Breaking Benjamin On Selling Out

WatchMojo.com chats with lead vocalist Benjamin Burnley to learn about his relationship with his fans, as well as his take on bands showcasing their music in TV shows, films and video games.

Breaking Benjamin On Selling Out Rebecca Brayton: Hi I'm Rebecca Brayton and welcome to Watchmojo.com and today we are speaking with vocalist and primary song writer Benjamin Burnley of Breaking Benjamin to learn more about his relationship with fans and to give his take on selling out. Tell us about your relationship with the fans? Benjamin Burnley: You know the generic answer is the best answer and that is that you know if you are nothing without fans, your band is nothing without fans, if you didn’t have fans you will be your own fans and you will be playing for yourself in your basement. I'm like just so grateful to our fans that they really attach to what I do and my style of writing and it is one thing to take the band it is another thing to really get what the band is doing, our fans do and more just-- ever grateful to them. Rebecca Brayton: What do you do to kind of reach out to the fans? Benjamin Burnley: You know I try my best to try to you know make fans feel apart of the whole community, there is really only so much I can do because there is a lot of fans and I can't really go to over to everyone’s house and say hello and stuff but-- it is funny because like I do meet and greet and stuff but I meet more fans just in my everyday life. It is really hard to reach the masses all at once so it is a slow process but I do what I can stay connected. Rebecca Brayton: The things like Twitter and YouTube and MySpace now it is a lot easier for bands to not be untouchable. Do you think it is important now that they are not? Benjamin Burnley: Now you kind have to have all those things because if you didn’t, fans would be like, well why I would be into this band when I can be into this band and have all this contact with them. There is connectivity there and I see no harm and that it is the best way to get it done and it is worthwhile to do. Rebecca Brayton: And you guys had your music and movies and TV shows and video games. I don’t want this to come out wrong, but when then that stop being selling out and become like an actual part of the industry? Benjamin Burnley: I only really consider at selling out if you put your music and stuff that you really don’t like, if things like that did happen with us, it was beyond our knowledge. But now there is a lot of downloading going on, there is a lot of basically stealing going on and it is something that we can't stop and these other things product placement and movies and games and stuff. It is bounced basically trying to make up for what we are losing on the album side. So it is kind of a balancing act and I would say it if fans are pissed off about us doing, have a problem with us doing it then stop stealing our albums on the internet and we wont have to do it at all you know. They're so caught up in the personal aspect of the music which is huge that they forget that it is a business, it is the way we feed our selves and pay for our houses and stuff like that, and it is work that we have done and nobody wants to go to work all day and not got paid at the end of the day. Rebecca Brayton: Thanks so much. Benjamin Burnley: Thank you.