BIO

Ben Featherstone has sold over 40,000 records, has had over 500,000 streams of original music and specialises particularly in progressive acoustic music with the incorporation of strings and space.

His new album Prisoner to the Wind has been recorded mostly on analogue equipment in various places.

"I love the rich deep sound of Analogue gear, it is a nightmare to work with but the effort is totally worth it - it is becoming a forgotten art form."

'I've tried to put my own spirit in the songs and try to create a cinematic nature in the music."

He learnt to sing operatically which can be heard in his song 'Ageless Lady' from travelling with South American superstar Marco de Brix who sadly passed away shortly after Ben left.

“Marco de Brix was a legend, he taught me so much about believing in the song and words, and he was unfortunately haunted by his father’s ghost – a congenital heart defect.

In fact he lent me the President of Paraguay’s guitar and while I was tuning it he showed me a scar on his chest, a timeless rhythm of a turbulent past. He looked at me veiling his hurt with a gentle smile and said ‘the doctor tells me if I carry on singing I will die; I say to the doctor without singing I would rather be dead’. He literally sang himself into the grave”.

Lightning Strike
After Marco passed away Ben Featherstone went on a fishing trip to the island of flowers just off the coast of Brazil. “I told the chap driving the boat that I feared we would be struck by lightning, he looked at me with a stony face and told me I could get out on a random island where there was a bar or stay on the boat in the storm. I chose the bar and as I walked on the ash blonde sand I was struck by lightning whilst leaning against a tin shelter.” Ben said in an interview on BBC Radio 6 “It was like two pneumatic drivers firing off at the same time within your knees, being on an island after a fishing trip the only thing we had to numb the pain was a local drink called cachaça. I would have continued the tour but I had crossed jungles and deserts for some 2000 miles; my knees kept giving up and I kept falling over, I figured I needed to be seen by a British hospital - not that Brazilian hospitals are bad – my Portuguese was limited to ordering drinks. Also Marco was the only thing stopping me getting thrown in Jail or shot by bandits obscured by ethnic and religious murk. Twice in one day in Paraguay I had a gun pulled on me, mainly by police who would make up crimes like a bolt of evil magic and then vanish into the gloom with a bribe”.

Featherstone was named in the Rolling Stone’s top 20 best twelve string guitar players in the world and is referenced on Fenders website as notable user of one of their twelve string guitars – although he says “unless I borrowed one after a few too many drinks at a gig, I do not think I have ever played a Fender twelve string. My twelve string is bespoke and was customised by myself and my mother’.

As seen on and in:

BBC Sussex

BBC Radio 2

BBC Surrey

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 6 Music

Radio Reverb

Amazing Radio

Channel Four

The Guardian

The Sunday Times

The Argus

Mid Sussex Times

In the past he has played on the same bill as artists including Adele, I Am Kloot, The Wonderstuffs, Kate Walsh, Marco de Brix and Karl Barat

Ben Featherstone currently lives in Mid Sussex where he is the host of "The Late Show, with Ben Featherstone" on Mid Sussex Radio 103.8FM.