On some days Ben Ruegg is a prolific adult contemporary singer-songwriter and producer, on others he’s the band leader of Auckland alternative rock four-piece Channeled, whose anciently spiritual recent single Come Home was included on NZ On Air Music’s November NewTracks compilation.
Channeled is made up of Ben Ruegg on vocals and guitar, Michelle Anderton on bass, Damen Newby on guitar and Nico Leiseder on drums. We’re all about 40. Michelle and I attended Papakura High School together, and that was in the late ’90s – early 2000s. The others live in Mt Eden and Huapai, with the band’s home base in Papakura where I live still.
Ben and Michelle an I were in an alternative rock band band known as Anything But Federal from 2006 – 2009. I also have a more adult alternative solo project under my own name.
I studied music at the University of Auckland in order to become a music teacher. At the beginning of my popular music degree, I switched into writing more adult contemporary music, more acoustic driven. By the end of the degree, I took what I had learned and started really focusing on how I constructed my songs, making sure that the parts I had been writing helped the songs ideas and flow.
2018 was when the Channeled project came to life. After having been away from writing and recording my own music, eventually I needed to get back into it properly. The first release was originally under my own name, but Channeled is definitely a rock studio project, so it made sense to change the name to something that allowed me to separate the two projects.
Michelle has been my main collaborator and as the band continues to settle into its new line up we want to work together writing as we all have an idea of the sound that Channeled falls into, and how we can keep things exciting for us as songwriters and performers.
Channeled was the name that best suited what it felt like as a young teenager writing music at home and in the music rooms at Papakura High. At first it felt like I would strum and come up with ideas and they would simply come out of somewhere – it felt like I was channeling something.
I understand now we call that feeling ‘flow state’, but at the beginning of this project the first group of songs came to be in four days. I had been writing and recording everything in my home studio at the time, and each time a new song came to be the focus came too, and it felt like I was channeled. Hence, the name!
Getting a Top 10 on the NZ Rock charts for our song Isolation back in 2020 was a real thrill for me. That came out of nowhere after we released it and I was stoked. Our best show recently was at Geihinkan in central Auckland, where we played a full one hour set of what our band has to offer. Everyone grooved so well together and were all in the moment.
We’ve been performing mostly when we had something to release, but now we’vre ramping the frequency up and we have a line of shows coming up through November.
When We’re Gone is our favourite song to play live. It’s over six minutes long and moves through a few different sections where it plays around with the ideas and dynamics. Every time we play it, each one of us seems to go somewhere as we all help build the atmosphere of the track and its message which is, “What is our world going to look like for our children when we are gone?” It was my father’s favourite song from us, and he passed away in 2023 before he got to hear what essentially is part two of it – that is our new song Come Home.
Every time I played the demo, or anytime I worked on it at home, there was something that felt right. It combines the sound that Channeled is known for with a catchy hook, and a purpose and message that the song wanted to focus on. I feel that Come Home resonates with so many people of all ages and who like all sorts of styles of music.
It’s about listening to those who have come before us, and who have left messages for us from the past – be it a photo, a video, a poem, or a song. For some people it is ancient wisdom passed through the ages that somehow we have either ignored or dismissed, and in some cases have forgotten.
The song focuses on our character hearing a voice that is calling out them. And when the character finally has the courage to listen and take action, the song takes a turn and builds into its finale. When I came up with the idea for a video to be used to promote it, I knew that I wanted to work with Impact Pro Wrestling so that we could use a cinematic wrestling video to tell that story.
I normally a few viewings to really understand what is happening in the song and the video. When people ask me to explain it to them, I suggest they watch the video a few times and everyone seems to get it. The people from our past still have an influence on our lives today. I hear them singing to me all the time when I choose to stop and listen to them.
The title Come Home, and why I have our voices calling us to ‘come home’, is because we can easily get lost in today’s world which is full of noise and distractions. But when you hear voices of those who have passed on from the memories we have of them, they seem to be calling us home, to letting go and enjoying life, regardless of what challenges seem to get our way.
