For The New Consistent’s Ben Ramsay, making music is a constant battle against the “shit swimming around his head”. And while his debut EP, ‘Individual Social Accounts And Commentary’, predominantly wrestles with the teenage themes of heartbreak and overthinking, there’s real insight within Ramsay’s self-reflective lyrics that mark The New Consistent out as more than its creator’s personal coping mechanism.
Whether over a mellow beat or a wall of guitars (the EP is produced by Swim Deep’s Ozzy) Ramsay’s unique spoken word delivery is prominent throughout. This lays Ramsay bare as he describes muddling through different episodes from the last year of his life. Although finding his voice as an artist, Ramsay’s unease as a man is consistent theme: “my mental health plays quite a big role without me even noticing most of the time.”
Ramsay took us through the EP track-by-track to discuss the personal circumstances that inspired him to write the EP.
1.The Runaway Mind
I wanted to start the EP with quite a mellow beat, something to ease people in, and hopefully get them wanting to hear more. In terms of content, it’s purely written about my mental health. I use writing as a coping mechanism and this song was the result of how I felt at that point in time. I also think it’s important for people to feel they like can talk openly about mental health, so hopefully this carries that on. I think music gives a lot of people that freedom.
2. Greta Oto
A track written about my best mate, for my best mate. We’d just had the best summer of our lives with the World Cup and the weather but then naturally, things weren’t so magical come September. Our friendship started to change a bit, so it’s just about that really. Also, he told me that if I cussed him in a track he wouldn’t be able to say anything about it, so obviously I had to go and do it right?
3. 3 Years
Hopefully people know a bit about this by now, but to sum it up, I’d say it’s about those arguments you have with your partner, that start off really really small, but because you’re both so stubborn it ends up turning into a bit of a row and carries on for longer than it should do. This particular one happened to land on our 3 year anniversary, hence the title.
4. The New Consistent
In my eyes the best break up song the world has ever and probably will ever hear. Blows Adele and Taylor Swift out the water. I wrote it in a pub sat opposite my mate who was going through a similar thing at the time, so it proper captures the whole moment. It’s quite an emotional song for me.
5. Petrol Station Flowers
This is my favourite one on the EP. I think it’s the best track me and Ozzy did, the instrumental is just insane, proper EP-ender. I think the story behind it is quite obvious, hopefully a lot of people will be able to relate to that feeling of first starting to talk to someone you like, and it being a bit like a game, but you love it still. The guitar solo at the end is quite special, described by Ozzy (who wrote it) as “feeling like pills”. Sums up the whole mood of the song quite nicely.
Header photo by Andrew Busby