Benjamin Hackman's guest appearances

Benjamin Hackman

INDUSTRY TACTICS with FRIENDLY RICH

Jesse Yules IdeaGrave

Alto Podcast

Living30 

Laura Barrett

Sarah Taber

Alison Klayman

John Oswald

David French

Tom Wilson

John Boyle

Colin Brunton

Steve Sladkowski

Gino Robair

Ed Latimore

Joan Smith

Dave Clark

Clara Engel

John Doyle

OwlTail

Heavy, REAL and life-affirming interview with Benjamin Hackman, frontman for the Holy Gasp and composer-in-residence at the Historic Kiever Synagogue in Toronto. We talk about our father's deaths, the grieving/mourning process, grief in today's culture, losing a parent, choosing life and much more.  The upcoming show, The Holy Gasp presents Grief, is on Wednesday, July 1, at 9:03pm – 5:41am Eastern Standard Time. Link to the livestream on Facebook and Youtube or on www.theholygasp.com. The public is invited to record the names of their deceased loved ones in the Database of the Dead. Each name entered into the database will later be inscribed into a scroll, from which Benjamin will read throughout the evening as the ensemble of 10 vocalists, 2 pianists, and percussion, performs Grief. The performance will be considered complete only after every name has been read, and the sun has come up. Here's a quote from Benjamin as part of his motivation  "In the last five years, my father died of a heart attack; my therapist died of pancreatic cancer; my brother-in-law overdosed; my oldest friend hanged himself—then another friend died in a car accident, and my grandmother, God bless her, died of good ol’ fashion old age. Death is happening all over. Indeed, it always has. It is awkward, and painful, and it unites every last being who has ever lived." Find Benjamin on Twitter and Facebook.  About The Holy Gasp: Formed in 2011 by front man Benjamin Hackman, The Holy Gasp make music for fans of theatrical, darkly comical, genre-defiant entertainment, with instrumentation and personnel changing regularly to meet the needs of each new project. At its core, The Holy Gasp is concerned with renegotiating the parameters of a “band,” and seeks to find the intersections between music, literature, theatre, and performance art. Their most recent release, Mmm Urkh But , is a 16-minute work of musical fiction, written for bass clarinet and percussion. Readers my also be familiar with The Holy Gasp’s orchestral performance of The Love Songs of Oedipus Rex back in 2018, the making of which was the subject of a CBC Short Doc by director Luke Sargent. Quotes Mentioned "Better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of merriment, for death is the destiny of every man, and the living should take this to heart." Ecclesiastes 7:2 Books Mentioned The Book of Job Photo Cred: Alex Gray  If you like this post and others and want to consider supporting the blog and podcast, click here to help me keep making this stuff. Want to get updated when new posts and podcasts are published?  Click here to join the mailing list.

