Ben Kweller - Clash Q&A

Born in California in 1981, Ben Kweller grew up in Texas after his doctor father relocated the family. He formed his first band, Radish, aged just 12, and since then…

…Since then it’s been up and up, and up. Radish split in 1999 after many successes, and Kwelller moved to New York to pursue a solo career. The fourth album of this tangent, ‘Changing Horses’, is released on February 2.

Kweller has said that ‘Changing Horses’ has more of a country vibe than the preceding self-titled album of 2006 – it features both pedal steel and Dobro among the instruments utilised. The record’s reviewed in issue 34 of Clash magazine, out January 8.

Clash caught up with Kweller, now back in Texas living in Austin, ahead of the album’s release for a chatter about what’s been, and what’s to come.

So let me get this right, you don’t like the cold weather, but you toured the UK in December?
Tell me about it! That’s not my decision, but um, you know, I guess it’s just one of those things where it just kinda works out that way. My record comes out in February. I wanted to come over and do something special for the fans; something low key and just, you know, bring an acoustic guitar and a piano, play some songs and take requests. Kinda kick it back a few notches, back to my roots, like the first time I went over there with Evan Dando and I didn’t know anybody. I just brought a guitar and played my songs. I want to do that before the record comes out.

So let’s talk about the new album.
Do you have a copy?

Yes, yes. It’s right up my street. I like it. It sounds like what I need to listen to at the moment. Does that stem from your move to Texas?
Well, I mean, we made the record and then decided to move down here. I did record it in Austin, but some of these songs I’ve had for years but I’ve been holding on to them. I’ve been wanting to make a country record for a long time and I just have been waiting for the songs to come together as a nice bunch. Because usually my records will have a little bit of everything on them - I’ll write a folk song, then a punk song, then a piano ballad. But, these ‘Changing Horses’ songs, when I would write them, like ‘Wanting Her Again’, or you know ‘On Her Own’ or ‘Things I Like To Do’ or ‘Fight’. ‘Fight’ particularly; I was like, “Fuck, I can’t put that on a regular Kweller record”, you know? It’s got to be on a record with the same kind of songs and same vibe. So I came up with the whole ‘Changing Horses’ concept when I was recording my second album, ‘On My Way’, with Ethan Johns, and I wrote the song ‘Hurting You’. I actually cut that song as a B-side for the ‘Rules’ single and I decided at the last minute to save it. I told my label I was going to make a country record at some point called ‘Changing Horses’ and this song ‘Hurting You’ is going to be on it. They were like, “Aw man, you can’t go make a country record”, and I’m like, “Well, I’m going to!” (Laughs)

You had the title first?
Yeah, that was the first time that I had a title before I made an album. Usually you make a record and you have a long list of names and stuff like that, or you name it after your favourite song on the record or something. This was one where I was like, “‘Changing Horses’, that’s what it is going to be”. I think I actually got that from Mark Twain; I was reading a book at the time and he had a line about changing horses in midstream or something.

I thought it was the Dylan lyric?
Oh yeah, that’s what a lot of people were saying, too. But Dylan probably got his from Mark Twain as well.

Of course he did. Do you think you’re trying to make country cool again? Well, I never thought it was uncool, so… I mean, I will say this: a lot of my fans are coming up to me and saying, “Man, I fucking hate country music, but your new shit is really cool.” So, whatever that means. Maybe some kids will go and discover Johnny Cash now and find out about good country music. I mean, the new shit that is on the radio sucks. It’s not country music, it’s people that want to be Avril Lavigne and wearing cowboy hats. There’s nothing in there. But there’s one good guy out there, Alan Jackson, that still is probably a little too cheesy for you or most people, but he writes his own music and he is pretty classic. Been around for a long time. But I’m not trying to do anything. I’m just trying to make the music that I write and I love it. If somebody else gets turned onto country music through this record, than that’s good.

Do you think country is a style that is translated outside of America easily?
I wonder about that. I’ve heard some people say that it’s huge in France, but I’ve heard some people say that the French people don’t get Americana. I remember when my friends Kings Of Leon first came to England, you know, and everyone loved them. Obviously, their music is not country music, but they’re Southern boys. I remember there seemed to be this love for these Southern guys and that piece of America. I don’t know how to do those kinds of predictions or projections and shit, but I really have no clue because I’ve heard mixed messages. I hope that people just hear a good song, whether it’s jazz or classical or rap, you know, and like it because they like it, not because of the genre.

