Ben Kweller

Mon 30th Mar, 2009 in Features

Some singers cultivate an air of mystery. Others construct outlandish and entertaining stage personas. Some pursue high-art poetry through their lyrics while others seek musical transcendence through their vocal acrobatics. Others, like Ben Kweller, are fairly straightforward and uncomplicated.

Kweller’s direct lyrics nourish a hangover from his slacker-punk days and his albums play like scattershot pop mixtapes of stuff he was jamming to in his bedroom. Though his latest album may be completely different to the quirky-pop he once turned out, the transparency with which he carries himself has been transposed to the album’s title, Changing Horses, which signals the stylistic shift contained therein.

“It just invoked the wild west and the feel of dirt roads. Also, they say that you shouldn’t change horses midstream because you might fall into the river and die but I’ve always loved change and the last thing I do is try to stay the same – as a person and as an artist. There’s a lot in that title.”

Changing Horses. Dirt Roads. Wild West. In case these images hadn’t tipped you off, Ben Kweller has made a country album. Not even an alt-country album, a la fellow indie superstar Ryan Adams, but a country album in the seemingly traditional Nashville sense.

It was a risk to move so far away from the genre upon which his profile was built, but Changing Horses has actually invited the biggest reaction to any release thus far. “I just thought it was going to be this thing that people didn’t really notice but this is the busiest I’ve been for any album. A lot of that is not even the reaction of my fans but from people who are hearing me for the first time now. There’s tonnes of people in the country scene – like Country Music World, they’ve started playing my Fight video more than anything I’ve ever had played on MTV. All of a sudden I’m considered a new country singer by all these people in Nashville and I’m getting requests for interviews from all these people I’ve never spoken to.”

I was also surprised to learn this; however, upon reflection, the underlying country tendencies that litter his back-catalogue became increasingly apparent ( On My Way’s title track, anyone?) With this in mind, alongside Kweller’s Texan pedigree, it’s no real surprise to learn that a country album has long been in the works.

“Some of the songs are nearly 13 years old. I’ve been putting together this album since 2004 when I wrote Hurtin’ You. Over the years I just kept writing more and more country songs and after the last album I looked back and I had 16 songs. So I picked my favourite ten and figured it was time to make this record.”

The country music album has recently become a near rite of passage for young indie songwriters (see: Conor Oberst, Jenny Lewis). However, Kweller is adamant that Changing Horses is the product of a childhood spent listening to this kind of music, and not an attempt to be seen as a – œmaturing artist.’ “The only thing I attempted to do was just record my songs beautifully and make an album that was really consistent. I’m 27, so hopefully I’m already a little mature – but one can only hope,” he laughs.

One thing retained from his previous outings is his explorations of sub-genres and style. Where his debut, Sha Sha, covered folk, slacker, piano pop, lengthy ballads and grunge, so too does Changing Horses managed to run the full gamut of country music modes. “That’s just because country music was so important to me my whole life. I love Roger Miller and Hank Williams Jnr,” he claims. “My country music taste is really broad and so as a songwriter I just write all types of shit. These were my favourite that had a consistent feel musically. It’s a really diverse album, even though it’s the same four instruments throughout.”

Though some of the images in Kweller’s lyrics may seem contrived or clichéd – greyhound stations, truckers who search for God on a CB – they are all snapshots from an upbringing along the Bible Belt that Kweller was able to access for inspiration. “All that stuff is from my life really. It would be a cop-out if I talked about CBs but didn’t feel like I was part of the trucker culture. My grandfather lived with us when I was a kid and he’d always talk to truckers on CBs and when Raddish went on tour we got a van and I had a CB so I was always talking to truck drivers. Those images just worked well with these songs and that side of my life just came out.”

Despite working with an entirely new band, in a different genre, in a different city and acting as lone producer for the first time, Changing Horses was recorded in just eleven days. It was reportedly the easiest album he’s ever made.

“It just came out really quickly and easily. You stay in the studio as long as you need to to get the job. I wasn’t trying to get it done quick but on the eleventh day we were like, – œOkay, cool – it’s done.’” As if to re-enforce Kweller’s lack of concern with being considered cool, he recently moved out of trendy New York district Brooklyn and back to Texas, his home from over a decade ago and the place where this album was recorded. “The tapes sat in my room for months while I went through a few changes – the move back to Texas, negotiating a new record contract – and then finally we took it to a different studio and had it mixed in two weeks.”

The shifts in Kweller’s artistry are not constrained to the studio, but spill out into his live performances also. “I’m only bringing an acoustic,” he says. “I’m still playing old material, but a lot of songs we don’t play too often and more of my folkier songs fit in really well. It’s been really fun to build sets around Changing Horses.” Though this may upset fans hoping to rock out to Wasted and Ready at his shows, not having to cart around a wall of Marshall amplifiers is a definite advantage for a performer who appears to stand not to far above five feet tall.

Regardless of our main man’s enthusiasm and renewed energy following his foray in country, there are nonetheless many reviews around that bemoan the loss of one of indie pop’s finest troubadours. The good news for those folk, however, is that Kweller laughs off the suggestion that country territory is where he’s set up permanent artistic residence.

Kweller does still, however, plan to put his name to more country – though not as you might expect. “I’m going to spend some time in Nashville and work with those big country producers and write some songs for other people. That could be fun and there’s serious coin in it.” We both laugh at the suggestion, before he stops and responds: “I’m serious.” And maybe he is – I guess I should check the liner notes on Taylor Swift’s next album then.

Catch Ben Kweller and his trusty touring band at these venues in April.

Fri 10 – Chill City, Melbourne
Sat 11 – Metro Theatre, Sydney
Mon 13 – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Wed 15 – Republic Bar, Hobart
Thurs 16 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Fri 17 – The Gov, Adelaide
Sat 18 – West Coast Blues N Roots Festival, Perth