Ben McGarvey profile picture

Ben McGarvey

"TOO BUSY FRAMING" THE ALBUM OUT NOW

About Me

I keep a tape recorder by my piano for when melodies momentarily visit. I always forget to keep a pad at hand for lyrics and other ideas so they end up on shop receipts, flyers, beer mats… or maybe sometimes lost forever.
I grew up in the Shropshrie countryside, playing the piano and writing songs in my parents’ basement. I went on to uni to study Contemporary Music and made lots of crazy sounds by banging on tables, car bonnets and fellow class mates (only in a conceptually relevant context of course).
I now spend most my time at my flat in Manchester trying to bring songs to life with the aid of my temperamental PC and various gadgets. It’s hard to make these songs sound as good as they do in my head so I just do the best I can and grunt a lot. I have put a band together to take my bedroom creations out and about around bars and other places so come and see us sometime.
I have independently released my first album "Too Busy Framing" which is available to buy from the following stores
1. (intro) 2. My Electric Wire 3. Too Busy Framing 4. Conduit (inst.) 5. Lust 6. Echo 1 7. Today 8. Almost (inst.) 9. Disjointed 10. Becoming 11. (outro) £5.99 from Amazon (various postage rates to anywhere in the world)
$10.99 from CD Baby (various postage rates to anywhere in the world)
You can also order the CD directly using Paypal (from just about anywhere in the world and you don’t need a paypal account). Just click on one of the links below...
£5.99 from Paypal (plus £1 postage to anywhere in the world)

$9.99 from Paypal (plus $3 postage to anywhere in the world)
EUR 7,99 from Paypal (plus EUR 2 postage to anywhere in the world)

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 1/8/2006
Band Members: Ben - writing, production, vocals, piano, guitar and various objects

Rosie Giles - backing vocals
Sophie McGorman - violin
Doron Vidavski - backing vocals, emotional support
...and various other people for session work

Live band features...
Rosie Giles - backing vocals, loop machine, percussion
Ryan George - bass
Matt Downes - guitar, korg
Abbi Phillips - drums, percussion

Influences: Things that go unsaid in day to day life, obsession, isolation, society, loneliness, Narcissism, time, God, sexuality, "love"....

MP3’s now available from the following stores...



"TOO BUSY FRAMING" ALBUM REVIEW
By Parker Knoll (Manchester Music)

Manchester’s Ben McGarvey is a bedroom experimentalist, who after carefully writing music and mucking about generally with different sounds, has completed this full length album with a willing ensemble of musicians. “Too Busy Framing” is both innovative and riddled with searching, MOR sounds. But these are the kind of open, smooth ballads that you could listen to all day. Beats chime in with the distant influence of drum and bass, then there’s the slightly off-tune strings and a more than the occasional excursion off the radar ( “Echo 1"). It all adds to the sometimes moody and always powerful approach. It helps too, that Ben McGarvey can sing and come up with the requisite melodies and harmonies. The folkish rock of “Disjointed” cleverly combines some superbly mixed lo-fi drums whilst the song whips along with a pleasing croon. This is an astoundingly accomplished album that twists alternative folk with the traditional, yet uses technology to compelling effect.


Sounds Like: Tori Amos, Thom Yorke, Sufjan Stevens, Ben Christophers, Stina Nordenstam, David Bowie, Imogen Heap, Billie Holiday, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, Damien Rice, Bjork, Suzanne Vega, Leonard Cohen, Moloko, Patrick Wolf, Aqualung, Sigur Ros, Mojave 3, Rufus Wainwright, Tom Waits, Espers, Aimee Mann, Joanna Newsom, Tom Vek, Regina Spektor, Lamb, Andrew Bird, Portishead, Mum, Air, Roisin Murphy, Enya, Brian Eno, Low, Matmos, Frou Frou, Radiohead, Sparklehorse...

Record Label: Currently self-funded
Type of Label: None

My Blog

"TOO BUSY FRAMING" Album Lyrics

"TOO BUSY FRAMING" - lyrics    (Intro) Forever& Framing  My Electric Wire(Autumn 2005) All I have to giveGets pulled into this dodgy circuitAnd I miss not feeling...
Posted by Ben McGarvey on Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:01:00 PST

Album now on sale!

My first album "Too Busy Framing" is now available to buy directly from my profile (CD or digital download - mp3). It has been a long time coming but is finally finished.  I was originally releas...
Posted by Ben McGarvey on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:05:00 PST