Thoughts on losing my father

I’m standing at his hospital bedside in a black suit and in my hand is his pallid-grey fist. Shallow breaths as the ventilator shifts, the gentle rise and fall of the bed sheets across my father’s chest. Beneath my NHS-issued face mask, there’s a comical look on my face, like someone whose insides have been kicked out. I remind myself … Read More

The Devil And Daniel Kincade

My brain is like a pinball, a few more lifetimes would do me good.   There is rarely enough time and I am often unfocused, distracted and prone to procrastination. This is my excuse for why The Devil And Daniel Kincade never came to be.  That and a severe lack of money. The Devil And Daniel Kincade was that difficult … Read More

Art, love, failure and absurdity

It’s a hot day.  The sun is high and across the banks of the river, where children play, the stagnant water carries the detritus of late-night carousing ever on towards the sea.  I stare at the blank screen before me, but all I can think is that I am too hot to think clearly and perhaps, underlying all that, is … Read More

Substance & Shadow Theatre’s ‘Christie In Love’ by Howard Brenton

I was approached by the wonderfully talented Midge and Rosie Mullin of Exeter’s Substance & Shadow Theatre to produce a trailer for their upcoming production of Howard Brenton’s Christie In Love. I wasn’t familiar with the play but I knew of the titular character, having seen the haunting film 10 Rillington Place, many years ago – a brilliantly made dramatisation … Read More

Playing with Long Exposures

Here’s a few pictures I took with my friend Mike, experimenting with long exposures. These pictures were taken long after sunset with the shutter being held open for around 20-30 seconds. If you like these works or wish to use them – please ask me. I wouldn’t call myself a photographer but they are my intellectual property. Mike at the … Read More

Photographs by Benjamin Akira Tallamy

Here’s a small selection of photographs I took whilst wandering Devon – I’ve tried to give them the most mundane titles I could think of. Grey Squirrel by Benjamin Akira Tallamy Frog by Benjamin Akira Tallamy Spider by Benjamin Akira Tallamy Bee by Benjamin Akira Tallamy Sunset On Chudleigh Rock by Benjamin Akira Tallamy Mushroom by Benjamin Akira Tallamy

The Demagogues – Cocaine Blues

Cocaine Blues – The Demagogues Single is available from iTunes and all good digital retailers     Here’s a video for my band The Demagogues single ‘Cocaine Blues’  -I wrote this arrangement based around the traditional song Bad Lee Brown or Little Sadie. It’s a popular song and the most famous version is probably Cocaine Blues by Johnny Cash.  Though … Read More

Aled Jones Did Not Sing On The Snowman

Being the start of the Christmas Season, I thought I’d add my single: Christmas Is A Sham (Elegy For Aled Jones) to the blog roll. The track is available on iTunes It was of course sung by Peter Auty.Recorded in 2010, this single is perhaps the only festive lamentation for the popular misconception that Aled Jones sang on The Snowman. … Read More

The imagined village and other stories…

I’ve been very quiet on here of late and it is due mainly to the rather hectic nature of my projects. At present I’m in the seemingly perpetual state of ‘almost finished’ on a number of things. Currently I am going through the extremely mundane task of colour-correcting the latest Shields Of Justice Trailer, which should go live at the … Read More

Featurettes… Of Justice.

The last few months have been pretty frantic as Shields Of Justice has taken over my life. We’ve just finished the first of several shoots for our Vietnam sequence and are lining up the last few shoots that will wrap the project. One thing we have just put out though is a duo of mini featurettes – basically to identify … Read More

I give you…The Demagogues

The Demagogues are live at last – first demo is up and more will be added over the next few weeks. Enjoy!

Tallamy on the radio.

I recently appeared on Jackson Cooper’s Radio show and played a few songs live. Below is a couple of links to the show and a video that was taken in the studio. Nick williams is on at 21:00 and Ben Tallamy is on at 1:12 – of course, you’ll want to listen to the whole show! To find out more, … Read More

The Demagogues…almost there.

Busy weekend, popped on Riviera FM Friday night for a interview and to play a few tracks live – hopefully should be a recording up at some point. Was a little tricky playing as my top E broke just before leaving and I had no choice but to put on a B string and tune it up to an E. … Read More

Following Ben Tallamy

Just a quick blog to link to The new Reverbnation page my music is on: Ben’s ReverbNation page I’m obviously on all the usual stuff as well, such as; Myspace, twitter, facebook, soundcloud etc. Visit www.bentallamy.com for more on those….

Updates…Of sorts.

Not been much activity…or at least it would seem that way. Currently approaching the end of several mind boggling projects and am focused on the finish line for the moment. If all goes according to plan, the summer should see the release of Shields Of Justice, as well as my new new novel. Also my band, The Demagogues will emerge … Read More

Prince Of The Holy Sacrament – New single, out now!

My latest single is out now as a downloadable mp3. As it is a stand alone single, it will not be available to stream from the usual sources and will only be available via online retailers. This track will bridge the gap between my last album ‘The Melody Of Distaste‘ and the upcoming ‘Peasant’s Songbook‘. The track was mastered by … Read More

Boring old update.

