PipemanRadio Interviews Jasen of Breaking Benjamin at Aftershock 2024

0:01 Hi, you have done to censure. Wow for you young ro Why Become of America. It's time for the Adventures of pipe Man on W four C why dot Com West Pompeas is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man, loft. Stake, my estylishes coolation.

0:59 This is quite here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with Jason from Breaking Benjamin nice and one of the most hardest working musicians because you're from Breaking ben You're here at after Shock, but you do so many other different things I do. Yeah, I stay busy. I try to un fortunate to stay busy, you know, working with other bands, writing with other bands, that kind of stuff. So music's been the only thing I've ever done. Yeah, lucky you have to do it professionally for twenty years and here we are. That's pretty cool. What is it like when you change hats, Like, do you go into different zones? I don't know, because I don't know that the creative side that hat does ever comes off. I'm probably the least band guy out there. Sometimes I feel like maybe imposter syndrome there a little bit, because I never really wanted to be in a band or strive to be in a band. You know, I was always the songwriter guy.

1:45 That's what led to being in a band, right, But yeah, so that was an organic transition there. But yeah, I think the creative side is always there. Have a recording rig that we tour with. We'll do some stuff on the bus. My voice members are always full of ideas, you know. So but I love touring. I generally do. See it takes that's a certain person, like even me, Like you know, I do all the festivals and one like I brought my daughter to a festival. Halfway through the first day, she's like, Dad, I don't know how you do this every weekend Like I'm done. It's impressive. It's impressive. My kids they grew up in this world and they still fall asleep in shows. They could give crap any of this, right, So again, I'm just fortunate to be here and this is all I've known and it's an amazing world, amazing community is you know, being as plugged in as you are. I think that's the coolest thing about it, and that's the takeaway. And been doing it for twenty years, so you I see people that I knew twenty years ago, right, still doing it, and there are different roles Danny Whimmer used to be.

2:35 I remember showcasing for Danny Winner when he was at Atlantic Records. Right, So it's wild. It's really cool. It's wild to watch everybody grow together and like to your point, people saying, may, well, isn't it bummer toll at least be on the road. I'm like, well, that's where all my friends are. It's a bummer when I go home time. You know, so much closer to my road family than I am. You know, friends, I have friends at home, don't get me wrong, right, but no, I mean all my we all live in different states now. Obviously we used to live closer on the same area, but everybody kind of branched out started when they have families and things. But yeah, I love it. I absolutely love it. So you guys, did I see right? You dropped a new single? Mmm mm yeah, got one coming right? Yeah? Breaking cool? Yeah, so excited as we're recording now going into the next week will be the official release of it. And we've been working on the new album and new music for the better part of two years, but started really writing kind of when Covid hit, But yeah, I mean we've written huge batches of songs and gotten rid of some of those songs. I've written more batches of songs, gotten rid of some of those, and been able to whittle it down and try and focus the sound in a way that we wanted. That for us was interesting and new and fresh, but still true to being breaking Benjamin.

3:37 Nice and showing that you evolve as a musician. It's so hard to do because it'll be contrived not You can't just force something to be like, well, we're gonna do a country thing now, right, Well, I mean, are you a fan of country? Are you? You know? Like Postmon can do it, but it's natural. He also put in the time and spent a year national writing two hundred songs with writers. So that's what people don't know. That's what they don't know. And so not that we're taking a pivot like that. It's not a country of them, but it's still a rock album. But I think it's that kind of thing where you really have to kind of explore the edges of how far we're willing to go over some of those and then come back and kind of create a new space for yourself otherwise it's really easy to get pigeonholed into just writing the same thing over and over.

4:20 And do you think the COVID lockdown I always say, because if you're gonna take one positive out of it, it allowed people like you songwriters musicians to get off the hamster wheel and get creative again. Yeah, big time. Yeah. Obviously we were doing it remotely. You know, everything was kind of satellite and on FaceTime every day and that sort of stuff. I remember from the studios in early two thousands, still doing you know, real real tape machines and not having reputers record to where you could edit. Like I think that same transition into like the digital domain. COVID kind of did that from a creative process of bands too, you know, where it wasn't in the past. We've gone and gotten in a room and hash stuff out and done demos for two or three months and then lock in the studio. And this has not been that process at all. So opening up a whole new world for sure.

5:04 Well, I love it. I can't wait for the new music. I love that you're here at Aftershock. That's a madass, And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe. It's your time, my pleasure. Hey, this is Jason for Breaking Benjamin. You're listening to Pipe Man on W four c Y Radio. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Main on W for CUI Radio.