Breaking Benjamin - Ben Burnley Interview

BREAKING BENJAMIN’S BEN BURNLEY

TALKS ABOUT BILLY CORGAN, RAT TAILS AND REALLY BAD TV

The concept of a songwriting deadline was completely new to Breaking Benjamin’s Ben Burnley as he came off of the success of the band’s debut album, Polyamorous and into their sophomore effort, We Are Not Alone (Hollywood Records). Combine that with the fact that he was not only collaborating for the first time, but that it happened to be with one of his musical influences, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, and it was in the cards that Burnley was in for a “thrill ride.” Burnley talks to The Aquarian about working with Corgan on the now nearly Platinum record, how movies and TV factor into his songwriting (and laughs at the shows that didn’t make the tracks).

AW: There was a period of time in high school where you constantly listened to Smashing Pumpkins. What was it like getting to write with Billy Corgan?

BURNLEY: Well obviously it’s an amazing thing. Billy to me is like a living legend. We wrote really well together and the songs turned out really well, so it wasn’t just to go out there [to Chicago] to meet him. It was actually productive and we actually turned out something that was worthwhile.

AW: What made you pick Billy Corgan?

BURNLEY: I think he kind of more picked me (laughs)…We were pretty much a bottom-of-the-barrel band. A mutual friend of ours at the label hooked us up.

AW: What were those first few minutes like?

BURNLEY: Well, that’s funny because when I first went to work with him the first thing he said is, “O.K. Sit down and play.” So, I did…I played him some stuff I wanted his help on and then we got to work right away from there.

AW: How did you work off of each other?

BURNLEY: Well I had a basic outline of the songs and he was just able to say, “Try this” and I’d try it and then once the music was all said and done with, we sat down with it and bashed out the lyrics. He would come up with a line or I would come up with a line that rhymed with it or didn’t rhyme with it or whatever and we just fed off of each other that way. It’s really cool to hear Billy Corgan singing your songs. One time I came up with a line, and I can’t remember what it is, but he’s like, “I wish I would have come up with that.” That was cool.

AW: You wanted to write an album that was different from the first. Factoring in that you spent years experiencing what you wrote about on the first CD, and that going into the dreaded sophomore album you had time constraints, which was new to you, it seems pretty challenging to achieve that. What did you do try to make We Are Not Alone different than Polyamorous?

BURNLEY: Well a lot of that had to do with our producer as well because the first record I pretty much produced myself. We got David Bendeth (Vertical Horizon) to do the record. He didn’t really write anything. He just says, “Why are you doing this part here and why don’t you change this and write a new section here?” and so on and so forth. So that really changed the formula of how I write songs because the first record for the most part is a lot of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, end—kind of basic stuff. That does have its place and we do have some of that on the second record, but we just looked for different ways to arrange music. With the moods and music we’re also taking ourselves a little more seriously and being less fictitious with it. The first record doesn’t really have much to do with me at all personally. They’re just stories. This one is a little more personal to me.

AW: You’ve had a lot of success with the single, “So Cold,” now “Sooner or Later,” and you’ve been working the album hard by touring relentlessly. Are you surprised by the band’s success or did you know it was just a matter of time until it would catch on?

BURNLEY: Oh, no. We were all very surprised. Of course we think what we do is good or else we wouldn’t do it. It’s a known thing, but it only takes one song to get you anywhere and “So Cold” is what did that for us. We were just glad to get our foot in the door. We got a gold record from pretty much one song and now hopefully it’s going to place platinum. It’s just a thrill ride and we’ve been enjoying it. We never put any expectations on it, so it was a definite surprise, not only to us, but to our hardcore fans.

AW: Your song “Blow Me Away” is also featured in the Halo 2 video game. What’s it like playing to your own music?

BURNLEY: …It’s towards the end where you have to fight off all the bad guys. It’s just a sequence of it, but it’s still pretty damn cool to be associated with something like that.

AW: You have to fight off the bad guys to get to your music? So people have to be skilled at the game to hear you?

BURNLEY: No. They can play on easy (laughs).

AW: There was a time growing up you used to watch music and think, “Why do people even get into music.” Are you surprised that music’s now your career?

BURNLEY: Yeah. When I was growing up I didn’t like it and did not get it at all.

