Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Harrison
Hi Ben, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Ben Harrison, and I’m the frontman for Ransackery, Knoxville’s favorite punk rock band, In my normal life, I run mixed martial arts classes, and one day, I noticed one of my students (Joey Deaver) knew all the words to all the same songs I liked. Many of the songs were punk songs and not necessarily mainstream. He said he was in a band and asked if I played music. I told him I played a little guitar but write a lot of songs, and just play them to crack my friends up at parties. He suggested we get together to jam sometime, just for fun. It was incredible from the very start how easily we worked together.
Next thing you know, we’re recording and releasing music, and playing shows around Knoxville. We have the absolute best fans, and they are just as much a part of the shows as we are. Ransackery shows are more like a party. We play raucous, kickass music, and have fun with our friends.
The current members of Ransackery are myself, Joey Deaver (lead guitar), Max Deaver (bass guitar), and Mat Harmon (drums).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Hahaha, I’ve never heard of a rock n roll band that had a smooth road, and ours is no exception. In the beginning, it was quite difficult to get gigs. I think lots of venues read “punk” and assumed a certain type of show or crowd. I jokingly say “We’re what ya call ‘functional punk’ bc we have jobs, and take showers.” Once venues, see what our shows are like, they bring us back, but it was, and sometimes still is, tough getting our foot in the door.
We’ve also had a couple personnel changes that have slowed us down, while we assimilate new members. Like most bands, we’ve had members with different levels of commitment, and/or personalities that weren’t compatible, but conflict in a band is about the most rock n roll thing there is.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I was in the Marine Corps, and now I teach jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, and mma for a living. So, discipline and constant self-improvement has been my way of life for as long as I can remember. However, I also like to perform, and getting on stage is like playing a really fun movie character that is pretty much opposite of my daily life. After 2020, the whole world just felt (feels) uptight and tense. It became obvious to me that everyone needed to let off some steam and have a good time. To me, that’s what Ransackery is about. It’s aggressive fun. We’re going to get loud and rowdy but we’re all going to have a good time. Whatever you’ve got going on, good or bad, we want you to come share energy with us.
We actually prefer to play our original music, and those are the songs that always get requested for encores. I think that separates us a lot from other bands. My favorite thing is hearing the crowd sing the lyrics to our originals, and seeing the antics they bring with certain songs. We’re known for badass music that will also make you laugh or at least smirk, but we also have songs that really mean a lot to people in a seriously emotional way. The thing we’re most proud of is when people make a point of telling us our music is what they listen to when their day sucks and they need an energy lift, or we’re their workout music, or they’re sad, and one of our songs makes them feel like everything is gonna be alright. That’s absolutely everything right there. If you’re in a better place because you listened to our music or came to our show, we did our job.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
Leaving the Marine Corps, they will move you anywhere you want to go. It’s just hard to beat Knoxville! I had to come back. The weather isn’t too extreme either way. Traffic can be irritating sometimes, but it’s not Atlanta. The energy around UT sports is infectious, and the people here are generally good down to earth folks. There’s lots of lakes for me to get wakeboarding concussions on, but as fun as wake surfing is, it’s nothing like catching waves at the beach. So, not having a beach is what I like least. We gotta fix homelessness, drug addiction, human trafficking, and the beach situation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ransackerymusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ransackeryband/profilecard/?igsh=MTU1Y2IyMjE2OG94Mw==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15Fs6yaLwz/?mibextid=wwXIfr
