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disadvantagepoint
crisisoflocation
Disadvantage Point is not really
the name of the “artist” involved here. My name is Ben Kennedy, and I
made this music. “Disadvantage Point” refers to a particular type of
song, a song written in a particular time period. The idea I had when I
left Virginia Beach for Harrisonburg for my freshman year of college was that I
was going to make a CD of all-new songs. I was starting from a
disadvantaged point, as I refused to use any of the songs I had written for
Small-Town Dogma over the past three years. Disadvantage Point, or DPT
for short, went through several evolutions since August 2001, including a few
songs that never were finished (“Hold On Forever,” “E.M.P.”) and a few that
just didn’t get put on the album (“Invisible,” “James Atmospheric #3,”
“Answer,” “Flowerlife”).
It actually came to mean more than just the time period though. As I began to realize that JMU was not the best place for me, I found myself writing more songs about displacement and what it means to be “home.” This became the primary theme for Crisis of Location and what gives it its title (a different tone from the original: One Year In Exile). Originally, there was a chorus of female backup singers in “In Another Place” and some odd synthesizer parts and samples in “Hold On Forever,” but those got deleted when my hard drive died in December 2002. The project was retooled and started all over again.
The tracklist changed all the way up until the end: “Charlie Brown” became the opener only a few weeks before everything was completed. “Trebuchet” was also a late entry. The order in which the songs were written is as follows (only because I like to play Behind The Music):
“Firecracker” (also the first to be completed, saved from the HD crash)
“Shadowfalls”
“In Another Place” (I really miss the gorgeous version that Emily Cook and Melissa Middleton did at the end of the song, it still doesn’t sound right without them)
“Nine” (recorded also before the hard drive crash, something about the recorded take of this song made me feel like I couldn’t improve on it)
“Baltimore”
“So It Goes”
“Aristocracy”
“Trebuchet”
“Charlie Brown”
I made some copies for friends here at William and Mary before leaving for summer, then I threw myself a release party at Rick’s house in Virginia Beach in June. What’s next? I’m not sure if I need to make another DPT record right now, but if I do, I haven’t a clue what it would be about/what time constraint I’d use. At the moment I’m focusing on Small-Town Dogma and doing some regular solo shows around Williamsburg. We’ll see how things pan out. Thanks for reading J
-Ben
Williamsburg, VA
October 10, 2003