Yeah. It translates well in the UK. Like you said about Kings Of Leon, as well as Ryan Adams and Fleet Foxes exploded here this year. Do you think the time is right now for a country or folk artist to take over the world?
Maybe so. Maybe it’s time. Maybe this is the record for Ben Kweller too over there. I definitely have my underground following, and I love that, and I have some loyal fans over there, but I’m certainly not in the mainstream my any means.

You’ve reached a level of success that you’re obviously happy with. ‘Sex On Fire’ by Kings Of Leon went to Number One here and they had a Number One album. That’s almost unthinkable when you think of where they were. If you had a song that went stratospheric here, do you think that kind of success would suit you? Would you enjoy that?
I think that, at this point in my life, I would be okay with it. I think, when I was sixteen and a naïve teenager that loved rock and roll, I wouldn’t be ready for it. Actually, you know my history, when I got my first record deal and I was a teenager with Radish, you know, I did a lot of things to sabotage any success that came to us, you know? I would dye my hair a different colour each week and the record company would yell at me; they’d say, “We have to keep doing new photo shoots because you keep changing the way you look”, and I was just like, “Fuck you guys.” But I’m glad I did that, because real success at that age probably would have fucked me up. But I think now I’m at a place where I know that the music that I am making is for me and I am comfortable in my own skin and I am secure with myself. I have a family and I feel like if I had that success that I would be able to handle it better. At the end of the day, it goes back to me being nine years old and standing in front of my dad’s turntable and listening to Lennon and McCartney sing ‘All You Need Is Love’. I just kept listening to that song over and over again and I said, “Fuck, I want to do this. I want to touch people through music.” So, I’ve sort of come full circle and realised that if my music can touch other people and make them happy, than that’s a great thing. But also you have to make your art for yourself first, because it might never be heard by anyone else, so you have to be fulfilled and, at the end of the day, it’s for you and it’s your own release.

You’re at the age now where a lot of other people are maybe just starting or have one album, and you’ve been around for a while. Do you think you’ve found that groove that you’re going to stick to, or do you think you’re still looking for something new?
Well, I definitely have found a groove, meaning that being a songwriter and a performer is my thing. Stylistically, I have no idea what will happen in the future. I don’t know where my music will take me, but I know that there are different parts of me. I grew up in a small town in Texas. Where I am - I am in the backyard of the house I grew up in right now, just walking around, talking to you - this is the house where I used to listen to country radio, listen to Garth Brooks and like, put on cowboy boots and go hiking in the creek with my friends and like shoot GI Joes with BB guns and say cuss words and talk about having sex with girls before we even really knew what that was. That was the house I was in when Kurt Cobain died. I made a little ritual for him the night he died. I was really into witchcraft when I was a teenager, so I did this ceremony thing to say goodbye to Kurt. There’s sort of this rainbow of all different types of music in me, and it all comes from different parts of my life. When I first put out (debut album) ‘Sha Sha’ I purposely wanted to put a few different types of songs on there just so I could start out with the understanding that I am going to make different kinds of music.

Room to move in?
Exactly. Because if you just come out with one type, it just freaks everybody out when you make a move. So yeah, Ben Kweller’s made a country record, but really, is it all that crazy? No, because people always knew I had this side to me; for this record I'm just going down the path 100 per cent. It feels good.

You’ve had a bit of success with the music video for ‘Penny On The Train Track’ (see video above). That was a YouTube sensation, wasn’t it? Yeah! (Laughs)
What did you think of the reception to that and, more importantly, what did your granny think of that?
She was so excited about that. I remember it was going to be on MTV and they were going to premiere it over here. I called her up; she doesn’t even have MTV so she had to go to a friend’s house to watch it, but she had to go to the doctor’s office afterwards. So she went to the doctor’s office and told the girls at the desk, “I was just on MTV”, and they thought she was some old, delusional grandma who had lost her marbles. They were like, “Okay, that’s nice”, and she was like, “No, I’m serious!” And everywhere she went she was telling everyone how she was a star. She just loves it. That was really cool. She always wanted to be an actor; when she was a little girl in New York City, she wanted to be an actress and took dance lessons. The legend is that she started to get really cocky and thought that she was the best, so her mom took her right out of dance lessons and crushed her dreams of being a star. So, at eighty-years-old, she got to do it finally and she’s all over the Internet. But she’s a great dancer. I’m just glad we got to document that for Dorian to see. He’s already seen it, he loves that video. It’s like a little hand-me-down from the generations.

Any plans to repeat that choreography in future videos?
I would love to have more dancing in videos, and that’s what [my wife] Liz always tells me. She’s like, “I love it when you dance! You’ve got to dance more!” So we’ll see what happens.

