The Plan B interview w
ith RANDOM started as the most stressful one I’ve done! It’s obvious to anyone that has ever seen a Plan B video or truly listened to his tracks that Ben Drew sees the world through dark and sometimes scary eyes and I was curious to learn t
he workings of Mr Drew’s mind. He is obviously fiercely driven and hard working, having finally managed to get the right number for him I dropped him a line!
Do you have any pre-show rituals; things you always have to do befo
re you go on stage?
Plan B: Always some Jack Daniels but I started taking these “vocal zone” things, which are throat pastilles. They open up the vocal chords and I’ve got to do that before I go on to make sure I get all the right notes and stuff.
What about any roadie requests?
Plan B: I don’t have anything special requests, except Jack Daniels, Coke, ice. I have herbal tea, peppermint tea to help warm up my vocal chords. It’s not very exciting.
I want to go back a bit to the release of the “Defamat
ion of Strickland Banks”. It was obviously a complete move away from your hip-hop album that you did before that and it’s a real juxtaposition between the soulful voice and then the dark lyrics. Do you think that sometimes people don’t realise how dark the lyrics are because it sort of became more soulful and more commercial? Do you think that sometimes the message was lost or did you do that on purpose?
Plan B: I don’t think the message was lost. I think the stor
y is there if people want to go and find it. I think people that miss it aren’t interested.
The first record was so undeniably dark so that if people didn’t want to focus on it they had no choice. They had to focus on the subject matter... rather than taking it as a tale of caution it kind of brought them in to quite a dark place. I remember meeting one girl in America and she said, “I think you’re really talented and you’re going to go far but I just can’t listen to your album,” and I said why and she said, “Because it reminds me of all the reasons that I left England”.
Wow.
Plan B: So I think that’s the effect the first album had, it was a good album I just think maybe it had the same effect as when you watch the film ‘Irreversible.’
I suppose for some people it is just too dark.
Plan B: Yeh it just made people feel dark. It’s still dark s
ubject matter but when the music is upbeat they maybe don’t have to think about it. I think I’ve got the balance right of keeping the credibility of the things I want to talk about and making the music a bit lighter.
Can you tell us about the film you directed in September?
Plan B: It’s called “Ill Manners”. It’s a multi character story its like six short stories all linked to each other – it’s like the hip-hop musical version of “Crash”, set in E
ast London.
Is it going to be released sometime soon? Where are people going to be able to see it?
Plan B: We’re going to release it sometime next year, a
t some point next summer hopefully.
Obviously you’ve acting for quite a while. Was the director’s chair something you’ve always aimed towards or was it through doing your acting that you thought actually that’s the route I want to take?
Plan B: I wanted to direct before I started acting. I then started acting so that I could then get experience being on a film set.
Do you have any directors that influence your own work or is it just through the people that you’ve worked with?
Plan B: Not that you’ll ever see Tarantino in my work, but, Tarantino, I love Tarantino. Then, Shane Meadows. I think Shane Meadows might be the closest influence. I like to use real characters, real people. Real people aren’t actors, they don’t have that process. Actors have those tools. (But real people), they’ve never been trained. But I like working with non-actors ... because that’s what Shane Meadows done (sic).
If you could pick any four actors dead or alive to cast in your next film, anyone in particular that you’d go for?
Plan B: Yeh, Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley. Stephen Graham, I love Stephen Graham, and I like Vicky McClure. She’s already been in my video, so I’ve already worked with her. I like my British actors…And Michael Caine.
It’s nice to keep it home grown.
Plan B: Yeh, you know it’s weird most of the people that I want in my films I’ve met, or kind of know, so who knows, it might happen.
I want to go back and talk about some music now for a bit. The next album is going to be a more hip-hop album again. Is that right?
Plan B: Yeh, it’s just ‘The Strickland Banks’ story told through hip-hop and it’s called “The Banks of Belmarsh”.
Is the commercial side important or are you not so worried about whether it’s going to alienate the people that liked you for your soul voice?
Plan B: No, because I alienated the hip-hop community by doing soul, so I don’t really care about alienating people. It’s not about that, it’s about the art I want to make.
We heard a rumour that it would be a free download album. Is there any truth in that?
Plan B: There may be. It depends. I’ve got a lot of projects going on and you can’t really release that many projects in one year because you’ve got to focus on promoting each one properly in the right way. You can’t promote two albums, they’ll just end up fighting each other. So it may get to a point where (my film) ‘Ill Manners’ is just more important. If that is the case I might release the album for free so then at least it gets out there. I don’t want it sitting on a shelf. So we’ll see, depending on whether I can release things properly.
Your kind of style that you have at the moment is a very suited and booted look that obviously fits with the sixties, the soul and the whole Strickland Banks character. Is that your style as well or if you were going back to promoting a hip hop album would the whole look then change?
Plan B: The whole look would change because it’s supposed to be representing Strickland Banks and that’s what I’m promoting right now. I’m a director and storyteller; that’s what I think first and foremost – that’s why I think that’s the most important thing about me. And I’ve created a character and a world and I need to represent that, especially when I’m on stage.
But I think that when I go to the next thing, do a hip hop record, it’s probably more about being in prison so the stuff I’ll be wearing will be more prison kind of clothes. And then if I eventually do a Reggae thing then I’m going to be wearing tie-dye, bleached jeans and shaved head and Dr Martens etc. That’s what represents that music.
What’s the favourite part of your job?
Plan B: Creating. So when I’m in the studio creating something new. If I’m writing a script or writing a new song or producing something.
And, all your songs are stories, so where do you draw your inspiration from?
Plan B: For this album it was based on fiction and also what I have experienced. So since the first album came out I experienced a minor amount of fame – just a minor celebrity, an underground kind of world. So the only stuff I could base the second album on was what I was experiencing at the time. Half of it is fiction that I created, for Strickland Banks. The other half is based on things I’ve seen or experienced myself. And this album is pretty much that.
The first album was about the kind of stuff I read in newspapers. Stories in newspapers inspire me a lot; no matter how dark or positive they are. I’ve actually got a scrapbook. When I read something in the paper that stays with me I cut it out and put it in the scrapbook.
Cool, cheers for chatting to us Ben
