Last Wednesday night, Radical Face (aka Ben Cooper) took the stage at World Cafe Live. Opening for them was a Scottish singer-songwriter, Axel Flóvent. Overall, the downstairs venue at World Cafe Live is always a great one because the set up is more than ideal. It allows those who want to be front and center with the artists to do so, while still allowing others a bit more space between them and can enjoy the music from the bar. As the night went on, more and more people flooded the ground floor to get as close as possible to the music.

Axel Flóvent really wowed the audience with his storytelling and incredibly smooth vocals and guitar playing. His music has a way with the audience because of how his stories were able to connect with us. He gave us insight into certain songs that allowed us to create that personal connection with him.

Flóvent shares his witty comments pertaining to everything going on with COVID-19 and says that his tour is getting cut short, but that he is still happy and fortunate to be able to play for us tonight. One song that stuck in my head was a song about himself at the age of 17 when he was filled with tons of anxiety.

The song, “Sea Creatures,” is about over-thinking and over-analyzing every situation as most 17-year-olds do, which made it a relatable one for most in the audience. He was exceptionally humble about his success, even when everyone was screaming for him to keep playing!

Right then and there, I followed his music page because he was someone I wanted to remember! His songs connected to me personally, which made this experience so much more than I could have asked for.

Naturally, as the night went on, more people moved to the front of the stage for the main act. Radical Face can best be described as a storytelling folk and singer/songwriter sound with an incredible talent for keepinghis audience entertained.

Now it didn’t hit me just how lucky I was to be standing in this space listening to live music with all of the news surrounding the Coronavirus. One by one, I hear that my friends’ shows and other bands’ shows are getting canceled, rescheduled, and the same can be said for the big-name acts. They are no stranger to the devastating news of having to cut their tour short but made the best of a bad situation. Anytime the dreaded COVID-19 topic came up, they were always able to lighten the mood and just appreciate that they could be playing a show at this very moment.

His humor and lightheartedness was a complete contrast to the music that I heard. His music tackles some serious issues, with a very surreal storyline to expose these situations. There were stories about a set of twins in which one of them has to watch the other die, to a story about a little girl who can bring people back from the dead, and even a child who can see his dead relatives in his house.

I was completely taken aback by it because it’s not every day that you hear songs with these stories in mind. The one that got to me the most was the story of the two twins. The line in this particular song sent shivers throughout my entire body and stopped me in my steps. He says, “I’ll wear this face for the both of us…” and everything about the story became so real and raw, but its those intense emotions that draw me to music and artists like him. While I imagine he has not personally gone through these ordeals, it takes a very empathetic person to put themselves in these foreign shoes to tell these stories and get people like me to feel the way I did.

Something very subtle that I noticed is that even though he is singing these very sad and emotional songs, he is smiling through the lyrics. Though I found it a bit odd at first, my confused face changed to that of a smile. It was the realization of just how happy being on that stage sharing his music makes him. He undeniably showed his happiness and excitement for what he does, and it became the biggest lesson I took from that night. Even when situations aren’t ideal, make the best of a not so great situation and smile through it.

Radical Face shows an incredible skill for storytelling and songwriting that shined throughout the entire night, and the way that all of the musicians were able to bring different elements to the stage to help bring the stories to life was another great thing to see. The bass/cello player and drummer never seemed to be out of sync, and the non-verbal communication was spot on. The crowd was singing along to every song, and even throwing out suggestions to override the setlist. They even topped off the night with an encore!

This was an incredible night for music, and it really felt like a group of music lovers coming together and just enjoying what we had right in front of us. I hope they come back to Philly again because they are going to be playing bigger and better stages and I’ll be there to soak up every minute of it all over again.

photo by Gordon McBride

Ben Cooper, who performs under the pseudonym Radical Face, is a singer/songwriter from Jacksonville, Florida. His fifth album, released this year, is The Leaves. It’s part of his album trilogy known as The Family Tree (which includes 2011’s The Family Tree: The Roots and 2013’s The Family Tree: The Branches). Cooper has spent eight years on this project, and the final chapter has shown to be quite a grand finale.

