Ben Taylor and the Legend of Kung Folk

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Lesley Jackson talks to Ben Taylor, a renowned musician who has recently released an album entitled ‘Kung Folk’, a fusion of music and martial arts. She finds out there is more to music and martial arts that the last time she heard, ‘Everybody was Kungfu Fighting’

American musician Ben Taylor has done something in martial arts, or music, depending on which way you choose to look at it, that we haven’t come across before. His latest album, ‘Kung Folk’ is the latest in his recording career and is a fusion of folk music that has been influenced by the martial arts that he has practised since childhood, or as Ben describes it, “folk music with a kick.” The son of Carly Simon and James Taylor, Ben has a solid musical pedigree from which to draw upon but with his own individual influences which in his latest album is kungfu.

With regard to real life application of my fighting, it is something I ’ ve always tried to avoid - Ben Taylor

Ben describes the ideas behind Kung Folk in more detail. “ Kung Folk is the little private joke with myself that I came up with while trying to identify the genre of music I make. I believe a person's music, or art for that matter, martial or otherwise, is made up of everything they do, every hero they look up to, the music that moves them and any of the elements they model the spirits of their practise after. My Kung Folk is as much stylistically influenced by the nature and flow of water as it is by the accomplishments of my contemporaries and the musical content which has woven its way onto my internal juke-box. Kung Folk is also a nice way of poking fun at myself for appreciating what I do.”

“My music practice is only a little younger than my martial arts. When you train in any parallel artistic systems for so many years they are bound to start helping you figure each-other out. There are so many important stunning parallels between music and kungfu that I feel I could write a book on it. For example, think of a sequence of chords or notes in a song or a melody or a musical scale as they relate to the sequence of techniques and movements in a form or a Kata. These are two independent but very similar skill sequences based upon the diligent practice of fundamentals so that the individual moves can be assimilated and memorized on a cellular level. The steps in the progression would be nothing but crude ineffectual random stabs in the dark until the transitions from one to the next have become nature.”

Martial Arts Background

Although Ben is most well known for his music career and his musical roots, he give us some background into his martial arts, which he has done since he was a child.

“I was pretty sick when I was a little kid up until I was almost three and a particular doctor suggested a major surgical solution. My parents were very brave and the surgery was a success. Most of my auto immune issues set themselves right but the process had shaken me emotionally pretty badly. From an unusually young age I was deeply interested in anything that seemed like it might make me stronger and less physically vulnerable. That ’ s how I began to dabble in every kind of martial art I could get into. For a while, being a reasonably accomplished martial artist did help, because on-top of everything else I was a pain in the ass and badly needed discipline. Eventually I found my way into Chinese Kung Fu via a wonderful, simple southern system called Wing Chun. At the moment, the journey seems like a circle. There is always someone with better skills, superior circumstances or a sharper more acutely timed, defined martial frame, so it occurs to me that the greatest strength I can actually achieve is the acceptance of my own weakness. It is funny how it works itself out backwards like that so it has been over the past ten years in the pursuit of more subtle deeper strength that my practise has been predominately energetic and medicinal.”

“With regard to real life application of my fighting, it is something I ’ ve always tried to avoid. As a matter of fact, I think that adolescents who train regularly are actually less likely to fight on the street because most of the time all our aggression and testosterone is pretty well spent in class.”

Injury and the Future

For the future of his music and martial arts, Ben talks about recovering from injury and his next step in the Kung Folk series.

“I am in the middle of recording two more Kung folk albums, both of which are more advanced than the first, which was based upon fundamentals, as well as some musical production I ’ m taking on for other people. In the longer run, I would like to put together a Gong Folk music and alternative healing festival involving demonstrations, seminars, panel discussions, concerts, dancing, mentorship and great networking opportunities for like-minded enthusiasts. Kind of like Hatch-Fest, but with a kick!”

“With the exception of my music and other areas of parallel artistic interest, my training has been completely out of commission since my knee surgery this year for which I have been rehabilitating very slowly. That and my busy touring and recording schedule have kept my practise to about an hour of very mellow Qu Gong to about three times a week, but I ’ ll be training in one form or another until the day I die. Or m aybe even beyond?”