#2 “Back Roads” by Ben Demars

This photo is from a roll of film I developed myself last summer; I took it while driving, one hand on the wheel and the other out the window, not really aiming at anything. I’d moved home during the pandemic and was bound to crutches, so I spent a lot of time just driving around back roads and listening to music. 

This playlist includes a lot of songs I listened to on those drives - soft, calm, and a bit dreamy. “Courtyard” and “Hard Drive” have vivid lyrics that are easy to imagine while “True Blue” and “Cherry Jerry Citrus” offer an upbeat intermission from the otherwise slow pace; “Fireman” and Hovvdy’s cover of Charli XCX’s “forever” have a nice sense of humor to them. I chose to end the playlist with two instrumentals, particularly “Wind and Snow” last, as sort of an audible Savasana. 

Ben Demars (@bendemars) is a publicist and visual artist based in Vermont and Brooklyn. He once slept through a 6.7 magnitude earthquake.

Ben Recommends:

Badger sunscreen
Preventative physical therapy exercises
Charo’s Instagram