Some songs capture your heart from the first listen. Others are a bit more subtle. You need to have patience to see their beauty. Listening to those songs can often be more rewarding, because you know you might have missed out if you had just moved on to the next thing. Ben Provest’s “Trying to be Brave” is one of those slow burns for me. So take your time with it. It might not hit you instantly, but when it does I know you’ll fall just as hard as I did.
Ben wrote, performed, recorded, mixed, and mastered this single himself during a month-long residency in a small Icelandic fishing village. You can hear that isolation and calm coming through this single. It’s special. I’m so glad I didn’t overlook it.
“I recorded it in Studio Silo, an incredible space built as a labour of love and filled with restored vintage gear,” Ben explained. “The upright piano was recorded with a pair of Coles 4038 ribbon microphones, and the acoustic guitar and lead vocal with a U67-style condenser. The instruments include my Martin 000-18M acoustic guitar, a Roland Juno 106, the cheap banjo that was laying around the studio, a Fender Precision Bass, and programmed drums. I recorded, mixed, and mastered everything myself in Logic Pro X.
“At its heart, the song was inspired by someone I was close to, Amelia,” adds Ben. “We broke up after living together in Melbourne during COVID, and I wrote this with her in mind. But more broadly, it became about letting go of fear – being brave enough to trust again, to follow your instincts, and to live an authentic life.”
Give yourself a moment or two and let this song seep into your pores. It’s a special one.
Photo credit: Answer Fraser