SNOB ROCK

Ben Wash

“Snobbery” doesn’t carry the same weight for Ben Wash, a native of Greenville, South Carolina who moved to Miami to pursue his electronic music dreams on his own terms, as it does to others. His new album, Snob Rock would tell otherwise but as he puts it “Whether the term does or doesn’t raise flags, it’s not too much of a concern of mine. The imagery and music will speak for the album. But there is a certain meaning behind ‘Snob Rock.’ I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to properly define it and perhaps it would be best that way. It’s better for others to take it the way they imagine it. I wouldn’t be so arrogant to say that I’m trying to start a new genre or scene, and that’s why I’d like for listeners to make what they want out of it.”

Hot on the release of his first full-length as an artist and for his fledgling label, King’s Head Records, the single title track single, is a violent number, but violent in a good way. It has energy and gumption but it is good natured and not off-putting. “I started the album thinking it was going to be filled with bangers from start to finish. That didn’t necessarily happen. I’m constantly influenced by a wide variety of music on a daily basis. It’s almost overwhelming. I wanted Snob Rock to show that… without being too sporadic when crossing from one track to the next.” This has given the album, a collection of new material with some older stuff thrown in for good measure, an even aural balance.

But the young artist is not afraid to show that he’s undergoing some growing pains when asked about the scope of the project and what it’ll mean for the label, “Well, I don’t know what to expect. There’s a lot we still have ahead of us here at King’s Head. This album is just one stepping stone, but an important one. We’ve learned a lot from putting this project together. What I take the most from this album is learning how all of us at the label work together to put out a big release and the experience behind it,” going on to explain, “everyone has been extremely dedicated and I couldn’t be happier with each of them. I’m not sure how rare it is to have a group of people willing to treat a project like this as their own. It is special when you do have that and it’s something to hold on to.”

With the full involvement of the King’s Head crew, Wash is confident that future releases will benefit from the same, boutique touch that is helping propel this album onto the electronic music scene, one he’s wary of in its current state, but offers a guarded, if not political statement, “To me, it’s so hard to place electronic music in one category. How does one really define electronic music? A vast amount of artists from so many different scenes have elements of electronic music in their songs. So in all honesty, I can’t put a handle on such a broad subject.”

With album dropped, Wash and King’s Head are looking to promote it with tours to LA and NYC, cities the musician considered before weighing Miami’s current “it” status and Chicago. Not yet halfway out of his ‘20s, Wash has a long path ahead of himself. He has taken the first steps in the right direction and will be an interesting artist to watch for the temperance of development. For now, Snob Rock is his opening salvo unto a very large genre that continuously seeks innovation.

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~Abel Folgar