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to play bass and part of my goals over the next year is to learn how to play the mandolin.”
Brandy: I really don’t know what a ‘mandolin’ is, can you explain it to me?
Ben Klick: “Oh, that’s okay! A mandolin is a little folk-bluegrass instrument. It’s got eight strings on it. It’s tuned like a fiddle but you play it more like a guitar.”
Brandy: Now after I researched you on the Internet, can you explain what your new song “What’s Going On” is about?
Ben Klick“Yeah, absolutely! I was sitting at home and it was this cold November night about a year ago. I was sitting on my bed and had this melody in my head and was thinking to myself about the upcoming summer season that the band and I are currently in the middle of. As I looked out my bedroom window watching the snow fall on the ground, knowing I was going to get up the next morning to shovel the driveway, I thought “I gotta bring myself out of these ‘winter blues’.”I also wanted something conversational and something that I say on a daily basis. A lot of times when I go into writing session and I meet new people or reconnect with people after not chatting with them for quite some time, I always go up to them and say “Hey, what’s going on?” I ended up doing that as I walked into this writing session with the other writers (David Borys and Dave Faber). They looked at me and they asked, “what did you just say?” and that’s how this song was inspired. As we were writing the song, we geared it around having this summer vibe, getting off work from a 9-5 job, and being able to go home or pick up that person that you care about.
that’s how this song was inspired. As we were writing the song, we geared it around having this summer vibe, getting off work from a 9-5 job, and being able to go home or pick up that person that you care about."
Brandy: That’s really nice. I like to hear the inspirations behind new songs so it was really cool to see how you came up with that one
Ben Klick:“Yeah it is cool!”
Brandy: Now you just recently did happy Canada day long weekend?
Ben Klick: “Yeah, yeah! On Facebook! My bass player and I were in Ontario on a radio tour promoting the new release. We stopped at about 12-15 radio stations and put 2,000 kilometers on this little rental car. Throughout the trip, I had filmed a bunch of different things and because Canada Day happened on July 1st, I decided to put together a little “Happy Canada Day Long Weekend” post and put a new video together of the fun I had on the trip!”
Brandy: Yeah I definitely saw that on your Facebook page, that’s why I had
to ask. It was a great happy little video! Who inspires you most as a singer?
Ben Klick:“Haha, I love that question! It was years ago, and it started with Shania Twain, and I have a folk inspiration as well, from the East Coast of Canada. That band was called “Great Big Sea”. As years went on, I moved up to West Kelowna with my family in 2006, and every day the country music radio station was on wherever we would go. As I was driving to and from places I heard artists like Brad Paisley and Keith Urban and really fell in love with their guitar playing ability. I fell in love with what they were doing and decided that it was going to be my mission to learn how to play like them. I then started to investigate into some more guitar players in country music like Merle Haggard, John Denver, and Vince Gill. Listening to them, I was inspired and influenced by those people for their musical ability from a guitar perspective, as well as an artist, music and lyric perspective as well.”