Talking with Ben Kemp was a refreshing and calming experience. With conversation ranging from Australian politics to film script writing, the New Zealand born, Japanese based artist wants us to take time out from our busy lives and appreciate that which is around us. “My major thing, is that everything is going so much faster, people are not taking a step back or responsibility for their own emotional and spiritual wellbeing”.
Although he holds a deep love for his native land, with a heritage of Maori and German, he has found more of a balance living in Japan; living as part of a minority group has helped him appreciate his mixed blood.
“Japan attracts wonderful people, I have a friend who is half Jamaican and Norwegian, and another who is half Australian and Burmese – fusion has always interested me – I’ve always been drawn to the exotic”. The “friction and creativity this creates, the mystery and elegance of traditional Japanese culture and the lost in translation quirkiness is very appealing”.
He describes this ‘fusion’ of culture as something that he has always been drawn to – igniting a passion for Japanese films. Based in Japan for more than 5 years he originally made the journey to pursue film – “I wrote 11 scripts in one year – I didn’t socialize for almost a year” He jokes that when he started calling family cast members, “it was time to take a walk and open the window”.
Whilst busking Kemp fell into collaborating music “I didn’t come to Japan to play music, it was certainly something which I never planned – however I am glad I had the flexibility to follow it through, something in my gut told me to run with it, and put some of those other things in the background”.
Now Ben Kemp and Uminari are gaining a profile in Japan, and are set to release a documentary featuring their recent tour playing in small highly cultural venues including the Japanese museum and an old sake factory. Along with the DVD, they are looking to record their next album after completing their Australian and New Zealand tour.
Kemp describes the music as “therapeutic, with moments of introspection” however more about returning to simplicity – the music almost has a “sweetness” or “pure naivety – childlike”. He is also more interested in the artist behind the music. “I want to feel the artist, not a major label through the music”. In a way “economics has torn the music industry apart”.
On this note I mention the presence of a ‘save the monks of burma’ image on his MySpace profile. I query whether there is a political element to the music. He describes the experience as connecting to his sensitivity. “Seeing these horrific things happening, brings back to the self – taking it back to the individual. Perhaps if we took responsibility for our emotions – sit and listen to ourselves things like Burma wouldn’t occur”
I get the impression for Ben that everything has a distinct ebb and flow. With a book of poetry also soon to be released, we discuss the blurring of the line between poetry and lyricism. For Kemp “poetry forms the backbone of everything I do – with poetry you need to play bass, piano, drums’”. Writing for songs is a little different – “you need to leave space for the music…and consider all the other elements, there is more simplicity in song writing” whereas he describes poetry rich, dense and free flowing. However he feels as though he is getting closer and is proud of the lyrics he is writing, this is something he feels very strongly about.
Ben Kemp and Uminari continue their tour in March and play the Claredon Guesthouse in Katoomba Sunday 2nd March before dates in New Zealand.
