Ben Ottewell

• Posted: Wed 26 Jan 2011
• By: Kev

Gomez have been featured plenty of times on these pages over the years but it's only now that we've had chance to interview one of the group about a solo career.

Ben Ottewell has taken the opportunity between Gomez records to release a solo album on the 7th February, Shapes And Shadows.

We chatted to Ben earlier this week to see if it would have any impact on the future of Gomez, if he had any future solo plans and how this album had come about.

You have your debut solo album coming out shortly, why have you decided now is the right time to do this?

It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now and it was simply about having the opportunity time wise and, of course, the songs. Gomez generally keeps me very busy but I managed to carve out a little time and the people I wanted to work with were available so there was a touch of serendipity to it.

Can you tell us what the process for writing and recording these tracks were as I understand a number of them were written during or around sessions and tours with Gomez...

It was recorded with a very good friend of mine called Will Golden at his place in LA. It came together very quickly. The songs were written with a friend of mine called Sam Genders and are derived from a lot of fragments ; a verse, a chorus, a riff idea, that I’d written over the last 5 or 6 years and we worked on those until we had the finished tunes, lyrics arrangements and all.

When I got into the studio it was just a matter of getting great players, great sounds and the right vibe. The recording took about 10 days from working the songs up with the drummer and Will to laying them down and we had a lot of fun with it.

How did you define what would be suitable for Gomez and what would be better as solo material?

A lot of these songs I’ve had, at least in part, for 5 years or more,perhaps more personal thing than generally get aired in the band. When you are involved in a creative partnership with 4 other wriers it’s almost inevitable that some tunes, regardless of their quality, won’t make it through.

It can be about the lyrical content or simply that the vibe isn’t right for what the band is doing right then. These are songs that have been rattling around in my brain and have finally found a home.

What lyrical themes have you explored on the album?

Love, loss, relationships, picnics in space. Sam Genders and I have known each other for ever, we grew up together, so theres a strong theme of looking back to our shared experiences growing up, particularly in Shapes and Shadows.

And how did it feel stripping things back to just been yourself rather than part of a band?

At first terrifying but it’s also very satisfying. It’s very rare in my world to have an idea for a record, an overarching concept; how it will sound, who I want to work with, where and when, and have it all come together so perfectly. I guess the main thing I’m proud of was that it turned out exactly how I wanted it to.

You've already played several solo dates, how have they been going and did it feel strange not having the band onstage with you?

It felt very strange at first not having the other guys there. We are a proper band and the interplay live, the ebb and flow and the knowledge that your all behind each other is something you just can’t recreate solo.

That musical conversation just isn’t there. It’s a very different dynamic but I really enjoy the intimacy and the freedom of playing solo as well.

Does the solo career have any implications as far as Gomez is concerned?

Not at all, in fact we have just finished the next Gomez record and it’s a beast. Just means I’m going to have an extremely busy year.

Are you looking to make more solo albums and if so have you started writing more songs etc, where could you see this devoloping in future?

Right now I’m just concentrating on this record and the next Gomez and beyond that its a bit of a blur. Would certainly love to work with Sam and Will again.