Ben Seretan

“I take notes from:
– The cosmic awe of Alice Coltrane (and similarly Pharoah Sanders)
– The unfettered squeal of Neil Young guitar solos
– The bird-freedom and ear-whispering-closeness of Arthur Russell
– The friendship-punk of the Minutemen
– The delicious sadness of Hank Williams, Bill Callahan, and Nick Drake
– The wondrous chaos of Charles Mingus’ ensembles (and how tender his ballads are)
– The utter ease of James Blood Ulmer (how he just totally shreds at guitar but he’s relaxed about it and his voice is mellow)
– The slippery time and elegant brute force of Don Caballero
– The unrelenting repetition of Neu! and that one Faust record with Tony Conrad
– The warm, refrigerator-fan hum of Stars of the Lid
– The vanguard guitar maneuvers of John Fahey, Glenn Branca, Sonic Youth, Derek Bailey, Lou Reed, Sonny Sharrock, Jack Rose, probably even Ry Cooder.

I also grew up in Orange County, California (near LA), which has an exquisite history of punk and hardcore – Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Saccharine Trust, X, etc. And I grew up religious, so Christian music is still buried in there a lot, even though I’m no longer a part of any church.” (Ben Seretan)

Ben Seretan is his most recent album, it was released last october in very small runs on vinly (self-released, 250 copies) and cassette (Hope For The Tape Deck, 100 copie), and it’s released now on CD by Love Boat, with a 22-minute extra track (“that is worth the record alone”, as they used to say in reviews”).