You’re known to play most of the instruments on your own. Have you got the trio on this album?
Yeah, yeah, this was the trio. Chris and Mark and then one of my best friends Kit Kitterman; he plays the pedal steal and the Dobro. So yeah, it was the four of us in one room and just laying it down, man. We did a week of pre-production in this little house on 6th Street in Austin. We worked on the songs and then went into the studio and got it out in eleven days and just really natural. I have this amazing engineer, his name is Steve Nazar. He’s recorded a lot of people in New York. He’s total analogue, old school; fucking tape cutter, no computers, none of that shit. It’s all real.

How’s the difference being in a recording studio with a bunch of people bringing ideas to the table?
Well, it was great. The [self-titled] record that I did with Gil Norton with ‘Penny On The Train Track’ and ‘Sundress’ was really fun because it was kind of an experiment to be in a room by myself, with my own thoughts and play everything exactly the way that I wanted. It was one of the most liberating records, but also one of the most isolating ones, I guess. There’s nothing like playing with other humans and everybody puts in their own parts and everybody does different things. It’s just much more interesting. There’s music on this album that I wouldn’t have come up with and vice versa. It makes for really interesting sound and I’m so proud of it. It’s probably the best musicianship on any record I’ve ever made. That Dobro and that pedal steel playing is just some of the best out there.

Are these the guys you’ll be taking on the road as well?
Yeah, Mark and Chris will. The thing about Kit Kitterman, he’s a truck driver, man. He actually drives our tour bus a lot. I met him because I did a concert and he was promoting it and we became friends. One day he brought his Dobro over to my house and I didn’t even know that he played music. We were up in Brooklyn, sitting in the backyard, and just started playing together. And the second I heard him playing, I was like, “What the fuck? Are you kidding me?” He never told me or told anybody that he played music, and he’s just this genius. But he’s kinda shy and scared to go on tour, so he really doesn’t want to go on tour. But I have another friend, Rich Hinman, who has been touring with us and he’s amazing as well. I’ve been trying to get Kit to come out on the road, but he’d rather just sit in the driver’s seat, man. That’s kinda typical. I feel like that happens a lot. You run into the best guitar player and he’s like, “Ah, I don’t really feel like playing.” It’s like, “Come on!”

What kind of country music were you listening to that influenced this album?
I don’t know what I was listening to, but my favourite country music… I love Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, George Jones... I actually really like Hank Williams Jr. a lot; ‘Family Tradition’ is a great song. There’s not a whole lot of new stuff; like I said, Alan Jackson is probably about as good as it gets right now. And there’s this guy called Josh White who is this old blues singer from the ’40s and ’50s that my grandfather was really into. He’s got an album called ‘Josh White At Midnight’, and that’s a really influential record on me. You can go listen to that and you can see where songs like ‘Gypsy Rose’ kind of came from; old blues shit. A song like ‘Sawdust’, which is one of my favourite cuts on the album, a lot of people have compared that to 1975, cocaine, Leon Russell style shit.

I think there’s definitely some nods to Neil Young on there.
Totally, totally. Obviously, Neil and Dylan, they’re the Shakespeares of what I do, so they’re up there for sure.

Do you think being a father has influenced this album at all?
Yeah, I mean, being a father has influenced me in so many ways. I can’t tell you, specifically, any lyrics in particular, you know? I’ve always been really nostalgic in my music and before I had [my son] Dorian I would write lyrics about being a father and the importance of taking care of someone. So it’s always been there, so now I’m just excited to be able to live it out.

Any New Year’s Resolutions for 2009?
Fuck. I guess exercise, you know? I just can’t really say for sure that I could quit nicotine. I don’t smoke right now, but I can’t say that I never will again. I love it too much. And, uh, even dipping. I really started to become a fucking redneck when I was making this record because I started dipping. I don’t even know if you guys have that over there. Like, Skoal Tobacco. You put it in your lip like a fucking hill man, fucking hillbilly. I was a fucking full-on redneck man. I love that shit; it’s so good, it gives you such a good buzz. And you can do it inside, because you can’t smoke anywhere here. I don’t know what my New Year’s Resolutions are. What are my New Year’s Resolutions? I don’t know.

You need to set yourself a challenge.
I’m going to have to man. I’m glad you put it in my mind. I don’t have anything yet, but I’ll work on it.

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‘Changing Horses’ is released on February 2 on ATO. Find Ben Kweller on MySpace HERE.