Benjamin John Power is Blanck Mass.
After earning his stripes as part of powerhouse noise duo Fuck Buttons, Power has since gone on to forge a formidable reputation as a solo artist in his own right. Following the huge success of his 2015 offering Dumb Flesh, Power is packing his bags for a whirlwind tour of Australia.
“I’m actually going to be in and out like a flash,” Power says. It’s a contrast to when the Brit came across as part of Fuck Buttons for All Tomorrow’s Parties and Harvest Festival. “I’m going to be in Australia for a total of three-and-a-half days, I think. Travelling from where I am on the other side of the world, I’ll be in the air as much as I’m on the ground. It’s going to be fleeting but I’m super excited to get back over.”
Power has been planning a trip to our shores since the release of Dumb Flesh. During that time, he has also released the equally successful EP The Great Confuso. Ahead of his Australian adventure, Power says punters can expect to hear a selection from both his recent releases, plus some older material.
“There’s still quite a bit of life in [Dumb Flesh] and a lot of places I haven’t played during the Dumb Flesh life cycle and The Great Confuso,” he says. “Sure, I’m going to be concentrating on that stuff, but I still enjoy playing the old stuff too.”
Power’s first tour as Blanck Mass came in support of none other than Sigur Rós back in 2013. “They were huge shows,” he recalls. “The interesting thing about that was that they had a kabuki, which is like a big screen that kind of drops at a pivotal moment. Kind of like the big reveal for the band. Obviously it was too much of a feat to construct it after I had played, so for the whole time of the tour I was actually playing behind this huge curtain, which was being backlit, so people could see me, but I couldn’t see anyone in the crowd. It was pretty much like I was playing in a room to myself. Now and then a light would flash across the audience and I’d get a glimpse of thousands and thousands of people. That was a really strange experience. It was very obscure – I had to make sure I wasn’t scratching my arse or something because you forget there’s thousands of people in front of you watching what you’re doing.”
The production of Dumb Flesh spanned several locations and was reproduced several times in full. “It started out in the studio that Andy [Hung, of Fuck Buttons] and I used to have in East London,” explains Power. “Then it moved to a windowless attic space in North London, then it went through its final evolutionary stages in Scotland where I live now.”
As a result, Dumb Flesh inadvertently captures a broad landscape of sound. “I think perspective is quite important when you’re working on anything – it’s always good to get a fresh set of ears,” Power says. “Your surroundings definitely have some impact on how you experience these things and life itself in general.”
Though he’s a solo act these days, Power insists he has no preference for going it alone or collaborating. “I’m up for anything,” he says. “I like experimenting with other people’s ideologies and seeing where that takes things. It’s an interesting thing for me to see how other people’s brains work. But I also really like the complete creative control thing I have with Blanck Mass. It’s such an honest picture of the artist, which I really do enjoy.”
The one thing Power does prefer in music is following an organic process over one that is overly planned. “I kind of have a rule where I never imagine how an album is going to sound before I start writing it. If you do that, you’ve already sort of set the bar, you’ve made your mind up. I like to surprise myself when I’m working on something. If you decide how a certain thing is going to sound, you don’t really give yourself any room for manoeuvring, which has never worked for me. I always approach these things in a very naïve sense, and bewilderment can produce surprising results.”
With that in mind, the entire Blanck Mass project came about in a natural way. “Fuck Buttons had been touring for a long time and I built up kind of a catalogue of stuff and I felt ready to share it with people,” Power says. “One rule [Andy and I] kind of have in Fuck Buttons is that we both need to be there from the initial get-go for it to be a Fuck Buttons track. It’s more a relationship between Andy and I and how our current ideologies and tastes manifest themselves.”
Though the Blanck Mass moniker is relatively new, Power is no stranger to working on his own. “I’ve always written music on my own, even before Fuck Buttons. I feel very privileged to be in a position where I can do things like take the music out to Australia and play it live to people. I can’t stress [enough] how blessed I feel to be able to do that.”
Blanck Mass plays theZoo Project on Friday June 10.
