INTERVIEW: Ben Montague

What sets you apart from the wealth of British singer-songwriter talent that’s already out there?

I’ve been told that I have an original tone of voice. That combined with originality of influence. I’ve been strongly affected by the music that my parents listen to; music like The Beatles and The Who. You know, those classic singer songwriters. That’s quite a difficult question. It’s hard to say that one can be so much this of this or so much of that. I love writing songs and singing. I just hope that people like listening to me.

You’re an artist who’s known to draw upon influences from across several decades. What have you drawn from the past and what is it about older sounds that fill the void that many modern artists can’t?

Pop music was so new back in 60s and 70s. It was a new sound with the Beatles and such. The sounds these bands made were revolutionary and captured something exciting that could transcend so many other things in their music. With modern day music, not all the time, but originality in songs and music can get lost. Generally speaking, we’re coming into a really good era for British music, some really good singer songwriters and good original bands that blend different things from different eras. For me personally, the mid 80s were a great period of music. My album is heavily influenced by Elton John’s ‘Yellow Brick Road’. I have some huge influences from the past.





There’s an old Irish proverb. ‘A scholar’s ink outlasts a martyr’s blood’. Being known as a grafter, what would you say you have learned about working your way to where you are now and what’s your opinion on the get famous-quickly attitude of manufactured reality TV pop acts?

I think that you learn a lot about yourself from whatever industry you’re in from grafting. I love travelling the UK and Europe to audiences that may or may not have heard of me. It’s a thing I’m very proud to do. For me, getting up 6 in the morning to travel to play a gig in Huddlesfield or wherever is really exciting. Being quite young in my career, the lesson I’ve learnt is that it’s easy when you love what you do, I love, singing, recording and writing, so the grafting isn’t grafting because I love it so much.

In regards to manufactured pop, they have been a huge factor to songwriters across the world. I worked writing for artists on those programmes in America, that’s a good thing, those programmes are keeping many songwriters in business. Generally speaking as a TV watcher it’s a great show. It’s got good entertainment value. Some truly phenomenal talent has come from it. Leona Lewis has best voices in England that we’ve heard in years and she will go down as one of the greats. That’s the destiny of the people on these TV shows.


What does the future hold for Ben Montague?

The album is nearly finished, I’d say about 80% done, we’re just mixing it now. That will be coming out about August time. I’ll be playing many festivals, like Isle Of Wight etc. I’m just looking forward to the album coming out, gigging across the country and in Europe.

Interview by Andy Trendell