Nothing very exciting but since I’ve been a little silent, thought I’d post a little of what has been occupying me of late. Have been working on my latest solo album which is provisionally titled ‘The Peasant’s Songbook’. It’s on slow boil at the moment but expect a preview single at the start of next year. Shields Of Justice Have … Read More

The songs that I write…

Actually finding the YouTube video thing quite liberating as it means I’m recording my new songs without spending hours tweaking and tailoring. Here’s a couple of unreleased recordings – a little rough, but it gets the gist across.

Shields Of Justice Teaser Trailer

The Shields Of Justice teaser trailer is finally up! Whack on some headphones to get the most out of those sexy low frequencies. YouTube is a strange beasty so a higher def vid will probably go up on Vimeo once we sort it – the compression on here seemed to swallow any colour correction that was done. Special thanks to … Read More

Flandyke Shore

Here’s a clip from a new little thing I’m doing – videoing a few songs and popping them on Youtube. Flandyke Shore is a traditional song and this version is most similar to the arrangement by Nic Jones. I learnt this years ago and have never really played it, so I think there are a few changes that aren’t quite … Read More

That new book smell…

Copies of my first novels, The Cold Highways Trilogy have turned up today. It’s quite exciting unpacking a big box full of your own work, though it has taken a while to get this far and it’s still a long way from a career. It’s also strange as I’m nearly at the end of my newest novel and I feel … Read More

Other Illustrations…

Whilst digging around on my computer I found a couple of other drawings that I had done ages ago. Neither of which have been shared with that many people. The first is a drawing I did for Catherine And The Owl. I seem to remember doing this for the poster to our first gig. I coloured it in just to … Read More

The Coffin Collector’s Album Cover.

Just thought I’d plug a little bit of work I did earlier in the year when I was asked to illustrate the cover of The Coffin Collector’s album; Leopardskin Tales. Kaligula was very specific about the content of the illustration and so the layout and content of the artwork was as he requested – each image referring to a track … Read More

How to write an artist One Sheet (Or at least what I did….)

When I set out to do a one-sheet for my album, i didn’t really know what it should look like.  There are countless ‘tutorials’ out there, but what I really wanted was an example of an actual one sheet. Unlike many of the other tutorials, I’ll show you the one sheet I used, explain the reasoning for it’s layout and … Read More

Prop Building For Paupers…

Just a quick link to another blog I’m involved in. As part of the Shields Of Justice project, we are slowly updating step-by-step builds of the props used in the film. Shield Of Justice There are also numerous posts about costume and sets, so please, have a gander. Shields Of Justice Prop Builds

Updates…

Some progress reports, as everything seems to be very busy at the moment. Finished the drafting process of my fourth novel last week and have been busy with the Shields Of Justice Website since then. The main content should be done within the next week but we are going to try and get some clips and trailers uploaded before its … Read More

Cold Highways: The Complete Trilogy – Out Now!

Cold Highways I’m happy to announce that my first three novels are finally available in one volume, as a complete paperback. This 6×9 paperback contains all three books – The Dead, Cities And Signs, and Aires Deep.  Standing complete at just under 550 pages. It also features a wonderful cover photograph by Emily Ings, who recently also did the cover … Read More

The Wattingers – Killer Set

Just thought I’d share a link for a video i was involved in the making of. This is from the fantastic band; ‘The Wattingers.’ Check it out! We shot at the end of last year in a fabulous set Martin had constructed in his garage. For more information on the band, check out: Wattingers official site.

old news/new news – the Catherine and the Owl ep design

Since there is very little in the way of images for the By your hand, I am spared EP, I thought it’s about time they appear somewhere. I don’t tend to mention my graphics work too much, but I’m a bit of a dab hand in the old photoshop. I can’t take credit for the original Cato logo though, that … Read More

more updates on the ol website

slowly getting things sorted with the new website etc. bit of a drag really but am currently also trying to sort out a way for people to purchase physical copies of my CDs and Books. This year’s goal is to try and turn a profit. not sure how that is going to work but trying to figure it out as … Read More

if you have some loose change…

why not visit the itunes store… http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/benjamin-akira-tallamy/id408793012?ign-mpt=uo%3D4 and download one of my tracks. slowly the back catalogue will fill out this year.

Clumsy updates

slowly updating www.bentallamy.com and getting to grips with www.shieldsofjustice.com too. My skills are so limited as a web designer that it is more of a Frankenstien’s monster type of creation – slowly attatching useless bits of code before clumsily hacking them off again. Hopefully soon it will give some semblance to a proper, normal website. if i could, i’d get … Read More

Shields of justice

Met with the wonderful Tom Drewitt today with my good friend Tom to discuss the soundtrack to shields. Afterwards we completed the rough edit of the Ballroom sequence from the film and had a look at the Patriot Park footage we shot at Powderham castle late last year.  Entertaining cut of Jonts taking a truncheon to the bauble. Currently trying … Read More

Cold highways – available for the kindle

The Cold Highways trilogy is soon to be available for the kindle ebook reader. So far Book One; The Dead and Book Two; Cities And Signs are available to download via amazon.com and book three should be available by the start of next week. Eventually i hope to consolidate it’s release across all digital platforms, but for the moment visit … Read More

The drag of knuckles, the grind of old bones.

This is a blog. I’m not entirely sure what a blog is, but this is one, or at least that’s what i’ve been led to believe. Due to my general incompetance at web moderating, my intention is to use this blog as an outlet for any necessary ‘blogging’ i may need to do through my official site (www.bentallamy.com). Seeing as … Read More