Tim Barrett, is a man I have spoken to for years brokenly, and we finally got together over the interwebs to do this interview. Part of an amazingly addictive experimental, beautiful, existential, band with the hums that make your head sway from side to side, Benthos. Here is the interview.
1. Where did the name Benthos come from?
benthos has to deal with the benthic layer of the ocean
where all the sea creatures and organisms live.
2. With that, when did the band start? And who are the members?
dan and eric lived with each other when i started my freshmen year of college
I didn't really know anyone and i buddy from my hs introduced me to dan, I just really wanted to jam.
basically after my friend dropped me off there I never left.
I met eric and it just clicked.
we started hanging out and talking about music all the time
the two of them had a show booked at a local record store and i just said i would do it
we were not even a band really.
Eric grew up with caleb in Niles MI and just asked him if he would play bass.
our first official show was sometime in march playing just chaotic messy experimental punk i guess.
3. Would you say your first show was the best one you played, just because of the experience of being in a group, or is there a more recent one that comes to mind when thinking of your best performance?
it was mostly slews of jams/riffing that were potential songs
my best performance i would say was our show opening up for Tycho
we opened up for him at the crofoot ballroom in july
we got on the show cause we saw on the flyer that they had a tba
without really thinking, we just emailed them expecting nothing to really happen or to even hear a response back.
luckly they heard our music liked it enough and allowed to play. it was really awesome we had 2 months to promote and sold all 60 tickets we were given
all our close families and friends came and we played to a sold out crowd of over 350 people i think.
that was the show were i felt like i was taken seriously and i truly gave my best performance possible. it was a totally indescribable feeling.
4. At this sold out show was it predominantly the Phone Home release being played, or do the old songs from 2011 still come out?
We played both those songs, two older ones that we still feel are a good representation of us now and we enjoy playing. Also we played a new song yet to be recorded.
5. Would you say your writing, or the musics sound itself is different over the years span between releases?
soo a lot of what I contributed stemmed from what they wrote
the music totally changed when were all a full band writing together
6. What is in the works right now? More shows, a tour, new music?
Our buddies in Newday dreamers n benthos were talking about a 5 day tour over xmas break
but nooo nothing has been made official yet.
7. How do you feel the dynamic of the group has changed?, You mentioned before that it was them writing the parts, and you somewhat filling in with their own flow, but now that you have been a member for a while, you contribute a lot more. Does that make the songs fuller, or more based in your opinion, even more enjoyable?
I think as we got more comfortable and played as a full four piece our sound developed more and we got tighter playing together
and this last year and a half has been the most fun ive had playing music in my entire life.
8. Well, coming from that small start, where you would not vacate the premises, to opening for Tycho on a whim, Where do you see the band going now?, Do you see it lasting much longer?
I think we have a lot more to accomplish, a lot I wanna see and do. New friends to meet, new songs that include vocals and grow more and more as a band. I don't see us stoping anytime soon.
powerful words tim
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