6 Questions with Ben Harwood

Meet Ben Harwood. The up-and coming musician from the North East who recently played Coast Fest and brought out an EP. I chatted to him a few weeks back and this is what he said.

1. Hi Chloe! My names Ben, I’m a musician based in the North East, hailing specifically from Ashington but generally playing in venues along the coast and Newcastle. Parts of my music cover a lot of genres but can generally be boiled down to indie pop / rock and singer-songwriter. 

2. It was all quite unassuming to be fair; I happened to be sat closest to the guitar and in a music lesson when I was probably in year 7 or 8, and was asked to play it. I had just started to get into guitar music around that time and the next thing I knew I was learning songs and starting lessons. That eventually progressed into what I thought was the logical next step and I started writing my own music. 

3. 2025 hopefully will be a big year for me - after releasing an EP in February I’ve taken 2024 off from releasing to refine my live set and now that we have a set line up for that we’re in the process of starting on a few demos. My first single for 2025 is recorded and there will be more to follow after that comes out early in the year. We’ll also keep hammering live gigs, supporting other artists like we have been and maybe a headliner will be on the cards at some point. 

4. Being relatively early on, it’s hard to point to one highlight. That being said, being able to play at Coast Fest ‘24 with the band in front of a lot of the people who have been supportive of me so far, and even seeing a few people sing along, will always sit in my memory no matter what else is to come. It definitely felt like the end of one thing and the beginning of another in terms of my music. 

5. Sonically I’ve got a massive range of inspirations, however whilst not always necessarily sounding like them, I’ve always admired The 1975 in the way that they can shift seamlessly through genres and that’s something I’ve always wanted to implement and hopefully it’s something people pick up on in my music. Also, being a young lad from a town in the North East, I’ve always had an affinity to Sam Fender’s music and have also delved into his influences, trying to replicate the sounds of legends like Springsteen and Petty with more modern production and influences mixed in. I also cannot understate the influences a lot of local musicians have had on me, whether sonically or in other ways - there are loads, but just a few original musicians that spring to mind (that everyone should absolutely check out) are Oliver Thomas Armstrong, Keiran Bowe and Lily Taylor.

6. Apart from the last few I mentioned there, locally Bear Park, Georgina Gale and Uncanny Valley. Some other upcoming artists I expect to go massive in the next few years from other places are Nieve Ella and Kneecap (who are both already doing really well, but will be ginormous in a few years I reckon.)