Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller (born in San Francisco, California on June 16, 1981) is an American rock musician.

Biography

Early Life

Ben Kweller was raised in Greenville, Texas,[2] and was exposed to music at a very young age by his father, Howie. He began playing drums at age seven, and then took up guitar and piano. At age nine, he entered a songwriting contest sponsored by Billboard magazine and won honorable mention.[3] In 1993 Kweller became friends with another young local musician, drummer John Kent, and the two formed a band, which they named Radish. Radish played locally in and around Greenville and recorded two independent releases, Dizzy and Hello with Martin Baird at Verge Music Works recording studio in Dallas, Texas.

Radish

Guitarist Nils Lofgren, an old friend of Howie Kweller's, was impressed with Radish and recommended them to Roger Greenawalt, who had produced Lofgren's most recent album at the time, Damaged Goods. Greenawalt, who had also suggested the addition of bassist Bryan Blur to the lineup, took Radish into a studio where they recorded a demo tape which was subsequently shopped around to record labels nationwide, who were looking for "the next Nirvana". After an unexpected bidding war, Ben Kweller, at the age of 15, and Radish were signed to Mercury Records. Regardless of a much-hyped beginning, which included appearances on The Weird Al Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Late Show with David Letterman, Radish failed to strike big success with its first major-label record Restraining Bolt. [4] In 1998 Radish went to Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama to record the follow-up to Restraining Bolt, provisionally titled Discount Fireworks and then retitled Sha Sha after the song of the same name. Recorded with producer Bryce Goggin, the album was never released, and Mercury dropped Radish from its roster.

Solo Career

At age 19, Ben Kweller moved to New York with his girlfriend Liz Smith, where he began his solo career. He played acoustic shows and self-released four EPs, comprising some of the unreleased Radish recordings and other songs recorded in his apartment on a laptop computer. It was one of these EPs, Freak Out, It's Ben Kweller, that caught the attention of Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, and Dando invited Kweller out on tour with him, playing across America and Europe.

In 2001 Ben Kweller signed to ATO Records, and released a 5-track EP entitled EP Phone Home. In March of 2002, Sha Sha, Kweller's first solo studio LP was released. Sha Sha included the very radio-friendly and popular single "Wasted & Ready". The title track "How It Should Be (Sha Sha)" reconciles his past career efforts with Radish and the difficulty of finding an identity as a 20-year-old artist beginning a musical career for the second time. The record kept many of the familiar sounds of Nirvana, but also worked in other pop music influences such as Weezer [5] and Ben Folds. The album grew in popularity with a grassroots effort based on his website and a promotion group called TeamBK, which promoted via word-of-mouth advertising. To support the release of the album and EP, he put together a live band, initially comprising Josh Lattanzi on bass, Fred Eltringham on drums, and Mike Stroud on guitar and keyboards.

Kweller performing at The Ohio State University

In 2003, Kweller toured Australia with Ben Folds and Ben Lee as The Bens. [6] The trio produced an eponymous EP. In an interview on October 14, 2006 Ben hinted that The Bens may do another album.

On My Way (2004), Kweller's sophomore LP, went in a new direction. The album was recorded 'live' - there were limited overdubs and no use of headphones. [7] After the release of On My Way, Kweller embarked on more touring, playing to his largest audiences ever, including a US tour co-headlining with Death Cab for Cutie [8]. By this point, the lineup of his live band had changed to include John Kent on drums and Jason Roberts on guitar and keyboards, after Mike Stroud left to concentrate on his own band Ratatat and Fred Eltringham left to play drums in The Wallflowers.

In 2006 he recorded his third LP, Ben Kweller with producer Gil Norton [9]. Unlike the previous studio albums, Ben played all the instruments on this record himself.[10] Kweller continued tour to supprt his self-titled album, Kweller expanded his band and turned it from a 4 piece band into a 6 piece band which grew to include Dan Horne on bass, Mark Stepro on drums, Jay Barclay on guitar and organ, and Jason Roberts on lead guitar. Ben continued to play guitar and piano on this tour but it also gave him the opportunity to just sing on certain songs. Canadian band Sam Roberts Band and New York based HYMNS opened for Kweller. Roberts did double duty on this tour playing guitar for his band HYMNS and playing keyboards, guitar and glockenspiel with Kweller.

His tie-in "Trio on the Train Track Tour" included a new live band comprising Chris Morrissey on bass, vocals & keyboard and Mark Stepro on drums, vocals, glockenspiel, percussion & "whatever else he feels like" during appearances in the United States. During the Australian leg of the tour, the band was comprised of Jay Barclay on guitar, keyboard & vocals, Dan Horne on bass & vocals, and Mark Stepro continuing his previous roles. [11]

Trivia

• New Jersey pop-punk band The Ergs! released Ben Kweller EP (2002). It includes a song called "Ben Kweller"

• Guster's album Keep it Together features Kweller on lead vocals in the song, "I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today".

• Rapper Talib Kweli sampled Kweller's "In Other Words," without permission, for his song "Ms. Hill". In part 7 of Kweller's video podcast series "One Minute Pop Song," Kweller said he found Kweli's use of the song "a little fucked up, but whatever." Link to episode

• At the 2006 Austin City Limits Music Festival, Kweller was plagued by a bloody nose for the entirety of his set. After covering his guitar in blood, he attempted to stop the flow by inserting a tampon, which expanded painfully during a performance of "This Is War". He then played "Falling" at the piano also covering it in blood and was forced to end the set early.

Discography

Albums

• Freak Out, It's Ben Kweller, 2000
• Sha Sha, 2002
• On My Way, 2004
• Ben Kweller, 2006

EPs

• EP Phone Home, 2001
• Sundress EP, 2006

Singles

• "Wasted & Ready", 2002
• "Commerce, TX", 2003
• "Falling", 2003
• "The Rules", 2004
• "Tylenol", 2004
• "Sundress", 2006
• "Penny On The Train Track", 2006

Other releases

• This Is Next Year: A Brooklyn-Based Compilation Compilation Track, 2001
• This Bird Has Flown - A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soul : Wait
• "Stubbs The Zombie: A Cover-Compilation of hits from the 50's" : "Lollipop"

External links

• Official website
• Official Ben Kweller Street Team on Fancorps.com
• Interview with the Cornell Daily Sun
• Ben Kweller Lyrics
• Live pictures of Ben Kweller
• Daily Ben - Livejournal Community
• Live review of Chicago concert, 2006
• Ben Kweller's Artist Commentary Commerce,TX
• Ben Kweller collection on the Internet Archive's live music archive
• Ben Kweller on stvout spotlight
• December 2006 Interview with Ben Kweller
• At YouTube
• Ben Kweller at The Dwarf
• Big Ben The New Yorker profile by John Seabrook April 7, 1997