Ben Harper

Tue 3rd May, 2011 in Features

“I’ve made records that I have known haven’t been better than Fight for Your Mind,” a very open and honest Ben Harper concedes, “Matter of fact, I’ve probably never admitted it until now, [but Give Till It’s Gone ] may be the first record that rivals Fight for Your Mind.”

Featuring guests including Ringo Starr and Jackson Browne, Give Till It’s Gone is his sixteenth record and Harper says that it runs the gamut of sounds from ballads to “harder stuff and everything in between”. Harper explained his approach to writing, collaborations and how his genre leaping albums challenged the label bosses just before boarding the plane to head home after yet another scintillating performance at the Bluesfest.

The majority of people who read this interview probably won’t have been to Bluesfest this year, were there any special moments you saw or were a part of that you will take with you from this year’s festival?
Walking back on stage with the original Innocent Criminals was a huge, huge pivotal music moment for me. The way that people responded to them and too the songs. Playing those songs, they felt brand new again. Walking on that stage again, after having been playing there since 1996, to walk out there and get that reception, for that band and myself was a big moment, in a lot of ways for a lot of reasons.

When you write songs, is it a situation where you think “Ok, I’m going to sit down and I’m going to write a song” Or is it something that comes to you organically at different times?
There is that lightning in a bottle element to song-writing, where it just hits you like a bolt. But those are the exception not the rule. So when that happens, you just sort of look around, pinch yourself and say, ok that just happened, yeah it’s still happening to me, this many years later and thank you.

Do those one tend to be the best ones?
They’re the most exciting, that’s for sure, when that hits, boy there is nothing like it. Then there are ones that hit you for about 5 – 15 minutes. Where you think that it’s happening, and you look up and it’s been 3 hours, and you’ve still just got the initial feed. Then there are songs that come to you verse at a time. And you piece them together, you craft them. And I gotta tell you, I love all of them. I love all the different methods of writing songs. Then there is collaborating with other people too, there really is no rules. And if there was rules, I’d burn ‘em, I’d throw ‘em out. [laughs]

When you part of a band, as you are with Relentless 7 and Fistful of Mercy, the protest element found in certain songs on your solo records, songs such as Oppression and Gather ‘round the Stone doesn’t seem as much in the forefront. Is that something to do with the writing process of being in a group of people, or is it just that you are trying to convey different messages with those projects?
Not at all…oh god, maybe? You know what… I’ve never looked at it like that? So I’m going to have too… that’s always just been a matter of timing and where I was at in the moment. But that’s a good point, I hadn’t thought of that. It’s not on purpose, it’s certainly not on purpose. That is incidental contact there, but now that you are saying it, you are shining a light on it that I have never ever seen. I really just write out a protest when there is a moment that I am mad as hell, Like a King, Gather ‘round the Stone, although I Will Not be Broken is its own protest in a way, that almost breaks the mould there.

You are one of the only artists that I can think of that can put such a vast array of song styles on a record, without losing the overall cohesiveness of the album. You can go from a full rocker into a soft ballad, into a funk track. Other artists try to emulate this but it more often than not turns out a noisy mess. Why do you think you and your bands manage to do that so well where most others fail?
It’s because I invented it. [laughs] I got to tell you man, I don’t mean to be that megalomaniacal and full of myself, but I have to say. When I came into the business, I was denied and turned down by every single record label in Hollywood and New York, except for virgin records/EMI. And what we heard every time was “Son, you’re going to have to choose a style and stick to it”. They heard songs like Forever and Walk Away, and they heard Whipping Boy and Like A King. And they said, you got something here kid, but you’re going to have to choose a style, you can’t do this, you can’t, you can’t, you can’t!”

But, I’ve come into this industry as a non-conformist, and I’m damn well going to go out a non-conformist. And remember, I was a 22 year old kid hearing this stuff, very impressionable. But I was still able to politely disagree. I said “Why can’t I?” If I am heartfelt, and feeling these different styles and rhythms and sounds and melodies and lyrics, if it’s genuine, and it’s un-contrived and it’s urgent and bloodthirsty, well then, why can’t I put these different styles together? Even if it is Walk Away and Like A King, why not? Why can’t my voice be the thread?”

And low-and-behold, now everybody does it. So in my records there are always peaks, but there is also an ebb and a flow to them. Now everybody’s got PJ Harvey, Jay-Z, Spoon, Mogwai and Sigur Ros on their iPod, now it’s normal to just shuffle through 5000 songs. Let me tell you something man, back then it was unheard of! The industry didn’t realise that the same kid who loves Jay-Z might love Tracy Chapman, they just missed the boat on that entirely, and that’s why it took Apple to come along and eat their lunch.