Frontwoman Ben Ben on her Band, Skip Skip Ben Ben and Their New Album

 

Ben Ben, the woman at the head of shoegazers Skip Skip Ben Ben (Photo courtesy Lu Ran)

by Clare Pennington

Published: February 4, 2013

 

BEIJING — Shoegazers Skip Skip Ben Ben released their second album “Sacrifice Mountain Hills” here last month. 

Ben Ben, as the band’s Taiwan-born frontwoman Lin Yile is known to friends and fans, started the band just over two years ago. They have already produced two albums, and soon after having finished the latest installment, Ben Ben is once again working on new material.

The singer-guitarist spent her childhood with a mother who taught the piano and a father who sang gospel. “I grew up listening to music from church because of my parents’ Christianity, but we also listened to a lot of old jazz, like Miles Davis, Chet Baker and Bill Evans,” she told ARTINFO. At high school, she came across Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth. 

By the age of twelve Ben Ben, who feels comfortable playing on a range of instruments, was composing tunes on the keyboard. When, after working with a few bands in Taiwan, she jumped ship to China, she started out playing the drums for the band in which her boyfriend was a member, the popular Carsick Cars. 

“It was too time-intensive,” she says. The outspoken musician soon left to devote herself to her own project, and Skip Skip Ben Ben was born. 

For their name, she preceded her own nickname (pronounced Ban Ban in Chinese) with the title of a favorite song from the musically diverse Japanese punk rockers Judy and Mary. “It sounded more fun,” she explains. 

“Sacrifice Mountain Hills,” consists of nine songs that bring together influences like Brit Pop and Sonic Youth-style alternative rock, with Ben Ben’s own sweet clean voice wavering in and out of the sometimes soothing, sometimes wistful instrumentals. “We all like different kinds of music, but that works well for us together as a band,” says Ben Ben. 

Just as their influences and sound are hard to define, the band’s music is often described as ‘shoegaze’ ― an appropriately nebulous term.

When it comes to her contribution, she says, “I don’t really understand my music in terms of a definition, it’s more about where it comes from, emotionally.  Making music is a form of emotional catharsis,” she says.  

Many of the songs have a certain direct simplicity about them, despite their gently and subtly intertwining layers. Songs are written on the spot, and lyrics are general enough to be universal or even abstract. Often, they appear as if they are only echoing in the distance of the dazed, droning guitar textures.  

Her own band is often associated with the peers she most admires in China — many of them are in fact signed on to the same Beijing-based label, Maybe Mars. “When I feel unhappy, I like listening to creative bands ― to peers whose music I find a connection with, like Chui Wan, Hedgehog, Dice and Snapline,” Ben Ben says. 

None of these are Taiwanese bands, and while Ben Ben feels “the music scene in Taiwan is like Japan in that it is quite independent,” she also accuses it of being a too commercial. “Mainland China on the other hand offers great conditions for a more mature and developed rock scene.” 

The only regret? “There is too much competition between musicians in Beijing,” says the eclectic musician, who is planning once again to play as a guest for some bands on her visit to Taiwan this month. After that, Skip Skip Ben Ben will be back here in March for a China-wide tour when you can catch them promoting their new album. 

Originally posted in Artinfo China.