Ben Howard explains how mini-strokes influenced new album ‘Is It?’
Ben Howard has explained how suffering two mini-strokes last year influenced his new album Is It? The LP is out now on Island Records.
Last year, Howard twice had two TIAs (transient ischemic attacks), also known as mini-strokes, in his garden last year while at home in Ibiza. During these two experiences, he was left unable to speak clearly and think coherently. The incidents occurred a month apart from each other, and are reflected on his new album.
“All my other senses became really heightened,” Howard explains in a new interview with The Guardian. “It was an overload of information, like the whole world was pouring in at once. I felt really hypersensitive to everything: the light, and the sound of the trees, and the leaves, and the wind … I was still compos mentis, but I didn’t have the words to explain it. It was over in an hour. And then, a month later, it happened again,” he added.
Howard describes the pair of mini-strokes as “a before-and-after moment”. He explained how the sonic techniques deployed on Is It? such as the use of drum machines as well as the relationship between technology and the guitar on the album were designed to “create the story of that experience”.
Elsewhere in the interview, Howard also revealed how he struggles with the demands of the music industry. “I’m always scrambling for new ideas. I have a lot of trouble with what is expected of me, in terms of records. The most difficult thing in creating music is this craving from others for familiarity, a feeling of ownership over you,” he stated.
Far Out wrote in a four-and-a-half star review of Howard’s new album: “It is a record at one with itself, clear in its intent to be a ray of sunshine and reconciliation. That much is asserted by welcoming you in with the open arms of the most obvious single ‘Couldn’t Make It Up’. Within a few bars of that beauteous opener Howard extolls the sentiment of the album, singing: “Sitting in the garden listening to the radio.” That is exactly how Is It? will likely be devoured by many as it blossoms into the summer hit it was effortlessly born to be.”
The review continues: “This fresh jazzy sound is resplendent throughout the album as the 10 tracks create a singular flow of chronicled variations akin to a stroll through a golden baked citadel, bathing in all the sights as you waltz along, wrapped up in headphones, nourished by the niceties of nature in bloom.”
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