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Electric President

The Band…

Ben Cooper and Alex Kane

The Music…

Download Electric President on iTunes –

The Preview…

Why We’re Buzzing…

We grew up being exposed to quite a bit of experimental music… plenty of ambient, shoegaze, electronic and lo-fi artists have whispered in our ears. And while we always have respect for the artistic risk taking, if music is too much in the head and leaves out the human soul, we don’t always connect. So when a group like Electric President comes along and combines all the intelligence of experimentation with beautiful melodies and genuine emotion, it’s a musical fusion we can’t get enough of. We love that so many Electric President songs take completely unpredictable twists and turns in the course of a few minutes. If you don’t listen to every song all the way through, you will be left with an unfinished experience, and you are certain to miss amazing moments in music.

You may know the brilliance of Electric President and already have them listed in your obsessions, or you may not have yet had the pleasure. If the 2nd is true, do yourself a huge favor and start with one of our major 2010 musical addictions, ‘Safe and Sound’, as soon as you’re done reading this. You wont be able to take the song off repeat, and you’ll be inescapably compelled to explore the rest of their amazing catalog. With their sound ranging from symphonic to quirky to catchy and infectious, something will draw you in.

In random reasons for loving Electric President… they seriously named an EP ‘You Have The Right To Remain Awesome’, and they take some of the funniest band photos ever. We like funny people.

The Interview…

Ben Cooper from Electric President was incredibly gracious and gave us look behind the Electric President curtain…

The TAS Kids:

Thank you for doing this! We’re way stoked. In addition to making music with Electric President you have been involved in a variety of music projects over the years. Is that a result of creative schizophrenia that can’t be contained in one project, or more due to life and circumstance?

Ben Cooper of Electric President:

No problem. Thanks for asking me.

And yeah, I have a lot of projects. It’s probably more in the schizophrenia camp. I like collaborating, and I also like working alone. I enjoy playing around with different types of production and song structures and arrangements. I try to always shake up my methods to keep things fresh, and stay on my toes. As a result, I have a lot of different musical outlets and I’m always working on 2 or 3 things at once. I sort of drive myself nuts doing this. But I’m happier that way. I’d rather be busy than bored.

The TAS Kids:

We have to say that how “Electric President” got it’s name is hands down the most randomly hilarious way a band has ever been named. We read the story of how you thought you heard a friend of yours say the phrase “The Electric President”, and it’s totally not what she said at all, but you liked the phrase enough to rest a music project on it – so funny to us. In general you come across pretty hilarious in interviews which is kind of in contrast to your vibe of music. Do you think fans of Electric President would be surprised by what your personality is like in person?

Ben Cooper of Electric President:

Yeah. I’m not a very serious person for the most part. I joke about pretty much everything, and I’m kind of an idiot. I’ve been told by people I’ve met that I’m not what they expected me to be. Which is probably just a nice way of saying they’re disappointed. Hahaha.

But if I behaved like the stuff I wrote, I’d probably be a miserable bastard to spend any time with.

The TAS Kids:

When alot of bands create a lo-fi sound, they can end up trading out all of the melody for the melancholy. We love that you hold strong to melody, especially with songs like ‘Safe and Sound’, ‘Insomnia’, ‘All The Distant Ships’, and ‘Robophobia’. Do you consider making things sound beautiful just as important as making things sound cool and different?

Ben Cooper of Electric President:

I actually spend a lot of time molding experiments back to being listenable. It’s easier for me to leave things as experiments. I find a lot of the work comes in after, working those things into arrangements and melodies that still function in a more traditional sense. I also just like to make ugly things into something pretty, both with sounds and subject matters. I think it has something to do with not leaving them as just negative. Like taking a bad experience and making something positive out of it. You aren’t just leaving it be as something you wish hadn’t happened. You’re using it to create something new, something more ideal. I like the idea of that.

I also listen to a lot of pretty music. It’s what I put on more often than not. I’m listening to The Land Before Time soundtrack as I type this.

The TAS Kids:

If we dig into your lyrics we find songs that have a pretty extreme love tone and songs with a pretty extreme hate tone? Do songs like ‘Elegant Disasters’, ‘Safe And Sound’, and ‘Eat Shit And Die’ have specific meanings and people behind them, or are they just concepts?

Ben Cooper of Electric President:

It’s rare that I write about myself, or people I know. At least directly. A lot of songs are triggered by things I’ve run into, sure. But the songs are rarely about the people in particular and more about the experience. So I guess they often have specific meanings, but not people. And in the rare cases that I’m writing about myself or someone I know directly, I never tell anyone.

The TAS Kids:

Ok, 3-part question… What bands or artists are you currently excited about that you consider your musical peers? What bands or artists are you currently excited about that are nothing like your own music? And lastly, does it weird you out at all that pink obsessed, shopping addicted, hello kitty loving girlie girls like us are totally into your music?

Ben Cooper of Electric President:

Part One: I’m not sure I know how to define who my peers are. I guess I never really thought about it before. Is there a criteria for that?

And to be honest, I haven’t heard a lot of new music in a while. When I’m recording, I don’t tend to pick up a lot of new albums. I don’t usually have the head space to really get into them. I’ve been recording pretty much non-stop for the past year and a half, so I’m really behind. But a couple recent records I stumbled on and really enjoyed recently were “Cerulean” from Baths and “Oh My God, Charlie Darwin” from The Low Anthem. I like a lot of what Son Lux is doing as well.

Part Two: I’ve been listening to a lot of “Rachel’s/ Rachel Grimes” again. I go back to those records a lot. And for the past week I’ve been rotating between “Harvest” from Niel Young, “Rain Dogs” from Tom Waits, and “6 Feet Deep” from the Gravediggaz. None of these records are new to me, but I’ve liked them a lot lately, and don’t figure I sound a whole lot like them. And the aforementioned “Land Before Time” score, too.

Part Three: Not at all. I think it’s great. It’s the fun part of putting out records: you never know who’s gonna respond to them. Someone wrote me recently and let me know that their grandmother liked my music, and she’s 89. That made my day.

The TAS Kids:

Well you make our day . Thank you soooo much Ben, and we look forward to more Electric President in the future!