An Interview with Ben Gleason of Source

Interviewed by: George Archibald

Colorado’s Source is breaking out across the country currently on tour with From Ashes to New, Hell Yeah, and In Flames. The band is an equal combination of hard rock, metal, and progressive rock with a mix of clean and dirty vocal styles. The band is a 3-piece consisting of Ben Gleason on guitars and vocals, Dan Crisafulli on bass, and George Octobous on drums. Source is also out promoting their new album, Return to Nothing, which was released earlier this year via Pavement Entertainment. I got a chance to sit and talk with Ben Gleason to learn more about this budding band.

GA: How about we start off with you telling Empire Extreme a little about the band?

BG: We are Source from Boulder, Co. We are a three-piece progressive metal rock band. People have made comparisons to Tool, Opeth, Mastodon… Those are the big ones but a lot of people say Tool, which is a huge compliment of course. We are on our third major tour now. We are out with From Ashes to New, Hell Yeah, and In Flames. We did the first show last night, and it was great! We have a new album out, Return to Nothing. You can pick that up at any music retailer. The album is doing well and we have received a lot of positive reviews. Empire Extreme gave us a good review. Things have been going super well for us and I am excited to see what happens after this tour.

GA: So how did Source get hooked up with Hell Yeah and In Flames for this tour?

BG: Our label Pavement Music, the vice president Tim King, got a message from HellYeah! asking for a support band for this tour. Tim said that they needed to take Source out on the road with them. That we were perfect for the tour package. They checked us out and were like, ‘yea this band is awesome, we would love to take them out.’ It has been a great opportunity and they have been tagging us on all their social media postings. They have been super friendly to us, a lot of them got to catch our set last night. We were all stoked about that. In Flames has been super nice as well. I missed it because I was of eating dinner but, during In Flames’s set they announced; ‘Source and From Ashes to New, please come hang out with us on our bus after the show. We want to be your friends!’ We thought that was the coolest thing. I am excited to get to know those guys, because their music is just unbelievably good, and the same with HellYeah!. It’s so much fun to watch Vinnie Paul play, and Chad Grey is amazing. Last night their crew said Chad was really feeling it, because last night he was just so into it. The way he was moving around last night, you can just tell he was so passionate about what he is doing.

GA: Source released Return to Nothing earlier this year, tell us about the album and a little about the recording process. Did anything stick out to you, anything you enjoyed about the process?

BG: Working with Jesse Obrien is always enjoyable, he is our engineer at Colorado Sound Studios. He is just so proficient at Protools, and recording. He always picks the right mic, always knows exactly what needs to get done, and what plugin needs to get used. It’s really fun to get a chance to record with him, because there is no uncertainty when it comes to getting the sound we wanted. He is a Jedi when it comes to reading our mind. The same goes for our producer Scott Wilson, he is the bass player for Tantric. Jesse and he were on some Jedi mind frequencies as well as myself. We were all kind of tapped into this thing where, we knew what needed to get done and it just automatically would be picked up by one of us. We would all have the same idea at the same time. The way that we all worked together was enjoyable. So, yea the writing and recording process was fun. Writing music is by far my greatest passion in life.

GA: Your writing style it kind of comes off to me like… you ever hear of the band The Contortionist? Their last two albums have kind of the same vibe, writing wise with the content.

BG: That is another band that has clean vocals, clean guitar parts, a broad range of sound. They have these beautiful interlude parts that show off their full range of talent. Source tends to lean more towards distortion; it’s the contrast (between distortion and clean) that we like, that gives the music so much impact. Talking about bands that we try emulate, Between the Buried and Me, you can see how broad their talent is.

GA: Ha-ha they basically wrote the book on, anything you can do we can do and do it better!

BG: (laughing) And here’s a polka song, go fuck yourself.

GA: What goes into your writing process? What influences do you tap when looking to make new music?

BG: My biggest influence must be the flotation tank, (isolation tank, sleep deprivation tanks). I own a float center out in Colorado. I have two tanks that we put people in. I use them all the time. I have been writing music forever, but once I started using the tanks…. The music I started writing for Source was when I started using those tanks. Something about floating inspires me, because I get in touch with my core being. I think the journey of your consciousness on a day to day basis, like from being focused on work stuff, and driving, and everything, you tend to get out of touch with your inner self. I like those tanks because you get back to your inner self, and I think that is the center of one’s inspiration. When I feel that I feel like I am always hearing music, and that is the sound of my true self. The float tank for me, does a better job of doing that then anything I have ever used.

GA: So, it is like sensory deprivation then?

BG: Sensory deprivation it is. You are just floating there in salt water. Nothing to smell, nothing to hear, nothing to feel, you are just wearing a bathing suit, and everything is the same temperature as your skin. There is no external sensory input coming in when you are in there. So, automatically your focus gets shifted inward. You start to work through all the stuff that is coming up in your life, stress or emotional issues; as you start to clear all that out, you tend to get back to that core self. That journey of shifting your focus from the outward to the inward and getting back to being self-aware to me is the most inspiring. I get to do that on almost a daily basis.

GA: I read on your site that you won the best heavy metal song, for ‘Forgiveness’ in the Akademia Music Awards. What was it like receiving the notification, and how did it feel for the band to be selected?

BG: It was very cool, that happened right after we released our demo. We put out our demo which has the songs, ‘Forgiveness, The Serpent, and Veil of Doubt (which is the bonus track on the new album).’ They found us on Reverb Nation and told us ‘hey you guys won.’ It was awesome hearing that we like winning awards.

GA: What is next for Source after this tour? Are you planning on coming back East again?

BG: We are trying to set something up to get back on the road as soon as possible. On a tour like this you want to try to come back, and hit the places that you hit before, so you can stay fresh in people’s minds. We just started working with Artery Global, which is a great booking agency. They are working super hard on getting us some good shows. I am excited to see what comes of that. We are also trying to get back to the south, we did extremely well down there when we toured with Trapt. So many people are yelling at us, “why don’t you come back to the south, we love y’all?” We love y’all too. It’s hard when you are not in control of booking shows, you just go with the flow, and hope you make everyone happy along the way.

GA: What gear are you currently using for your live rig?

BG: I just got endorsed with Paul Reed Smith Guitars. It is a huge dream of mine, that has come true. It is one of the greatest honors I could ever receive. Dan our bass player just got endorsed with Warwick Basses. It is a huge honor that Dan is now a part of that team, they make the best basses in the world. I am also endorsed with Stringjoy Strings. Stringjoy sells their strings direct online, cutting out the middle man. They put out such a great product that is warm, bright and full, giving a player lots of tone. It is such a joy to play them. We are endorsed with Custom Litt, they do our led displays that we have placed on all our gear. We are also endorsed with All Clear Audio, who does our in-ear monitors. We got some nice in-ears for this tour from them. They were custom molded so they sit perfectly and sound great. I also use a Paul Reed Smith Archon for my amplifier, and I run that through a Mesa cabinet. Dan is running Ampeg for his amplifiers. George is using DW Drums, and Paiste cymbals.

GA: Anything else you want to add?

BG: Check out our new video for, ‘Memories of Yesterday’. We have been getting some play on Axis TV. We are also on Indiemusic TV which you can find on Amazon Fire, or anywhere you can stream music videos. If you get a chance to catch us on tour, it’s going to be an amazing time. I’m just really excited to see what happens from doing this tour, and where we will be going as a band after. I think this is going to be the breaking point, where we will be getting a bigger fan base so I am very excited.

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George Archibald

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