Heavy, REAL and life-affirming interview with Benjamin Hackman, frontman for the Holy Gasp and composer-in-residence at the Historic Kiever Synagogue in Toronto. We talk about our father's deaths, the grieving/mourning process, grief in today's culture, losing a parent, choosing life and much more.  The upcoming show, The Holy Gasp presents Grief, is on Wednesday, July 1, at 9:03pm – 5:41am Eastern Standard Time. Link to the livestream on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheHolyGasp/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="//www.youtube.com/user/TheHolyGasp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Youtube</a> or on <a href="//www.theholygasp.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.theholygasp.com</a>. The public is invited to record the names of their deceased loved ones in the <a href="https://theholygasp.com/a-database-of-the-dead/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Database of the Dead</a>. Each name entered into the database will later be inscribed into a scroll, from which Benjamin will read throughout the evening as the ensemble of 10 vocalists, 2 pianists, and percussion, performs Grief. The performance will be considered complete only after every name has been read, and the sun has come up. Here's a quote from Benjamin as part of his motivation  "In the last five years, my father died of a heart attack; my therapist died of pancreatic cancer; my brother-in-law overdosed; my oldest friend hanged himself—then another friend died in a car accident, and my grandmother, God bless her, died of good ol’ fashion old age. Death is happening all over. Indeed, it always has. It is awkward, and painful, and it unites every last being who has ever lived." Find Benjamin on <a href="https://twitter.com/BHackmanTO" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/benjamin.hackman.1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.  About The Holy Gasp: Formed in 2011 by front man Benjamin Hackman, The Holy Gasp make music for fans of theatrical, darkly comical, genre-defiant entertainment, with instrumentation and personnel changing regularly to meet the needs of each new project. At its core, The Holy Gasp is concerned with renegotiating the parameters of a “band,” and seeks to find the intersections between music, literature, theatre, and performance art. Their most recent release, <a href="https://theholygasp.bandcamp.com/album/mmm-urkh-but" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mmm Urkh But</a> , is a 16-minute work of musical fiction, written for bass clarinet and percussion. Readers my also be familiar with The Holy Gasp’s orchestral performance of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WeTeoOthyA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Love Songs of Oedipus Rex</a> back in 2018, the making of which was the subject of a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJFQOHecphM&amp;t=15s" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CBC Short Doc</a> by director Luke Sargent. Quotes Mentioned "Better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of merriment, for death is the destiny of every man, and the living should take this to heart." Ecclesiastes 7:2 Books Mentioned <a href="https://www.amazon.com/BOOK-JOB-Stephen-Mitchell/dp/0060969598/ref=sr_1_2?crid=LP1T9LXV0HHC&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=book+of+job&amp;qid=1592394200&amp;sprefix=book+of+job%2Caps%2C308&amp;sr=8-2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Book of Job</a> Photo Cred: Alex Gray  If you like this post and others and want to consider supporting the blog and podcast, <a href="https://www.patreon.com/living30" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">click here</a> to help me keep making this stuff. Want to get updated when new posts and podcasts are published?  <a href="https://living30.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">Click here to join the mailing list.</a>

Benjamin Hackman - You're Gonna Die 

On July 1, 2020 at the Historic Kiever Synagogue, composer Benjamin Hackman and The Holy Gasp will present Grief - a sunset to dawn music performance with 10 vocalists, 2 pianists, percussion, and a sign language interpreter. The public is invited to record the names of their deceased loved ones here https://theholygasp.com/grief/. The names will be inscribed into a scroll and read during this all-night mourning ritual. I've met with Benjamin at the Kiever Synagogue one morning in June and we talked about life, death, theodicy, grieving, whether losing one's parents is permanently wounding, the actual effects of praying - as well as his music, what his residency at a place of worship involves, bodily endurance art... and the unparalleled cool of Bugs Bunny.The photo of Ben Hackman is by Alex Earl Gray. Intro and outro  music is by Menachem Engel/Kabbalistic Village SoundCloud

On July 1, 2020 at the Historic Kiever Synagogue, composer Benjamin Hackman and The Holy Gasp will present Grief - a sunset to dawn music performance with 10 vocalists, 2 pianists, percussion, and a sign language interpreter. The public is invited to record the names of their deceased loved ones here <a href="https://theholygasp.com/grief/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://theholygasp.com/grief/</a>. The names will be inscribed into a scroll and read during this all-night mourning ritual. I've met with Benjamin at the Kiever Synagogue one morning in June and we talked about life, death, theodicy, grieving, whether losing one's parents is permanently wounding, the actual effects of praying - as well as his music, what his residency at a place of worship involves, bodily endurance art... and the unparalleled cool of Bugs Bunny. The photo of Ben Hackman is by Alex Earl Gray. Intro and outro music is by Menachem Engel/Kabbalistic Village SoundCloud

Benjamin Hackman on Grief

From Toronto island, a chat with Benjamin Hackman (The Holy Gasp) who discusses his upcoming recording, his influences, and approach to making some seriously demented music.  He's a punk rock cabaret beatnik oddball, and we crack open his beautiful pinata skull on this episode.  Happy Halloweeny!!!

EP. 41 - BENJAMIN HACKMAN