© 2024 WUKY
background_fid.jpg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Music Mondays is a weekly segment produced by WUKY's DeBraun Thomas. Check here for archived episodes, extended interviews, and extras.

Local Music Monday: Ben Allen

photo provided

This Week for Local Music Monday DeBraun Thomas features a veteran musician whose life changes have brought about a change in direction.

Ben Allen moved to Lexington in 1997 to attend the University of Kentucky. As a native of Cynthiana, Kentucky, Allen was well aware of music in Lexington growing up. Shortly after he moved to Lexington, Allen began to see many music clubs close, but he also saw a trend of shows being held less in clubs and more frequently in basements. This is something Allen says helped the music scene alive.

“What happened was, everyone was really so desperate to keep playing and keep things going, that whole basement scene flourished, this whole grouping of people that practiced and played to each other in basements and this kind of division that is traditionally ‘here’s the performer, here’s the audience,’ it kind of became this gray area of where anybody could actually just do anything.”

Allen has toured with different bands, but after the breakup of a long standing band and the birth of his daughter, Allen started Live Island. Live Island evolved from Allen’s maturity as a musician in writing actual compositions and from his role in becoming a father. Allen says while his free time has become limited, Live Island gives him space to work at his own pace.

“I’ll be like uh, hanging out with my kid, or a lot of times when she was really young, I’d be putting her to bed and this thing would be running around in my head and I’d be like ‘man I’ve really gotta go and put this down somehow’ and that’s what I would do, I’d go down and I’d hash out what was going on in my head and I’d take about 2 or 3 hours and it would be done.”

More information about Ben Allen and Live Island can be found at Liveisland.bandcamp.com.

DeBraun Thomas fell in love with radio at a young age but only had interest in working in radio after learning Funk musician Sly Stone got his start in radio. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Thomas moved to Lexington in 2009 to attend the University of Kentucky and pursue a career in radio. Thomas joined WRFL in 2009 and through the UK school of Journalism, Thomas had 2 features air on WUKY. In October of 2012, Thomas began interning at WUKY and produced the Unghosting of Medgar Evers. In August of 2013 Thomas became a staff member at WUKY and since that time, Thomas regularly produces the weekly segment Local Music Mondays which highlights local musicians in Lexington. Thomas hosts the Crunkadelic Funk Show which airs Saturday nights at 9pm and also produced a documentary on the 50th anniversary of the March on Frankfort. In addition to producing and hosting a radio show, Thomas also explores his other passion as a musician in Lexington.
Related Content