Ben Kweller
On bolting a bassinet to the floor of his tour bus.
by Sarah Hepola
December 6, 2006
There's something unique about getting to know someone over the phone. It's such a different kind of intimacy, their little voice in your ear.
Totally. There's no physical presence, no physical baggage. You feel like you can say anything. You can talk for hours. You can tell anybody your deep, dark secrets. Which is what we did.
You recently shot a video for the song "Sundress." Is that Liz in the video?
That is Liz. That's her acting debut.
Can you talk about the decision to use her, as opposed to an actress?
Well, I had talked to the director, Michael Palmieri, about the concept. We knew we wanted to have close scenes and romantic moments, and this is why I could never be an actor. How could you kiss another person and make it seem real? How would you even know how to interact with a stranger? So Liz agreed to do it. At first she was a little nervous. She didn't know if she wanted to do it, but she did great.
You two got married relatively young. Do you ever feel like you missed out on, like, your wild groupies days?
My wild groupie days happened when I was fifteen years old. Everything happened so early for me. I got a jumpstart before a lot of kids my age. So most average people, they look at me and they say, he's twenty-five, he's got a kid, that's so young. But life has just been different for me. I never went to high school. I never went to my prom, although I did go to someone else's prom. I was recording an album in Alabama, and this girl asked me to her prom, and I went to a thrift store and bought a mustard yellow suit and went to prom with her. Somewhere out there are photos of that prom, and man, I wish I could find them.
You found fame at an early age. Does that give you any sympathy for these young stars who grew up in the spotlight? The Britney Spearses and Lindsay Lohans?
Oh, I don't know. I could probably relate with them on small levels, but they're from such a different galaxy. I was learning stuff from Jeff Tweedy and Evan Dando, and these kids were learning from their agents. The whole red-carpet, VIP scene is such a different world than what I do. I was always into indie rock. I wasn't ready for wireless microphones for a long, long time. Which is funny, because I'm ready for a much bigger production now. Something about this new album makes me want to do something big.
Listening to your music, people may not realize you have a rather antic stage persona. You're often running around, jumping between instruments. Where did that come from?
That's just me. That's what I've been like ever since I was a little boy, jumping around on the couch, listening to "Born in the USA" with my toy guitar and bandana when I was three or four. It's just one of those things that comes naturally to me. My favorite game as a child was playing Bruce Springsteen.
For someone who's been in the limelight for so long, you're awful nice and humble. I wonder if that's the influence of being from a small town in Texas.
When things started happening, when I was really young, I had to tell myself not to believe all the bullshit. Just to not let it go to my head. Sure, it's partly being from Greenville, Texas. Mainly it's parenting. My parents always taught me how to be humble, be nice to people. There are plenty of bad people out there. Be nice.
©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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