Benjamin "Ben" Fletcher is an American musician and producer. He remixed Froot for Marina Diamandis' Neon Gold X show and Love + Fear Tour, as well as produced all songs for her fourth studio EP, LOVE + FEAR (Acoustic).
Work with Marina[]
On his SoundCloud bio, he wrote:[1]
❝ Also in 2014 Benjamin met Marina And The Diamonds singer Marina Diamandis and started playing guitar for her.
January 2015 Benjamin signed on to become Marina And The Diamonds Musical Director (MD). 2015/16 saw Benjamin tour the world with Marina And The Diamonds culminating in the Neon Nature Tour at the end of 2015.
2018 Now living in LA Ben still MD's for Marina And The Diamonds. ❞
FROOT[]
On September 29, 2018, a Ben Fletcher remix of Froot was used as opening during Neon Gold X, seeing its live debut.[2]
On August 5, 2019, after being asked whether this version of the song would be released, he answered:[3] Hey there. Don't think there's a plan to release it. I'll ask M if I can upload it to YouTube. X
The following day, he tweeted:[4] Here ya r! X
| Title | Co-Wri. | Prod. | Additional |
|---|---|---|---|
| FROOT era | |||
| Froot (Extended Intro) | ✓* | played as opening during Neon Gold X and Love + Fear Tour,[2][5] *remixer | |
LOVE + FEAR (Acoustic)[]
On the release day of LOVE + FEAR's acoustic EP, September 13, 2019, Fletcher stated on Instagram:[6]
❝ @marinadiamandis and I worked on this for months slowing down and stripping back the songs to find their beautiful cores without all the bells and whistles of modern production... Actually I did add some bells on one of the songs but I can confirm there is no whistling on this EP. ❞
When responding to tweets mentioning True (Acoustic), he commented:[7][8]
❝ I like this one! Starts so gently and builds but never explodes. It took a while to get the dynamics right for this one. I ran a shaker through a filter so it sounds underwater. The beat that comes in is an acoustic foot beater. It's mellow which I like. M's voice is GOLDEN!
There is a very long reverb on her voice that trails on for ages. It makes it sound so otherworldly. ❞
When replying to tweets regarding Karma (Acoustic), he explained:[9][10]
❝ perfect gif for the intro sound! It's a backwards guitar. The nylon-string acoustic guitar on this is so crisp! The piano took me so long to get right. Marina writes the strangest chords in her music. Even if it sounds simple there's always a strange/perfect chord in there.
Marina sang this one in one take!! There are so many backing vocals to do. She's a master at vocal recording. We really loved the middle section breakdown cause we got to use an old instrument called a Mellotron. And of course the bells! Love the bells. ❞
Referring to No More Suckers (Acoustic), he stated:[11]
❝ This one is special cause I got to use my old baritone guitar, it's like a bass guitar with 6 strings. The Cure use them lots. This one has mellotron on it too. And xylophone too! Oh this one may be my fav? ❞
When responding to Twitter questions regarding Orange Trees (Acoustic), he answered:[12][13][14]
❝ the guitar part on this one is SO HARD to play!!! :O I like this one cause the lyrics are so mellow and so is the music. Love the single piano hits that come in the 2nd verse. It's simple which works.
The breakdown on this one is so dreamy! Then I brought in the clicks clocks in the end for some movement. Oh and the great twinkle of the high piano at the end. I love that.
We recorded some extra vocals for this one. This one is a mix of lots of different vocal takes from lots of places! We just chose the best vocal takes. There were lots of mellow vocal takes from the record that sounded good. ❞
After being asked whether any acoustic versions of other songs in LOVE + FEAR were scrapped from the EP, he responded:[15]
❝ There is a version of To Be Human that we did but never finished. I think it's great. But we just ran out of time. ❞
| Title | Co-Wri. | Prod. | Additional |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOVE + FEAR era | |||
| True (Acoustic) | ✓ | guitar, percussion, piano, shaker | |
| Superstar (Acoustic) | ✓ | guitar, percussion, piano | |
| Karma (Acoustic) | ✓ | guitar, percussion, piano, mellotron, bells | |
| No More Suckers (Acoustic) | ✓ | guitar, percussion, piano, mellotron, xylophone | |
| Orange Trees (Acoustic) | ✓ | guitar, percussion, piano | |
Gallery[]
_1-001.jpg "Tumblr (08 Mar 2015) 1-001.jpg (73 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Tumblr (14 Apr 2015) 1-001.jpg (86 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Tumblr (21 Apr 2015) 1-001.jpg (66 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Ben Fletcher IG Post (22 Apr 2015) 1-001.jpg (53 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Ben Fletcher IG Post (08 May 2015) 1-001.jpg (74 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Ben Fletcher IG Post (29 May 2015) 1-001.jpg (121 KB)")
_3-001.jpg "Tumblr (16 Jul 2015) 3-001.jpg (104 KB)")
_2-001.jpg "Tumblr (01 Aug 2015) 2-001.jpg (111 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Tumblr (23 Aug 2015) 1-001.jpg (83 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Tumblr (29 Aug 2015) 1-001.jpg (132 KB)")
_2-001.jpg "Tumblr (29 Aug 2015) 2-001.jpg (123 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Ben Fletcher IG Post (29 Oct 2015) 1-001.jpg (210 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Ben Fletcher IG Post (01 Nov 2015) 1-001.jpg (99 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Ben Fletcher IG Post (07 Dec 2015) 1-001.jpg (92 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Ben Fletcher IG Post (20 Feb 2016) 1-001.jpg (81 KB)")
_1-001.jpg "Ben Fletcher IG Post (12 Mar 2016) 1-001.jpg (151 KB)")
_3-001.jpg "Tumblr (20 Mar 2016) 3-001.jpg (87 KB)")
_4-001.jpg "Tumblr (20 Mar 2016) 4-001.jpg (98 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ https://soundcloud.com/benfletcher
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://youtu.be/EaLCEf1LBQg?t=20
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1158485803833544704
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1158830394722017280
- ↑ https://youtu.be/yVSNYdNRe6A
- ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B2VxWHtAQwv
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1172541783890219008
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1172542805169725441
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1172543268422213633
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20221209214712/https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1172543804756250625
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1172544715557761026
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1172545344619442177
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1172545658437242880
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1172546119663898624
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20221210024047/https://twitter.com/benfletcher/status/1172548355869667329