The Lodger was formulated by Pontefract-born songwriter Ben Siddall inside a Leeds bedsit. After a few 7-inch singles on a variety of independent labels such as Angular Records and Dance to the Radio, a debut album titled “Grown-Ups” was released in June 2007 around the world.
This was swiftly followed up by a second record in May 2008, “Life is Sweet” which was again licensed to various labels all over the universe including the legendary Slumberland Records in the USA and coincided with tours of UK, Europe, Japan and USA.
A new 4 song 7” E.P. led by the track “I Think I Need You” will be released this June by Elefant Records of Madrid (Camera Obscura, Au Revoir Simone et al), just in time for the sunshine...in the meantime Ben is locked in the study with guitars and keyboards and notebooks until Album #3 pops out.
I often spend many hours in deep thought, pondering such important matters as what my specialist subject would be if I ever appeared on Mastermind. I still don't have a definitive answer but I was watching it earlier today and a vicar was doing British Punk of the late 1970s and I did pretty well. This silly but immensely catchy song was the answer to one of the questions:
This came out on clear 7" vinyl. (makes mental note for next lodger single.)
Hi, I'm Ben from The Lodger. This is my new blog - "Moortown Diary" - so named because I live in Moortown, it's kind of a diary and it's also the name of a collection by Ted Hughes (that other Northern genius).
As you can see from the photograph I've been up to my goggles in ledgerlines of late. This is because we're going into the studio next week to put the finishing sprinklings on what will be our next release - a new single - and we're bringing a trumpet player in. So i've been writing some parts and getting them down on manuscript paper and quite frankly my head is pulsating due to adding up lengths of notes etc. Also I have been lamenting about why on earth whoever invented the trumpet decided to make it tuned a tone lower than concert pitch meaning it's annoying to write for. Presumably so it goes "one higher". I will report back when we've finished recording...
Last night I was listening to the soundtrack of the Woody Allen film "Sweet and Lowdown" which, for the unaware, is kind of a spoof documentary film about a fictitious guitarist who is a rival of Django Reinhardt's and starred Sean Penn and Samantha Morton, who has to be the only person to have been nominated for an Oscar for a role with no dialogue. Anyway....it got me onto listening to some Django Reinhardt which is bloody sublime. Go, listen!
