Ben Featherstone has sold over 26,000 records of original music and specialises particularly in progressive acoustic music with the incorporation of strings and space. He decided to make a Christmas album as a tongue in cheek exercise but it ended up consuming most of the summer/autumn recording everyday in a small attic space with good quality pre amps, reel to reel recorders. 'I have learnt to love the album, a Christmas album can be fun, serious and deep at the same time - I chose songs I like personally and added my own touch to them, I like the classics - I like the warm sounds from the 50's also which I hope most people agree I have achieved or come close to. As close as possible for a record made in an attic space on my own!'. "White Christmas for instance has that classic feel to it because after it was recorded it was sent to a 1950's reel to reel and back into the digital format. I have not tried to replicate these songs, I've tried to put my own spin on them but still retain the cinematic nature of the music." He learnt to sing from travelling with South American superstar Marco de Brix who sadly passed away shortly after Ben left. “Marco de Brix was a legend, he taught me so much about believing in the song and words, and he was unfortunately haunted by his father’s ghost – a congenital heart defect. In fact he leant me the President of Paraguay’s guitar and while I was tuning it he showed me a scar on his chest, a timeless rhythm of a turbulent past. He looked at me veiling his hurt with a gentle smile and said ‘the doctor tells me if I carry on singing I will die; I say to the doctor without singing I would rather be dead’. He literally sang himself into the grave”. After Marco passed away Ben Featherstone went on a fishing trip to the island of flowers just off the coast of Brazil. “I told the chap driving the boat that I feared we would be struck by lightning, he looked at me with a stony face and told me I could get out on a random island where there was a bar or stay on the boat in the storm. I chose the bar and as I walked on the ash blonde sand I was struck by lightning whilst leaning against a tin shelter.” Ben said in an interview with Xan Philips “It was like two pneumatic drivers firing off at the same time within your knees, being on an island after a fishing trip the only thing we had to numb the pain was a local drink called cachaça. I would have continued the tour but I had crossed jungles and deserts for some 2000 miles; my knees kept giving up and I kept falling over, I figured I needed to be seen by a British hospital - not that Brazilian hospitals are bad – my Portuguese was limited to ordering drinks. Also Marco was the only thing stopping me getting thrown in Jail or shot by bandits obscured by ethnic and religious murk. About twice a day in Paraguay I would have a gun pulled on me, mainly by police who would make up crimes like a bolt of evil magic and then vanish into the gloom with a bribe”. Featherstone was named in the Rolling Stone’s top 20 best twelve string guitar players in the world and is referenced on Fenders website as notable user of one of their twelve string guitars – although he says “unless I borrowed one after a few too many drinks at a gig, I do not think I have ever played a Fender twelve string. My twelve string is bespoke and was customised by myself and my mother’. “I chose to do a Christmas Album mainly as a disciplinary exercise, I told everyone I was going to do it for Christmas 2016, I am a perfectionist when it comes to recording music so I have had another album on the back burner for over ten years. I am hoping that now I have finished this project I can seek a renewal from my restless spirit and finish my album of originals”. He has supported artists such as: Adele I Am Kloot The Wonderstuffs Kate Walsh Carl Barat "I have chosen to donate proceeds to St Peter & St James - a self funded hospice in Mid Sussex. They looked after my Grandfather and my drummer’s mother with respect and dignity”.