Two years ago, Ben Cottrill held the seat every songwriter says they want: musical director and main writing partner behind the launch of one of Canada’s breakout artists. His fingerprints are on a platinum record. His name isn’t on the marquee. Steady pay, real cred, his best friends on the bus – and at twenty-eight, he gave his notice. Not because it went wrong. Because every year spent building someone else’s thing was a year gone from his own.
Now he makes records in the woods on Vancouver Island, and the songs are funny the way funerals sometimes are. In one, he’s stuck on a side-stage gig 2,500 miles from his grandmother’s service while his father saves two seats for sons he knows aren’t coming; when Ben calls that night, his old man shrugs — sad but beautiful, pretty good for a funeral.
A joke, then a knife. That’s the house style. “Though I try each year not to disappear, still I wonder where I’ve been,” he sings. Ten years of lows, noise, and other people’s spotlights will do that to a man. The new music is Cottrill going and getting himself back. His name’s on this one.
Listen for Ben Cottrill all month long, right here on THE PEAK!
