Say You Will is the brand new single from Nu-bluesman Ben Hemming. Released this Friday, it’s taken from his fourth album ’Broken Road’.
Glowing reviews have been confirmed in Blues Matters and Powerplay magazine for the album
Riding the wave of success of 2019’s seminal album ‘The Devil Beside Me’ hailed as “Huge, dark, bleak and troubled. One of the best things I’ve heard this year” by Music News, Ben Hemming has returned to the studio to craft a release that brims with Alt-Rock credentials but still maintains Hemming’s Blues roots.
Recorded in Norway at Velvet Recordings, a state of the art studio with a famous Neve mixing desk, Hemming has teamed up once more with producer Nick Terry (The Libertines, Ian Brown, The Klaxtons). The album is a fitting return to foreign soil, and a return to the scene of his second release, tying in with concepts of journey and self-discovery that unites new material in a common theme. It’s an album that transcends previous work with its depth and progression, and puts Ben Hemming firmly in the limelight once more.
‘A unique musical entity’
The Blues Magazine
‘Songs of bleak beauty’
Blues Blast Magazine
‘This is a new blues’ Americana UK
‘I think people will defiantly see a change from my last record, but it maintains a sense of truth and honesty which I feel is such a pivotal part of roots music. I felt a real sense of exploration and evolution in this record, not only because I made it abroad, but as it’s my fourth album there’s a maturity to the song writing that I feel will really strike a chord with people.’
It was during a particularly troublesome period in his life that Hemming embarked upon a musical pilgrimage around America that put him on the road to dedicating his life to music. A journey that has come to fruition with this latest release.
“Music for me has always been about story telling” explains Hemming “of passing on what you’ve learnt of life, through your unique journey, to the people around you.” And it’s a rich tapestry of experience that he has weaved, ‘Broken Road’ set to become a landmark record for Ben Hemming, a leading light of ‘Nu-blues’ shining brightly once more.
Current single Hurricane Official video
BROKEN ROAD – Album release notes
TRACK LIST
- Say You Will
- Dark Deals
- Holy War
- A Knife in my Heart
- Bleed
- Hurricane
- Fading Out
- Knowing When to Die
- Undone
- The Devil’s Door
TRACK BY TRACK OVERVEIW
Say You Will
– The opening track sets the tone of the album, a brooding and bitter reflection on past regrets, filled with the sorrow of looking back at what has been left behind on the road. It tells of things better left forgotten, of what could have been, but never will. Locked away memories resigned to the past.
Dark Deals
– The song speaks of inner turmoil in a voice speaking in the third person. It deals with the failings and short coming’s we have that make us human. It’s also about recognising these faults and excepting them, for making you the person that you are.
Holy War
– Representing a common theme in the album, of becoming more than you once were through a journey of self-discovery and refusing to regress back to the weakness of who you once were. Facing up to the feeling of being in a war with your old insecurities and finding the strength to overcome your short comings, while surrounded by pressures to drag you back down to the person that you once were.
A Knife in my Heart –
Filled with the pain of loss, ‘A Knife in My Heart’ is a song rich with metaphors that try to express the sorrow that comes from giving up on dreams, to face the harshness of the real world. A cautionary tail of the bitterness that comes from giving up on your purpose in life.
Bleed
– This track is all about facing up to events that have happened in your past and coming to terms with them. Refusing to let them define you as a person, and instead learning from them, helping to develop into something that is beyond the sum of your parts. And letting the pain pass from you, like blood from a wound.
Hurricane –
This song tries to express the force of an emotion from experience, off being knocked off your feet by the impact of change. Facing up to the futility of life and excepting the direction it takes you, no matter what the path. Letting go of the outcome and gaining from the experience of the journey.
Fading Out –
This track is all about the feeling you have when you know something is coming to its end. Whether it be a relationship or a partially traumatic experience. It’s about coming to terms with that feeling no longer being with you, when you’ve carried it’s weight on your shoulders for so long.
Knowing When to Die –
This is a song which deals with concept of giving up on your beliefs. Of having lost the dreams and ideals that gave you your identify. And of striving to find these ideals again in a world lacking in these very truths and meanings.
Undone –
Trying to express the feeling of falling apart, ‘Undone’ is about when the weight of the world becomes too much, and you are over whelmed by modern life’s pressures. But it’s also about not giving up and letting these feelings wash over you, and the pointlessness of surrender. And ultimately, it’s only in facing up to our weakness we can become strong.
The Devil’s Door
– This is a song about refusing to return to the person that you once were. The ‘Devil’s Door’ is really a metaphor for a dark and traumatic place that was a part of you and you’ve now overcome. Opening that door would mean returning to that place when it should remain locked. It acts as a bookend to the album, that the journey is complete, never to return to what you once were.
ARTIST QUOTES
“The main concept of the album is journey and transformation. Of the twisted and winding paths life can take you on, and through dealing with these inner struggles you can grow into a stronger person. I guess it marks as an evolution for me, both musically and spiritually. My last album was quite bleak in theme and this marks a progression from that into a lighter space, lyrically and in subject matter. This record is more about coming out the other side of an experience and looking back to see how far you’ve come. It also marks an evolution in my song writing as well. I feel the songs on this record have a strength and maturity that will really strike a chord with the listener.”
