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lyrics

My dad's advice to me was work outside. He'd been a miner. I used to do my Grandmother's gardens and grow vegetables in her garden and eat them on a Sunday. Cabbages, beetroot, carrots - all your common garden vegetables. My Grandma had this rhubarb patch and we'd make rhubarby things. The thing about a rhubarb patch is it...you don't have to plant it - every year it just grows and grows. It’s probably one of the easiest things you can grow. And tree surgery - because I was a gardener - it was a natural progression. In fact there was a point where I wanted to become a farmer but that quickly changed when I found out that farm workers were the most poorly paid workers in the country.



I was the chargehand of a small group. We had a big red van. We'd go and prune trees and cut down trees and use those cherrypicker lifts. One tree stands out. It was a big old elm tree. It had to be felled because it was across a main road. A big mature elm tree and it was dead. And we had to we had to do it on a Sunday so I got paid overtime. We used a huge four foot guidebar the biggest chainsaw we had and we felled this tree. After we felled it I was responsible for this huge thing coming down. It was a lovely Sunday morning. People started gathering round, We were under pressure because we were blocking a main road. But we got it down and sawn up. It didn't take long to reopen the road. It was a very lonely job and what I missed was working with other people. As a tree surgeon you can work for days on end and never see anyone. Its quite a solitary life.



In my Grandmother's shed my Uncle had a big metal toolbox. And I'd empty the tools out, put it in the middle of the garden with a string attached to the lid, put bread around it and then go and sit in the shed. I'd watch the starlings eating the bread and hopping around it and then when one'd hop in I’d catch the starling. Then I'd go into my Grandmother's bathroom and let the starling out and then I’d have to catch it. And eventually I'd let it go. Whenever I smell a wood fire now I think about my grandmother's garden.



I was brought up with death which sounds a bit weird but seeing dead people from an early age...I guess that's a Catholic background for you. And so when I’d taken a year out to study music a couple of years ago at college I was in the Job centre looking for a job and there was one there for a funeral director in Chelsea. And I thought 'I could do that'. I was an undertaker for about eight months and that was something I was er quite comfortable with. It was actually something that I think enhanced my life experience. I could recommend it as a life experience. I've actually looked for hospices in the local area but the only one was miles away and I've only got a bike. It kind of deepened my belief in something more. As in the first time I saw someone embalmed the person’s face looks like they're asleep but the chest cavity just isn't there and when you see it in front of you you think there has to be something else.



Bodybuilding. Winning. I won a competition. I won two. I only did three. They were spaced a year or two apart. It was a really strict diet and I was strict on myself because I wanted to win and I did. To be honest I can't believe I used to do that now. After work I'd go to the gym. 5 nights a week. Basically you'd do compulsory poses then a couple of minutes freestyle posing to a piece of music of your choice. I remember posing to Carmina Burana. And another time I posed to (I forget the guy who wrote it) but the theme to Chariots of Fire. I was into opera then. Bodybuilding's not something I would recommend. It kind of does your head in. You only think about food all the time. And your body. Which can only be a selfish thing. I had a training partner Kevin. But he didn't compete. He was my mate. My best mate. He was a singer. He still is a singer. He goes around and sings in Tenerife. And we used to go out Saturday and Sunday night and get bladdered. We’d call it the carbohydrate overload. That was our excuse. During the show all you’d be thinking about was all the chocolate you could eat afterwards.

credits

from Tenmoth Electron, released December 1, 2017

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bens pens Margate, UK

bens pens started off as a concept band where ben just asked people if they wanted to be in his band. at one point it had 7 flautists and no rehearsals performances or songs. often it's just him. tenmoth electron is the result of almost 10 years slowly turning a self published magazine into a piece with his friend tom loffill and voice of icelandair atli gunnarsson. ... more

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