At Home With : Ben Sharkey

earlier this summer i had the great pleasure of interviewing the immensely talented Ben Sharkey,,, who also happens to be the voice, writer & talent behind the song, "When I think of Love', that plays on the ksp website.

from the moment i knocked at his door, Ben welcomed me openly into his home & we proceeded to chat as if we were friends who just hadn't seen each other in awhile; let alone it being the first time we had actually met in person! there was an instant connection, which isn't too hard to believe... it doesn't take very long for one to know that Ben is one of the friendliest people. ever.

we talked, we laughed, i snapped some pics, we talked, we laughed. at the end of it all, even as i was leaving -literally walking to my car- we were still chatting away! someone had to cut us off.

i had asked Ben all sorts of questions, however somehow in the midst of all our chatter, i had forgotten to ask him a very important one,,,
(which i then emailed him later) :
what is passion.life.love to YOU ?!
Passion to me is very similar to an obsession - It's almost an unexplainable phenomenon, a drive that is fueled by something deep within you to reach a certain goal, or live a certain way. I think Passion can be used for something good, but it can also be used for something bad, as well. Either way, it's life consuming. The word may be thrown around a lot just like the word "Love" but I think that if you're truly passionate about something, that passion is linked to your inner soul and will follow you, or guide you in your path.

Life? I think it's an answer that we are all striving to find out and will never really know the true answer. I do think that each person's life is their own quest, and there are certain reasons why we are all here and I do believe that we are here for a reason, Not all quests are the same. The only hard evidence we have about life is that we are born, we live, and we die. We don't know for certain what happens before or after, so my mantra is:
You only have one life, Do with it what you can. Be the best you can be and don't let anyone hold you back from your true potential.

Love. It's a powerful force of nature, It is gravity. It's the glue that bonds everything together. the essence of life. Love is essential to our development. It's a drug, and highly addictive. It's both primordially simple and passionately complex. It's Happiness and despair. Life without love is robotic and cold. Life isn't life without love. I think that's why love songs will always be timeless. I have my dreams, my passions, my life, but the most important thing to me is love, and true love is really the ultimate goal and driving force in my life.

even with all my notes,,,
i don't think any more words could really sum up what an incredible person Ben is as he did so eloquently above.


aaaaand there is MUCH to say about Ben Sharkey,,, but first, here is just a snippet from the studio wall in his home :

art & inspiration . everywhere