An interview with: Adventure

When I first asked Benny Boeldt (better known as one-man Baltimore maestro Adventure), he immediately agreed, and we scheduled it to coincidence with his appearance at Death by Audio. I arrived promptly to make sure we had plenty of time. With a beer in his hand, he asked if I wouldn't mind if we could do a it a little later in the evening so that he could get a little drunker first. Swigging down some of my own beer, I told him it wouldn't be a problem.

So, you're just starting a tour with Ear Pwr. How long does it go? Where does it go?
Well, I'm doing the first three or four dates with Ear Pwr, up to New York where we play at Cake Shop...and after I do those dates I fly to Europe with Dan [Deacon] to open those shows. THEN I fly from Belgium to Portland to continue on with Ear Pwr for the rest of the US tour. It's going to be a long time.

You actually just got back from touring as a member of Dan Deacon's band; what was that like?
That was amazing. It was the most fun tour...well, one of the most fun! I feel like that and the Baltimore Round Robin were close, just touring with all of your friends and having a great time the whole time. There was some bickering every once and a while, and there were the low points, but in its entirety it was one of the most fun tours I've ever been on.

If you don't mind me asking, what were some of the low points?
Just being with the same people in a giant tin can, basically, not getting sleep, and leaving the night of shows to get to new shows because the bus goes so slow. You don't get as well rested as you want, and sometimes you just end up bickering about dumb crap with your friends.

How are you getting around this time with Ear Pwr?
Ear Pwr has their car. I'm just going to ride with them. There's only three of us; we don't have that much gear. We're both very compact bands as far as traveling. I think we both run in pretty much two suitcases, and I have a keyboard.

Your Carpark album had this Nintendo-ish feel to it. What were some of the influences there?
At the time, it was definitely influenced by Yellow Magic Orchestra and other synthesizer based bands of a different era. As well as video games, which I'm sort of getting tired of that association, but it's something I can't deny.

So what are your influences now?
Who knows? Just dance music in general. I'm not really sure what direction I'm going in now since it's been a while since I've sat down and written a lot of music. Definitely staying in a dance area, a dance zone, but I'm not going to try and replicate a fucking Nintendo sound or any sound. Whatever comes out of it comes out of it.

That's one of the things I find interesting about Adventure. I think a lot of bands that sound similar intentionally go for a Nintendo or Sega Genesis sound, but I think with you it feels like almost more of a coincidence.
All the samples that I use are Moog patches for Reason. They just end up sounding the same.

Is it 8-bit or 16-bit?
It's definitely 16-bit. I like a lot of [chiptune artists], but the big difference is that there are only so many tracks that [thy] can lay on a song. I actually don't know that for sure, but there's only so many tracks you can layer on LSDJ or Nano Loop. There's a limitation there. Because I use a computer and it's MIDI based, I can add as many layers as I want, which is why [Adventure] sounds a lot fuller. That's why it sounds different than most Chiptune type music.

Do you ever get associated with the Chiptune scene?
Absolutely. I get that all the time; I'd say that's the main association that I have.

I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't be offending you with that association.
No way! Of course not!

Do you have any plans for the next album?
Absolutely. Todd from Carpark just asked me what I was doing and what my plans were. I am going to get back to Baltimore in a few months and not have shit to do, and [I'll] start writing music again. I hope that's the plan. I think I have a lot of ideas; maybe [I'll] add some sort of vocalization to my music, considering that the last album was all instrumental. It's nice to have that human touch to things. I need that; I've just been neglecting it.

Would you be doing your own vocals?
Yeah, or if somebody...I don't know! It's up for grabs, man! I would do it myself if no one else wanted to do it, but it's hard to find someone you really want to work with or feel comfortable working with. That's why I work by myself most of the time.

How long have you been in the Baltimore scene?
I've been living there since August 2007. So almost two years.

Where did you come from before that?
I came from Greenville, North Carolina. I lived there with Future Islands, who were good buddies of mine from art school. William, the bassist, and I had a painting studio together, and I think part of my influence was them, actually. [They were] in a band, and I wanted to be in a band, so I just started making my own music.

I didn't get to see the Round Robin tour, but everyone tells me how amazing it is. You have to tell me what that's like, because I can't imagine.
It was the most ideal way for me to play my sets. I got to cut out the middle man and just play the songs that I really, really like. There's other songs that I wrote, that I still like, but they're not my favorites to play live. Getting to play just four songs that I really like was just super fun, and there was like no stress at all.

www.myspace.com/adventuresound