My interview with Airick from Doldrums just got posted! Come see him, the amazing Sean Nicholas Savage, and me (in the crowd) at the 7th street entry on the 3rd!

1. Introduce yourselves; what is/are your name(s) and where are you from? 

I’m Daniel Benjamin, I grew up in downtown Toronto, Canada 

2. Were you tossing around any other band names before you stuck with Moon King? 

Hmm originally we wanted to have an imaginary Japanese singer named Miyu, so it would have been “Miyu and the Moon”, or “Miyu and the Moon King”

3. If you could play any destination/venue in the world, where would you play? (Not constrained to plausibility) 

Japan!! or, more implausibly….. the Moon, obviously haha

 4. Do you have any talisman or good luck charm? 

I don’t have very many personal possessions. One thing I like to take around me when I move into a new place is this empty bottle of Chinese Happy Wine - that is actually what it says on the label - it was covered in dust when I bought it, and it wasn’t very good. But I am semi-attached to it, for sure. 

5. What is the last album you bought/downloaded? 

I’ve been trying to download the first album by the Primitives this week, but it keeps trying to give me viruses!! so I’m just streaming it online for now 

6. You often refer to yourself in 3rd person in your music. Is that a conscious decision or an unwarranted effect? 

hahah well Airick wrote the chorus to that old song where they sing “Daaaaaaniel” …. it’s actually my brother Airick and Sean (Nicholas Savage) singing on it …. but I just sort of adopted it and wrote verses around it. I kind of feel weird about singing my own name obviously, but it’s nice to have a theme song ….. it’s like our version of Wu-Tang “M.E.T.H.O.D man” 

7. What do you think has driven the strong Canadian indie-music culture? Who are some of your favourite Canadian artists? 

definitely Sean Nicholas Savage, and my brother of course (Doldrums) …… most of the members of the Moon King band have awesome solo projects too, our keyboardist Steven foster plays as Omhouse and our drummer Sean Dunal as Sexy Merlin. I honestly don’t know why there are so many good bands coming from Canada though! maybe the pine-fresh scent. 

8. If you could get ANY kind of band merch professionally made for free, what would you get made? 

well, T-shirts would be nice, to start haha ….. yeah I should really think of some merch, we have like nothing right now. maybe a book, I’d totally write a book. 

9. Who or what is your biggest inspiration? Not only music-wise, but for your life in general?

oh man…. there are so many people close to me that I admire and have inspired me, I mean probably my dad is the biggest inspiration just for planting the idea in my head that I can spend my whole life making music….. it must seem impossible for many people

10. What’s your favourite non-animal, non-human sound? 

such a good question!! I think the sound of crackling electricity 

11.  As far as stage roles go, do you like being the frontman better, or do you prefer to say, play drums in Doldrums? 

I like being able to do both, there’s very little pressure on me when I’m just the sideman, whether with Doldrums or Grimes or Hut or any of the other bands I’ve played with, but it’s nice to be the centre of attention every now and then I guess 

12.  What is your favourite part about touring? 

I love being on tour, honestly right now I would just stay on tour forever if I could…. I love the feeling of always going somewhere, it doesn’t matter where, just GOING. I have serious wanderlust. 

13.  How long had you been working on the music in Obsession I EP? 

most of those songs were written really fast, I demo’d them at the end of November 2011, then I went on tour for a bit, and recorded them when I got back in January 2012 - I actually recorded a full album’s worth of songs for Obsession I, but we decided to just make it into an EP. 

14.  Do you have any plans for a full-length album soon? 

well I’m actually about to start recording for another EP, but there’s so many songs lying around I’m sure I’ll start on a full album some time next year. 

15.  If you had to describe your live show in one word and one word only, what would that word be? 

hmmm…. “sleeveless”

I’m going to be on The Current, ma! The other day I went into The Current studios and got to talk to David Campbell. Listen to my beautiful, melodious, and soothing voice on Sunday at 6:00 CT on The Current (89.3 FM or online at this link).