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Canadian folk star Ben Caplan has discussed the unlikely similarities between himself and pop icon Blondie, ahead of his support slot tonight with the star at Kew Gardens.
Ben Caplan hails from Halifax, NS, in Canada and is taking the folk scene by storm. Fresh from playing three different stages at this years Glastonbury Festival. Tonight (9 July, 2013) he performs a huge outdoor gig in West London with Blondie - but he insists the differences between the two aren't as big as they might initially seem.
"What we have in common is we both tinker in a lot of different styles," Caplan tells Gigwise. "I think Blondie gets away with it because she’s Blondie. Something that I’ve often heard is, you know, from people who work in the industry is “Oh it’s great but you should have a more cohesive sound. You're leaning in one direction here and another direction here why don’t you just get more focused."
"When you listen to Blondie I mean it would be easy to imagine someone giving the same feedback you know 'is this new wave? Or is it reggae? Whats goin’ on?'"
He adds that it is a thrill to be performing with the music icon, adding: "Yeah it’s a rush, you know, never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I’d be sharing a stage with Blondie."
Watch Ben Caplan and the Casual Smokers performing 'Stranger' below
He also admits that he wasn't aware how many Blondie hits he knew before signing up for support at tonight's gig, adding: "Man, she just rights hit after hit. It’s amazing how many songs of hers that I didn’t realise were Blondie songs but were like earworms already stuck in or buried in my brain."
