylvania curating great experiences around apples, cider, agriculture, and live music by trying to glean off of the tourism economy in Gettysburg and trying to bring some of that business up into Northern, agricultural areas.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
So many struggles and obstacles! It sometimes feels like we’ve succeeded, when we have, by pure force of will. Our county grows 7.8 of the 11 million bushels of apples that Pennsylvania produces. Yet, cider is still very new and misunderstood. We’ve worked hard to gain traction with the local clientele and I do feel like they’re coming around. I feel our devotion to the music scene has been influential in making that happen. It is an area where we have ardent supporters of live music. It’s a rather low population density, all things considered. However, what our scene lacks in numbers, it makes up for in enthusiasm. We hear from many groups that come through that they long for “Gettysburg crowds” or “Adams County crowds” as they tour nationally and regionally. But many of the things we’re eager to accomplish are pretty progressive in a community that can be slow to adopt changes of any kind, so we try to set a good example and let our intentions and objectives be known up front. For better or worse, being the seventh generation to farm in our county does buy the things we’re working towards a little more legitimacy in the community, maybe, but it doesn’t make it easy. It’s just enough to make it viable. Or at least we’re hoping that’s the case. Our next challenge is to convert some of the folks who come to these shows to find ways to help make the scene grow.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’ve made it way too far into this things without talking about the band I’ve been honored to be a part of for 11 plus years, Chuck Darwin & The Knuckle Draggers. We were the privileged “first guinea pigs” of Guernsey Beat Records last year when we released our 3rd full length studio album, the first full length album for our label. We’ve been a part of this music scene for a minute by now and I really like where the group has found itself at the moment. Our sound is intentionally scattered, drawing from a lot of musical influences. But it’s always come back to a few key concepts: dance music without drums, fearlessness and unpredictability on stage, and our group constantly challenging ourselves so that the evolution is the only predictable thing. My challenge as primary songwriter for the group is to try to make my songwriting mirror the evolution and variability of the song choices we make when choosing cover songs. My allies in this venture are the same two fellas I’ve been fortunate enough to rely on as writing partners since the day I wrote my first song in middle school, Robert Leib and Joe Huettner. We all have our own voice and our own perspective and we’ve been able to work really well together – it’s a great way to try to keep things fresh and maintain your voice as a writer without feeling like you’re just repeating what you’ve done in the past. I used to find myself getting hung up on that concept – I could see some derivation in what I was writing and get perilously stymied by it. Having trusted partners who can work on these songs has proven to be invaluable.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I don’t think that anyone has spent more than an hour talking to me about music before I bring up Andrew Hickey’s incredible podcast, “A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs”. My devotion to his work can border on obsessive at some points. This podcast incredibly well-researched and professionally presented and produced, but perhaps its greatest strength is its ability to provide the context of these songs in a time, place, and culture that predates my time. When one of the first guitarists that you remember hearing is Jimi Hendrix, it’s really hard to understand how revolutionary the guitar playing of Buddy Holly and Don Everly was. As a result, I have a greater appreciation for the music that I already thought I knew well AND I’ve discovered an incredible amount of music in these eras that were influential in ways that I couldn’t understand having not grown up in that era. It’s ambitious, it’s thorough, and it’s presented as a cohesive narrative. I couldn’t recommend any media more fervently. Well, except maybe “Cocaine and Rhinestones”, the podcast masterwork of Tyler Mahan Coe, through whom I discovered Andrew Hickey’s podcast. He’s a master storyteller and adds a level of artistry to his podcast that makes the information feel more impactful. Not only does the education I get from these podcasts influence the work I’m doing creatively, but their use of language and their ethos helps steer what I’m doing with equal importance. I’ll also throw out a genuine recommendation for Jeff Tweedy’s “How To Write One Song” which really help demystify songwriting in a satisfying way. If you feel stuck in your writing, go back and read it. Available on audiobook as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://guernseybeat.bandcamp.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guernseybeat/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560624450969
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rob-607985787
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/ChuckDarwinMusic