UFO Death Cult is Benjamin Strange. Benjamin Strange is UFO Death Cult… sort of. Allow me to explain.
For many years I’ve presented myself and my art simply under my own name, and for a while that worked out fairly well. Recently, it’s become clear to me that I needed to create a clear distinction between my art and my identity as an artist, for a myriad of reasons. So I’ve decided to create UFO Death Cult, a designation under which all my music will reside.
Over the past several years I’ve struggled with the concept of the identity of the art vs. the identity of the artist - the line between what I was creating and who I am was becoming blurred. It was becoming apparent to me that this was causing confusion: some thought of me as an experimental musician, making weird sounds with microtonal instruments, while others thought of me as a session bassist, playing blues, jazz, funk, and everything in between. No matter which aspect of my musicianship they encountered first, upon encountering the other they would express great puzzlement. Apparently it’s difficult to reconcile the fact that a musician can make more than one kind of music, and I grew weary of explaining myself.
Furthermore, as a busy side musician for a variety of artists around New Orleans, I found that my own artistic explorations were becoming minimized, and were taking a back seat to my role as a session bass player. My own art was becoming lost amongst the noise of all my other activities, both in the public eye and in my own life. Hopefully creating UFO Death Cult will allow a degree of separation and give each aspect of my musicianship it’s proper due.
So from now on I will seek to minimize myself as the individual driving UFO Death Cult, and instead seek to maximize UFO Death Cult as it’s own identity. Conversely, I will seek to maximize myself as an individual musician amongst my other musical pursuits, and minimize UFO Death Cult as to not dilute my perceived abilities.
To this end, I will continue to present myself as an individual artist on my Facebook page (facebook.com/benjaminstrange), where I will be free to speak my mind on a variety of musical subjects without diluting my art as UFO Death Cult. I have reworked my website, formerly benjaminstrange.com, to reflect a renewed sense of purpose for my art, now at ufodeathcult.com (both addresses will redirect to the same site). I have also created new accounts for Twitter (twitter.com/ufodeathcult), Facebook (facebook.com/ufodeathcult), Youtube (youtube.com/ufodeathcult), and Tumblr (ufodeathcult.tumblr.com), all of which will be mostly focused on my art and less so on myself. Keep an eye on these platforms as updates will be forthcoming.
I hope this makes sense.
- Benjamin Strange
