SOUL’D OUT MUSIC FESTIVAL: Q/A with John Brown’s Body’s Tommy Benedetti
Oregon Music News
04.14.10
By Alaya Wyndham-Price
John Brown’s Body, the progressive reggae band from New York and Boston is coming back to Portland as part of the Soul’d Out Music Fesvival — and they are ecstatic! They’ll be at Doug Fir Lounge, Saturday, April 17. Tickets $15.00, doors at 8:00 PM, show at 9:00 PM. After being snowed out in our freak storm two winters ago, they faced a slim audience. This coming after a two-year absence due to their touring schedule was sad, because they happily call Portland one of their favorite tour spots. So, JBB is overdue some good Portland lovin’, and being that we now are safely into spring, they’re going to get it this Saturday night at the Doug Fir. Here’s what drummer and co-founder Tommy Benedetti has to share with us:
Tell us about your name, John Brown’s Body. What does it mean? John Brown was an abolitionist during the Civil War who stood up and led a controversial slave liberation movement. He basically went balls out to do what was right, and was consequently hanged for his actions. We liked his story, and it’s not one that’s widely told, but should be… I mean, I don’t remember learning about him in history class, do you? So, his name represents the spirit behind the way we approach life and our music: forward thinking and gutsy. And the Body part actually doesn’t refer to his dead body but is meant to represent the body of music out there that we are helping to create, and this includes people too, who influence and support us. We wanted to symbolize the unique body of work and the community that we are creating.
Who are your influences? Oh man, there are so many. I mean, there are eight of us, eight band members, so our influences are wide spread. Anywhere from traditional African music, Deftones, Slayer and Radio Head to classic reggae and punk artists, like Burning Spear, Culture, Blondie, etc. All of those guys, of course, are super influential. And some of the newer reggae artists like Midnite from St. Croix offer a lot of inspiration as well. But, it’s really all over the board.
Speaking of African music, how did you get hooked up with Toubab Krewe for your current tour?
We played some select dates together in late 2005-early 2006 in the mid-Atlantic states, and grew increasingly interested in each other. They’re doing their own thing with a very traditional music style: West African. We are doing our own thing with a traditional music style as well. We are both into pushing the boundary of our genre of music, and using our own influences and creativity to make the style our own. So, we just fit together well. After hooking up again at the Jam Cruise recently, we began formulating our tour pretty quickly, realizing we’d both been thinking about it seriously. We just started our tour, and it’s awesome.
Your style has been called progressive. Can you talk a little more about what that means?
We use a forward thinking process when it comes to creating music. We are not content with the status quo. We take music that we love (reggae) as a bottomless well of inspiration and build on it. We’re not Jamaican, and we’re not pretending to be. We also have influences from our own individual backgrounds. There’s ten-plus years of work behind our sound, and we are constantly trying to define ourselves and our purpose.
And your music seems really positive and happy…
Oh yeah, that’s what it’s all about!
When did you as a drummer begin to adapt the style of reggae drumming into your reportoire?
It was the early ’90s, probably in Boston in ‘91 when it really started. Some friends, and actually some fellow JBB members and I were at Berklee College of Music there, and they exposed me to it. And I continue to be exposed, I learn new things every day. I guess I just found the style suited me as far as what I wanted to listen to, and play. I’m really in to heavy drum and bass.
So an exciting next step in defining yourselves is your world recognition and resulting upcoming European tour. You are visiting some new places, no?
Yes, we’ve played in the UK but haven’t toured Europe. We are pretty excited to play the 10 shows, May 7-15. We’ll be debuting in France, Belgium, and Germany.
To what do you attribute your success?
We’ve spent the last few years really working on opening up to people, and putting the final touches on our sound. We’ve had a really supportive and positive management team, and just lots of people in our corner. And we’ve been touring steadily since 2008 since Amplify was released. Honestly, we’ve been touring so much, this has really helped spread the word.
Great work. Is there anything else you’d like to say to Portland?
Thanks for asking. Yeah, we just want to emphasize that we're super excited to come back to Portland! We can’t wait to see our friends, and Sam Dechenne (trumpet) is from Portland, so he’s excited to come home. We just really love the Northwest in general, it’s so beautiful, and Portland really is a highlight of the tour, for sure.
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