Cooper created this trilogy project by first creating a fictional family, the Northcotes. He chose an interesting and wise way to tell this family’s story. He didn’t start with Aristotle’s Dramatic Structure that all children are introduced to in high school. Instead, Cooper views the Northcotes family as if they were real. He does this by not giving them dramatic story structure, but instead deals with the natural chaos on human life; with its seemingly random ups and downs. Cooper digs deep into the structure of human families, throws Aristotle’s ideas into that hole, fills it back up, and creates a new, raw, and truly honest way to storytelling. He explains this:

“The entire Family Tree project deals largely with how we affect each other, but I don’t have a lot of answers. This last record is as much about tying up earlier stories as it is trying to sort my own family problems. The only thing I’ve really walked away with, after working on this for eight years, is that families are complicated.”

Although the Northcotes are a fictional family, Cooper has been open about how much of his real family is incorporated into project. His personal connection between this last album “became very directly about my family. Half the songs are about the things that happened over the course of 2015, and the aftermath – everything from abuse coming to light, to court cases, to falling out with people I’ve known my whole life.”

The Leaves is personal to the point that Cooper has admitted to the fact that he can barely listen to it himself because it makes him so emotional. For a while he “wrapped things in fiction” to make them easier for himself. but he has finally broken free from even his most personal chains. The Leaves shows the beauty that comes from personal growth and freedom.

Cooper has stuck with this one idea for many years, and has created an entire world for his music and the fictional Northcotes. “I’m a pretty firm believer in letting the ideas lead the way. I don’t set out with any agenda as far as how to release music. I just roll with the concept as far as I can, and figure out the rest as I go.”

He is true artist in and out, believing in his ideas as if they have a separate identity. He believes that it is his job to put together the ideas, but doesn’t necessarily believe he comes up with them. He believes that the ideas themselves will guide his music in the right direction.

Cooper says that letting his ideas take the steering wheel, “definitely makes putting out records more complicated, and it’s not as simple to follow I’m sure, but I’m okay with that.” He doesn’t worry about the end results or how much time the process takes. He has a strong faith in the ideas that want to work with him, and he truly believes that together he and his ideas can sit side by side and make something amazing. Without each other, they could not create such complex beauty, but together they are unstoppable.

Even when talking about the future, Cooper still plans to let his ideas pave the way. He says, “ I have a bunch of ideas kicking around, but I don’t know what will stick. [….] I’ve got ideas for everything from writing my own nocturnes to working on film scores.”

The Family Tree is not the first album that Cooper has released in such an unconventional way. In 2014, he released a different series called Clones. This was released in six different acts; one each week. Cooper says that he chose to release the music in this way because, it was such a dense project that it made sense to break it into installments. “It’s how we had to organize for writing as well, and musically I think it’s a lot to digest.”

Cooper also tapped into the fun of it all, “But Rick [Colado] and I also discussed how we enjoy serial installments — how you find yourself with little marks on a calendar, just waiting for the next part of a story you’re following. So we thought it would be fun to release it that way, since it was such a narrative driven project.”

I ask Cooper what first sparked his interest in clones. He said that he and Rick Colado, a childhood friend and collaborator, are very interested in science fiction and fantasy, and the idea just seemed to come to them. “We were just sitting on his porch one night, talking about working on something together, and somehow the idea of a clone showed up. I really can’t say how or why. But the idea stuck, so we started writing.”

Similar to The Family Tree, Clones follows a storyline filled human-like features and emotions. He says, “We thought of it as a twisted fairy tale. All the characters are pretty archetypal. But I think the story is one of innocence lost, having to grow up too fast and finding your way without much guidance.” Cooper was able to make his listeners feel for these clones as they would a human being.

“[….] a clone could view the world with a fully functional brain, but without having all the emotional connections that muddy the waters. At least for a little while, until they make connections of their own. Then it’d be like the rest of us: spots of clarity in the otherwise murky woods.”

Make sure to catch Cooper at World Cafe Live Philadelphia on May 28th to explore his world of storytelling through song.

Tickets can be purchased here: http://tickets.worldcafelive.com/event/1082065-radical-face-philadelphia/