I’m sat at a picnic table in the artist lounge at Kilby Block Party, mountains lining the horizon, the distant sounds of The Kilans playing their set in the background, and in front of me, an artist I’ve been listening to since I was a little boy. Ben Kweller is a singer-songwriter and recording artist from San Francisco, California, who is best known for his genre-defying projects spanning across several decades. His work is, in his words, although we couldn’t have said it better ourselves,
BK: “Kind of like a little bit of classic rock mixed with a little folk, you know, and some alternative, it's like indie... I don't really even know. I'm a lot of things. I'm a Gemini, which is the twins, and so I like it all. I see both sides of everything, the good and the bad, and I don't get mad at either of them.”
It’s both of our first times at this festival in Utah, although neither of us are strangers to festivalgoing in our pasts, Kweller especially.
BR: “I've been to festivals across the country, and I love them, but even just being here, basically just one day down so far, the vibes here are already super different. Do you feel like there's a difference between a festival show versus playing a headlining show?”
BK: “Festivals are really fun. I mean, they're light and there's a carefree aspect to them. No one gets a sound check, so it's kind of a throw-and-go. You just, like, throw your shit up there, and then they're like, ‘It's time to play!’ And I like that, like it's kind of rag tag, and it can be kind of unpredictable.”
Being in the public eye, creating music, since his teenage years, Ben Kweller has spent the better half of his life in a constant cycle of writing, recording, releasing, and looking onwards to the next project. His sound has evolved, his reach has expanded, and his topics of discussion have grown alongside him through the battles he’s fought in his lifetime. However, one thing hasn’t changed despite it all: his songwriting process.
BK: “It's interesting, the process of writing songs and creating music, it's kind of a nuts and bolts procedure. From the way I did it when I first started, at like eight years old, till now. The way you write a song, for me at least, hasn't changed much, but what it is, is I've changed a lot. The process is just dipping your brush into the color red and putting it on the canvas, that stays the same, but what you draw and paint is different.”
“At the end of the day, man, it's you're trying to build something that doesn't exist with materials that don't exist. You're trying to pull words out of the air and chord combinations and melody lines that no one's done before, you're trying to make something unique, and then, like, 30 minutes later, you have something that wasn't on the planet before. Now that's what keeps me coming back.”
I remark, “Only 30 minutes?” We both laugh. Ben says back to me,
“When you're lucky, it's 30 minutes, but you know, I can work on songs for days, years. I mean, there's some songs I have lying around that I haven't finished, and the longer they stick around for me, the harder it is to finish.”
We both agree that the most important component of the songwriting and recording process is feeling the emotions in the moment. “Striking when the iron’s hot,” as Ben says. You can do all the vocal training and songwriting lessons you want in your career, but it may never beat the raw emotion that comes from actively processing your feelings through song, as you’re feeling them. This is, I imagine, what makes Ben Kweller’s projects so vulnerable and captivating.
His most recent album, ‘Cover the Mirrors,’ is about as vulnerable as it gets. Coming off of the tragic passing of his son, Dorian, in 2023, Ben Kweller set out to process those emotions on a project that explores the fragility of life, and the preciousness of time. Of the songwriting process this time around, on a project that is so personal and sensitive, Ben tells me:
BK: “I'm really an open book, I really am. I wear my heart on my sleeve, so that has always been the case for me. When my son passed away in 2023 there was a split second where I thought, Oh, well, I'm just gonna go hide away and die. That's it, my life's over. But then I realized, No, I'm still here. I wish Dorian was here with me. I can't change that, it's out of my control. So I'm gonna fucking push through, and I'm gonna go harder with music than I ever have before. So I went, like, all-the-fuck-in on it. And the creative process, especially. [...] Because I now know more than ever, life is fragile. We may not be here tomorrow, and so if you have a gift, don't waste it. That's like my plea to any artist out there. If there's a kid out there listening or reading this who you know is interested in painting, or writing songs, or whatever it is, just go for it, and don't let up, man.”
This chokes me up. I tell him that I know all about the album, and how his son’s fingerprints are all over it. In a way, he lives on through the project forever. Ben used his son’s instruments in the recording process, and even used some melodies that his son, an aspiring musician as well, had begun to write before his passing. When I mention that, Ben sits up, and remarks:
“Trapped! It’s called Trapped. It’s one of the coolest on the album.”
Father-son bonds built through music are something I know all about. In fact, what makes this interview especially special to me is that, when I was young, my father made me a playlist called ‘The Ben Playlist’ using only artists with my name. This is where I discovered Ben Kweller, and where my love for music first began. I tell Ben of this, and he seems very touched.
BR: “You, of course, were on [The Ben Playlist] alongside Ben Folds and Ben Lee. You guys released ‘The Bens’ EP in 2003. That's when I was born, so, I've literally been listening to that my entire life. How are your memories from that experience? Do you guys have any plans to reunite The Bens?”
BK: “That's the big question everyone asks is like, ‘Where are The Bens? Are you gonna do it again?’ We would love to. I would love to. I could see us doing it again, for sure. We made the one EP, which was brilliant, and it was the fastest – like, it was such a little lightning bolt of music making. We wrote and recorded four songs in three days from scratch, wrote and recorded the final recording in three days, and it went so well. Yeah, I would love to get that going.”
Though ‘The Bens’ is over 2 decades old, it still remains incredibly poignant and beautiful songwriting, and we implore you all to check it out, alongside all of Ben’s other projects. His self-titled album, the first full-length project he released back in 2006, contains a number of incredible tracks, such as my personal favorite, ‘Sundress.’ And his most recent full-length album, ‘Cover the Mirrors,’ is, as discussed before, incredibly vulnerable and emotional, featuring collaborations with the likes of MJ Lenderman, Waxahatchee, The Flaming Lips, and Jason Schwartzman’s musical project, Coconut Records. Catch Ben at one of his upcoming shows all across the world, and find all of his incredible music HERE.