This week’s debut feature; “Albums That Influenced Me” contributor is vocalist Ben Barlow of Neck Deep!

Blink 182 - Blink are my all time favorite band, they’re the band that as a kid defined music for me, ever since I heard blink all I wanted to do was be in a band, so that’s a pretty obvious one.

New Found Glory - My second favorite band, same as above. For me Blink and New Found Glory go hand in hand.

Dallas Green (City and Colour) - I’ve always been into folk music, I did a little acoustic thing a few years back and Dallas was always my idol. His style of writing songs and his lyrics were what I loved. That acoustic project was the building blocks to where I am now, so to City and Colour, I owe that.

Eminem/ Notorious BIG - I know this is technically two artists, but its so hard to chose between the two and they inspire me for the same reasons. I’ve always been big on hip hop, and still listen to a lot of hip hop today, biggie and Eminem were always my favorites. Where I took inspiration lyrically from new found, blink and Dallas green, biggie and Eminem’s flow was always something I loved and it kind of just sank in after a while and I think that shows in some neck deep songs.

Bring Me The Horizon - I know some people might be a bit surprised by this one, but there on here with good reason. I was always a big fan of bring me when I was younger and there new stuff is sounding amazing again which is good to see. However, they inspire me because of what they achieved and where they came from, they did it properly and deserve to be where they are now. I could only ever dream of neck deep doing something on a similar scale.