Ben Garrett aka FrYars

[suzie]

I can't believe there is no thread on him yet, even though he is known to have written some songs with Mika for the Origin of Love: Lola, Make You Happy and 2 others, apparently.

He arrived on the music scene at the same time as Mika - here is an interview with him back then (they compared him to Mika, actually)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/nov/26/popandrock

My favourite track from him:


another one:


...and in true MFC fashion, an earlier thread about something he apparently said about Mika...
http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/sh...ghlight=fryars

[kreacher]

just earlier this week i happened upon that thread when i was searching for what Mika said about Amelia's magazine, was gonna mention the thread here i wonder if Mika knows what Ben said.


anyway, i heard his song Grinding a couple days ago, but honestly didnt like it much. i need to listen to these two more but i can already tell i like them much better than Grinding

[BiaIchihara]

Don't know if I'm the only one, but the first time I heard about frYars wasn't because of Mika, but because of this song/video with Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode (I was searching songs from his solo carrer, came to his official site and I found this video )

[Christine]

Originally Posted by suzie

...and in true MFC fashion, an earlier thread about something he apparently said about Mika...
http://www.mikafanclub.com/forums/sh...ghlight=fryars

Oh dear I was just reading that

I am really impressed with Lola.

[DerMoment1608]

I like him very much By far not as much as Mika , but I'm listening to "Dark young hearts", his album, regularly.

He is listed as a similar artist to Patrick Wolf on last.fm and as I listen to Patrick a lot, too, he therefore was one of my recommendations all the time. And when we discovered here that frYars co-wrote some songs with Mika it thought "one moment, I know this name from somewhere". And as I realized that this guy is somehow the connection between two of my most favorite artists, I HAD to try his album.

I don't think his style is very similar to Mikas style mostly because of the arrangement. frYars is much more "electro-independent".

But I like his style, because he is "non-mainstream" but very melodic.

"The Ides" und "Visitors" I like very much, too. One other favorite of mine is "Lakehouse"

[suzie]

oh I like Lakehouse and Visitors, too. Thank you for posting these.
When I heard about Mika collaborating with him I quickly listened to some music from him and I liked most of them, so I was relieved about the two of them working together as this guy seems to have the 'electro knack' and I thought he would direct Mika more towards an indie electro sound. And I was right about that as far as Make You Happy is concerned.
I don't get how come his name features under Celebrate, too, but in any case, he is supposed to have the moneypot now....

Here is the original article from 2007
http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/artic...rviews/fryars/
I don't find him that offensive at all, actually. I think he just tries to be funny and acknowledges Mika's talent in pop.
I loved reading the responses on that thread though - especially Kata's Good old days.

[RAK1]

First heard of him through Andy, at the pub party, he asked us if we'd follow him, so I did. At the time he had done that track with Dave Gahan, which interested me, being a Depeche Mode fan.
There is a video on his website FrYarCorps, that he uses an orchestra. I think that was what Andy went to LA to film, when he said he was going over there with him, last year I think. It's quite a good track.

[LaraMay]

I'm diggin his songs a lot Love electronic music, wonderful.

[robertina]

Thanks for starting this thread Suzie!

[suzie]

@Rak1 - I think anyone following Andy's Myspace account heard of FrYars ages ago.
I just thought that in the first post I should not contradict directly what Mika said about randomly finding this guy over the internet

[robertina]

Originally Posted by suzie

@Rak1 - I think anyone following Andy's Myspace account heard of FrYars ages ago.
I just thought that in the first post I should not contradict directly what Mika said about randomly finding this guy over the internet

yet it might be true...did he say 'when'?
we know mika's time is not mortals' time

[suzie]

Originally Posted by robertina

yet it might be true...did he say 'when'?
we know mika's time is not mortals' time

true.... perhaps 2007 then by randomly reading about him in the Guardian