Sixteen years ago, Benjamin Franklin wrote a song entitled "Feel Like a Bird." The lead song and the title of his first album, released June 17, is "Gimme Wings." "I guess that suggests I haven't got very far," he jokes. In fact he's come quite a distance, but with still a way to go.
"My dream is to be a songwriter first and foremost," he explains. "With a wife and baby, I've given myself another year to go halfway to living off my music. It's doable. I just have to work very hard and not to miss out on a single opportunity."
Both Ben's parents gave up musical ambitions to become academics. "Into folk and country, my American father went to Germany to study psychology. My German mother wanted to be a concert flutist; now she teaches literature."