Ben Kweller
On bolting a bassinet to the floor of his tour bus.
by Sarah Hepola
December 6, 2006
Ben Kweller's watch ticks a little faster than the average Casio: He was writing songs by the age of eight, had an album deal with his band Radish by fifteen, and at twenty, when most kids are still shaking off the Jagermeister, Kweller was launching his comeback. Now, at twenty-five, he has a wife and a baby boy, not to mention four solo albums. His latest, Ben Kweller, is evidence that growing up doesn't have to mean turning down the volume. It has lots of charming, '60s-influenced piano pop and starburst choruses; don't even try to keep your head from bobbing. But he balances the giddiness with muted ballads like "Thirteen," a sweet-sad love note to his wife, Liz. The album finds Kweller seeking balance in life as well as songcraft, as he cleverly splits the difference between the lovably goofy, impetuous melody of his 2002 album, Sha Sha, and the more mature balladry of 2004's On My Way. In September, Kweller hit the road. But this time, he tried something he'd never done in his well-traveled twenty-five years: he brought wife and baby along for the ride. — Sarah Hepola
A friend told me her newborn loves your album.
Aww, really? That's so nice. Babies are crazy like that. They react to music immediately.
It's important to find albums that work with babies, and children's music can be such crap. What does your son listen to?
For some reason he loves "I've Been Working on the Railroad." And I put him on my lap at the piano, and I play him "Yellow Submarine," "Lean on Me," all that stuff. We haven't really put on my own music much. But yesterday morning in Austin I was doing a radio interview at the Four Seasons, and he and his mommy came and watched me, and I wondered if he understood that was his daddy playing guitar. He hasn't seen me onstage yet. He goes to bed pretty early. We got him these little shotgun headphones, so he can be protected from the noise.
I've seen little kids burst into tears when they see their parents onstage.
I remember touring with Ben Folds, and that was a problem. His kids would get upset seeing him. I don't know why, maybe the noise and the microphone.
I wonder if, when you're singing, it looks like you're screaming.
Yeah, maybe. I don't know what will happen. I guess I'll find out.
I'm just impressed you're touring with a newborn. As if it weren't hard enough to have your first child.
We decided immediately we were just gonna make it work. We got a custom bus with a bed in the back, and they bolted a bassinet to the floor. We show up in a town each morning, get up around seven or eight, bathe him, we have the whole routine. The tour just began yesterday, so I don't really know how it's gonna work. I see myself taking a bunch of naps.
The song "Thirteen" is about your wife, Liz, and you've said it's your favorite on the album, but also that you used to have a hard time listening to it. Why is that?
There are some details in there that probably sound so regular, details that might feel like any details you'd use in a little love song, but they're real personal things. The necklace Liz gave me that belonged to her mother, who died when Liz was 9, and the place where we got married. It's just us, 100%. Some of it was hard to listen to. I would drive around and listen to the early mix of the album, and that song would just make me cry. And Liz, too.
How did you guys meet?
We were introduced by my old bass player, and we all went back to his house one night, and Liz and I sat on his front porch and talked all night. She was going on a road trip with her friend Anna, and she told me she was coming through Texas and didn't know anyone. I said well, you have to stay with the Kwellers. And then, for the rest of that month while she was on a road trip, we talked on the phone. That's how we really got to know each other. There's a line in that song about how we fell in love on the phone.
©2006 Sarah Hepola and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Sarah Hepola has been a high-school teacher, a playwright, a film critic, a music editor and a travel columnist. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, The Guardian, and on NPR. She writes the Scanner blog for Nerve and lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. |
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