AW: What kinds of stuff were you listening to, or trying not to listen to?

BURNLEY: Well, you had hair bands and stuff like that, like Motley Crue. I’m not one of those guys that liked it. I never did. You know maybe when I’d go to the skating rink when I was like eight-years-old. My brother always would put it on MTV and I’d see the videos and I always thought they looked so stupid. I never got how it could be entertaining to watch that.

AW: Oh come on. You secretly wanted that hair.

BURNLEY: No (laughs), but you know as a kid I had a rat tail. [That’s a dear friend of the mullet].

AW: You did not!

BURNLEY: I did. Then I grew up and Nirvana came along and it was something I was actually entertained by. I just loved it for some reason, so I started to get into it.

AW: You’ve commented before that many rockers outstay their welcome in the industry. When does one reach that point and what is your career plan?

BURNLEY: I’ll write probably one more record, maybe two with this band. I think three or four records is enough. I was talking about bands like Limp Bizkit and Scott Staph from Creed. Nobody likes them. They’re just so annoying to me. It’s like, “You’re rich. You’ve got your money. Go away.” For me, I love writing music. I love performing now and then. I don’t really like being out on the road for months at a time, but if it got to the point where I’ve done what I needed to do and made my money, I’d be more than happy to stop and sit on a boat somewhere for the rest of my life, you know what I mean? Go fishing? Do everything that I like to do and not have to travel and all that. There are entertainers who force themselves on you and then there are entertainers that the public actually wants. It’s like Ted Danson with Becker. You ever see that show? See Ted Danson pays to have that show on the air (laughs) because he just doesn’t want to leave. We don’t want Sam Malone. It’s like, “OK Sam Mallone get out of here already.” It’s not one of those things where it’s like, “Hey. Did you see that episode of Becker last night?” “No.” You don’t sit there and go, “Becker’s on everybody!” They’re like, “So?” Joey too. You weren’t like, “Joey’s on!” “So what?” You know? With Friends, it was great. Then Joey comes along. Poor Joey.

AW: The object then is not to be Joey?

BURNLEY: Yeah. The object is to not be Joey. Yes. I’m all about the Johnny Carson thing and getting out while you’re on top. That’s what you should do before you spoil yourself, especially if you’re as annoying as Scott Staph.

AW: I know you don’t like to talk much about what songs are about specifically, but will you talk about them generally?

BURNLEY: It’s just a typical artist thing. I don’t really like to say what a song is about. It’s kind of known that I get a lot my ideas from watching movies, so if someone asks me what a song is about I’ll say, “Watch this movie.”A

AW: O.K. So if I was listening to your new album and I wanted to get insight into what you were thinking about on a few tracks, what movies should I watch?

BURNLEY: Well “So Cold” is 28 Days Later. “Forget It” is a movie called Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind…TV and everything else fills in the rest of the gap with the record. I guess that just proves that I don’t have a life and that’s all I do (laughs).

AW: Well at least you’re not writing about Becker or Joey?

BURNLEY: Not yet (laughs). That’s for the next record! Becker. What an awful show. It’s like comedy’s throw up…I don’t have cable at my house cause I’m not going to pay a cable bill when I’m barely there, but we’ll spend a week or two home every now and then, so I have to watch Becker cause there’s nothing else on.

AW: As TV also figures so prominently in your songwriting we should find out, when you do have cable, what do you like to watch?

BURNLEY: …I stay on the bus because we have a satellite dish, so all the movie channels like HBO and stuff. If there’s nothing on I’ll see if there’s something on Comedy Central or Cartoon Network. I like Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Shit like that. That’s the one good thing about the road is I don’t have to watch Becker anymore. It’s funny because Ted Danson, when you see him apart from a show, he’s like bald and he’s really old. Then when he goes on a show, he’s like an android. He must have like twenty guys working on him. They give him hair and you know what I mean? He’s like Darth Vader, mostly machine now. It’s awesome. There’s so much garbage on TV to pick from now to rot our minds out.

AW: You know I have to watch it now. What night is it on?

BURNLEY: Unfortunately it’s on every damn night.

Originaly published in The Aquarian Weekly 7/6/05.

Breaking Benjamin performing "Sooner Or Later."