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Meet Ben Garden of Melodic Monster and The Sol Journey in East Atlanta

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

Ben, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The journey to this present state has been a long and fruitful one built off of faith and action. It all started when I met my manager Emilie on Twitter. We connected because I released an EP (the first version of Melodic Monster) and my girlfriend at the time told me to check to see if anyone mentioned the project. There was Emilie. We began to correspond through Twitter (she lives in France) and found that we shared a lot in common especially our love for rock and roll and astrology. She told me that she was a producer and that she wanted to produce an album with me. Skeptical, of course, I slowly began to send her music as I created the demos. After some time, she informed me that we had an album. She told me she wanted to fly me out to London and hire musicians to play the music. I was still a bit skeptical, however, I was starting to get emails asking if I liked this musician and whether I wanted any other instruments added. I was also asked whether I had ideas about the artwork around my musical project: I suggested my best friend visual Artist Corinne Stevie, who is now the Art Director on the entire project.

I finally met someone Emilie worked closely with who was able to fill me in on who she was and give me information about her company, Triune Productions Limited. The day arrived when Emilie came up with plane tickets, a living space and a studio booked in London for a month to record the album. I was working for Apple at the time (7 years) and I had recently been thinking about death and legacy. After giving it a little thought, I quit my job and focused on using my talent for myself instead of giving it up to Babylon.

Two weeks later, I was on a plane from LA to London and just when I thought things were going great, I got deported back to LA (that’s a story in itself). I was not able to be with the band or finally meet Emilie. Luckily, God has a way of keeping things moving and they did. The musicians (who are really great) recorded all of the music for the album, leaving space for my guitars and vocals which would be recorded later. The blessing in disguise was that I was sent back to LA and at the time, I had money from the seven years I worked at Apple, so I stayed in LA for as long as I could, enjoying the city and its sights, and taking many trips to Venice Beach.

I eventually went back home to GA feeling a little disappointed things didn’t work out the way we planned. I focused all of that energy into another project called Thank You For Sharing, a hip-hop EP dedicated to all of my ex-girlfriends. I produced the music and got some help recording vocals and mixing. Even though it wasn’t my main project, I was glad to still be doing something with music and putting all of my energy into what I love.

Soon, it was time for us to finish the record that we had started. Emilie contacted me and told me we were going to do this in LA, @ Knobworld (ran by Jim Lang who composed the music for “Hey Arnold”). I was excited to be back in LA and it was going to be my first time meeting Emilie. It was also my first time in a professional studio and I enjoyed every minute of it. I learned so much and I grew as an artist and as a producer.

At this point, we knew we had to get a band together so I reached out to some people while I was in LA and sent them demos to practice before I returned to GA.

We finished recording the album in LA but we weren’t completely convinced with the end result. I previously worked with Tommy Livingston who had mixed a couple of tracks for me. I had a good feeling, suggested him to Emilie and she agreed to work with him. Emilie flew to GA for the first time and we spent a few weeks with Tommy for the mixing process. Everything went well and the next step was the mastering process. After a few attempts, we found our guy in Brighton, U.K., by the name of Max Gilkes.

With the record complete, it was time to focus on the band. After a few texts and calls, I was able to find people by the time I got back to GA. The original formation was short-lived, however with the drummer, Duckie and new recruit for bass, Real Soon, we were making progress. We still needed a keyboard player and right before our first show, I was able to convince Jay, who I met on a test drive at Tesla (where I worked part-time because money), to play with us.

Booking gigs was another beast. I was going to all of your favourite Atlanta music spots to look for gigs and reached out to certain groups but to no avail. I grew tired of chasing, so I decided to do what I do best… my own thing —and create my own show. As soon as I started on that mission, someone emailed Real Soon about a gig at Smith’s Olde Bar where an act backed out and they needed a closing band. Our set time was about 40 minutes and since I was always interested in theatre, I decided to create an experience with costumes, skits, and visual effects.

After our first gig, everything picked up and we were getting at least two gigs per month while still rehearsing at Atlanta Rockstar Studio. Tommy, who mixed the album, began to help out with sound at the gigs which is a HUGE help and one of my friends, Sterling, began assisting me with the visual effects. I started hosting house parties where my band would headline and have other upcoming artists perform and everything was free. Now, here we are…

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Before I found Emilie, I wasn’t doing much with my music. I was working at Apple and I made music every now and then but I never had the band that I wanted to carry it out. I was stuck in knowing I had this great talent but I couldn’t realize it due to lack of finding others who could share the same vision. Honestly, that has been the greatest struggle throughout the story because some people get it and some people don’t. Some people let their ego get to them and some people don’t. My goal is to always stay humble and keep my mind on the positive and my faith in God high.

Please tell us about Melodic Monster and The Sol Journey.
Melodic Monster and The Sol Journey is a band that is part of a bigger unit called Triune Productions Limited. Triune deals with music, film art, literature and then some. Like the company, Melodic Monster and the Sol Journey is built on an idea that can get to its full expression through multiple art forms. I first created Melodic Monster as a character, and a story followed. It’s an intergalactic story of love, tragedy, and desire. I was able to bring the story to life with the music that I created and make it more visual on stage with costumes and skits.

My creative personality is The Visionary and that is the part that I play. I allow my imagination to form a vision from the resources I am given. Basically, I try to take something and make it great. I am proud to have created a concept where I could use my love for music to encourage other forms as well. What sets us apart from most bands that I see is that we integrate theatre, smoke effects, visual projections. So, you’re not just coming to see a bandstand on stage and play instruments, but you’ll feel like you’re watching a Rock Opera. I have my friend Corinne Stevie to thank for the influence: Her band Telekinetic Walrus in Miami performed along the same lines and it made their shows so much more exciting.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favourite childhood memory was when my cousin had to live with my family and we started selling candy at our separate schools. We would come home at the end of the day and count up the money like we stole it. After he left, I continued to sell candy. It made me feel great to be able to make my own money at a young age without having a job. I got busted my senior year in high school.

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Image Credit:
Middy IG: @promosbyMiddy

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