Writer of musically ambitious but emotionally intense songs, and drawing on his experience surviving as professional guitarist in London, Ben Barritt tries whenever possible to summon his international band. The result is spontaneous, virtuosic and groove laden, but when they’re all too busy he grabs the acoustic and plays the songs the way they were written. He played over 80 shows in 2015 and intends to beat it this year.
Ben has created a style of songwriting which draws on the experimental Folk of Joni Mitchell and John Martyn, the swampy Funk of The Meters, the alternative Soul of Meshell Ndegeocello and the electric Jazz of Herbie Hancock and Steely Dan, because he thought somebody probably should.
In 2015 he released his debut LP, ‘What Would You Like To Leave Behind?’. Recorded at Funkhaus,
Berlin, it features the visceral sound of a 4-piece band captured by producer Johannes Saal using a
mix of digital mastery and rusty DDR equipment. The music leaps between the introvert and
extrovert, grooving one minute and reflecting the next. Ben’s lyrics are placed at the centre of a
uniquely colourful fusion of musical influences only made possible by an absolute failure to sound even vaguely fashionable or cool.