Two moments! Lyrically, “They left a message somewhere in the depth of time. You scratch the surface and it keeps on burning deep in your mind.” I love the idea of reading ancient wisdom texts and then letting it speak to us, bearing fruit through how we live our lives when that wisdom breaks through our understanding, and is finally helping us get through hardships.
Musically I spent a good amount of time working out every single guitar riff and the parts in the bridge and the end of the song are my favourite. The la la la singing part sounds different when you hear the final riff, but the melody of it is exactly the same. Those sorts of compositional ideas where there is a payoff is my favourite thing!
Writing this song took me close to a year. I wanted to bring in Scott Seabright so he could produce me and the band – consciously allowing him to produce and direct me to do what he said. Every idea and part was refined and tidied up.
My voice wasn’t working the day we went to the studio, but I ended up being able to get my eldest daughter Natalie (who is an important character in the video) to The Lab in Mt Eden to record her parts of the song. She and my youngest are singing in the la la la parts. That might be a hint for the video! I did all my vocals the following week with Scott at his own studio.
I would like for them to go away singing the song! Ultimately, I want listeners to take away a sense of awe at our world. We tend to ignore that wisdom that has been passed on generation to generation… but if we truly stop we can hear those that have gone before us calling us back home to compassion, hope and wonder.
My team is ultimately the whole band who comes together when we need to perform live or promo something new like our current single. We’re currently working with Riccardo Ball from Wrecking Ball Media, who has been helping us get the video and song in front of new audiences.
I have my own label that I named when I was 12 or 13 called Quietly Loud Records. This can be interchanged with Quietly Loud Studios which is the name of my home studio.
In November 2020, on my 13-year wedding anniversary, I had an epileptic seizure in the living room of my house – in front of my wife and mother in law. Luckily, my kids were upstairs and didn’t see any of it. We learnt later that it was caused by undiagnosed Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, and that I was really lucky to be alive.
My wife was told at the time that due to the length of the seizure that I may end up not waking up, pass away, or could have to live the rest of my life with some help from others. However, none of that happened. I woke up and found out what had happened to me. I have never had a seizure since or had the feeling I got before having that one.
So the album ‘Before’ are all the songs I wrote prior to my seizure. Our second album, ‘I Heard Penelope Sing’, was released the week I had my seizure. Actually fun fact, the original title of Come Home was Penelope!
Weeks after the seizure and returning home from hospital I was unable to drive and started writing music instead. All the material from ‘After’ comes from the year following it and the recovery process. It has some of my favourite work on there, like Interpretation, Again and Maverick.
Shihad – Think Your So Free
Villainy – Demons
Café Fist Fight – Reflections
Yes, many times but hadn’t received it until we got New Music Single funding in July with this song!
I love Rick Beato, Tiny Desk and since I am also a tech nerd, I enjoy watching MKBHD and of course Kurzgesagt.
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We made the video in conjunction with Guy Pigden and Annamarie Connors of Savage Productions. I think they nailed it! One of the most memorial parts was having our extras come into the venue and watch live wrestling for the first time! They had no idea it was so visceral and loud. And by the end of the shoot they loved it. Also, getting to see almost all my family in the video in specific roles was so much fun. They had heard my wanting to make a video like this for a while and so being able to have it happen was a dream come true.
I had spent months and months working on the song and the video idea, so that when it came to us getting the green light to record and shoot the video all the prep work was really done, and we were ready to get into production.
The moment we heard we had the funding,I called everyone who I had been working with on the project beforehand and we settled dates. We actually recorded the video before the song because Scott and I had worked out the structure and the sound of what would be recorded again once we got funding.
I trust the people I work with and when it came to the shooting and recording, we all knew the exact length and structure of the song and so I let everyone that was bought in to be an expert in their field do their thing.It all went smoothly and I got to watch a dream project come to life, thanks to the funding from NZ On Air.
We got to launch the video at the Armageddon Expo in Auckland this year. I am forever blessed and grateful for Bill and Erin from Beyond Reality Media who let us have the opportunity to debut the video there. Also, a massive thanks to the whole band, our families and friends and everyone who came together to make this song and video a success.
Made with support from NZ On Air
