Craig Benedict Valentine Badynee is an astonishing musician, plus the brains (and voice) behind the song, The New Richter Waltz.
Craig Benedict Valentine Badynee
What inspired you to write The New Richter Waltz? Is it about Andy Richter dancing, or…?
CRAIG BENEDICT VALENTINE BADYNEE: I happened to come across an image of a young woman perched on the muzzle of a gigantic cannon and was immediately intrigued to find out more. I spent an evening devouring everything I could find about her. I found out she was Rossa Richter, better known as “Zazel,” the world’s first human cannonball. Her act was so daring – and controversial — that it actually led to legislation banning child performers in the U.K.
She was only 17 when she started, feisty AF, and after public concern over the danger of her stunts, she was forced to move to the U.S. to continue performing her act. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the best of luck in the States. She had a pretty shitty stint with Barnum and Bailey, had some injuries, and then found herself performing comic operas on the prison circuit!
I need to do more research to see if there’s an Andy Richter connections — I do see some resemblance.
What element of TNRW got stuck in your head first? Which element do you hope gets stuck in your listeners’ heads?
CBVB: I’d been playing around with the chord progression long before I wrote the lyrics. The arpeggiated pattern was my feeble attempt to mimic Serge Gainsbourg’s Je suis venu te dire que je m'en vais.
That said, my favorite part of the song is the third verse, which captures Rossa’s brash defiance and growing awareness of her situation as woman facing a bunch of powerful men:
I guess I'll move to the States
All these meddling men legislate what I'm great at
"They say you risk life and limb,"
Well, I don't believe them
"The way they look at your skin,"
Yes, that’s closer to the reason why they’d wanna pin me down
We’re into the hot and sweaty thick of spring. What, if anything, feels spring-like about this song?
Well, there is a certain SPRING-loaded energy to the whole thing — Rossa quite literally gets flung into the air.
What about this song feels like it’s bringing you back into your own music in a big way? Do you think it fits in a certain genre? Are you calling to mind a certain era?
Releasing music again has me talking about things like genre — with journalists, booking agents, and of course, friends. But honestly, I don’t feel like I’m working within any singular genre. Every time I sit down to write something new, I just follow wherever the Muses lead.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing this so long that I’ve moved past the exercise of “let me try to write a folk song,” or “this one should be a garage rocker,” or “I want to write something people can dance to.” Any of that could happen — sometimes all in one song. Everything I’ve ever heard has the potential to pop out during a writing session.
I’m basically a mishmash of gobbledygook, to be honest.
Aren’t we all. What have you been up to musically lately? What is to come?
CBVB: Over the past year, I’ve put together a seven-piece (!!!) band and released a couple of singles with Team Love – the label founded by Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and his longtime manager, Nate Krenkel. I’ve written and recorded ten songs (mostly on my lonesome) that I’m incredibly proud of, and I’m hoping to release them as an LP. No release date yet…but keep your ears pricked up!
Artist name: Craig Benedict Valentine Badynee
Links galore: https://linktr.ee/cbvb
Instagram: @cbvb
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cbvb
POSTSCRIPT
CBVB: My live band is called the Blanks, so if a promoter can fit it on a flyer I’m billed as Craig Benedict Valentine Badynee & the Blanks. For all released music it’s just Craig Benedict Valentine Badynee.
The LP — aka long player, aka album — will feature: The New Richter Waltz, Golden Country, Two Good Ears, Grumbling Bellies, I’ve Been in Trouble Before, Everybody’s Talking For Me, I Walked Away from the Firing Squad, Blackmailer, Blackmailer, Don’t Leave Your House to an Amateur, and Big Boy.