Ben Kweller is living his musical dream
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Special to Juice
Ben Kweller.
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Ben Kweller |
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Opening act: Whitley
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Vaudeville Mews, 212 Fourth St.
Cost: $20 through iowatix.com |
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After breakout success at age 15, Ben Kweller appreciates the charmed life he's led as a musician
by
10/08/2008 email this print this
Two minutes into an interview with Ben Kweller and it's hard not to be struck by how sincere the guy sounds. The 27-year-old has been in the music industry since earning a record deal with his band Radish at 15, so there was plenty of time for him to become fake or jaded.
Take his early experiences with fame. When Kweller, who performs at the Vaudeville Mews Saturday, got started in music he was getting positive feedback from Evan Dando of The Lemonheads and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. He met with Brian Wilson, had lunch with Madonna. Now that his star has risen, he is looking to share the love.
"I love thinking back to those early days and how lucky I was to run into people like Tweedy and Dando. I'll never forget that," Kweller said. "I always told myself that if I was in a position to help an up-and-comer, I'd totally do that. Now that I'm headlining I try to bring out artists and bands people might not have heard of. Like right now I have Whitley - he is incredible, one of my favorite songwriters from Australia. But no one has ever heard of him in America. It's just him and a guitar, like when I started."
Kweller has started to branch out from his solo days, incorporating a band for live performances and the recording of his upcoming album, "Changing Horses" which hits stores in January. The album has Kweller moving in more of an alt-country direction than the pop sound of his hits "Sha Sha" and "Wasted and Ready." Kweller has a new EP, "How Ya Lookin' Southbound? Come in...," featuring songs from "Horses" to give fans a taste of what to expect.
"We were hoping to have the record out this fall, but my record contract was up and it was a long, drawn out contractual thing," Kweller said. "I like how it all worked out. It's the longest amount of time I've had to build up to a release. Most of the time I feel like a chicken with my head cut off, doing them really quickly."
A project that isn't coming quickly, but one Kweller is looking forward to, is a reunion of The Bens. The super group of Kweller, Ben Folds and Ben Lee first got together in 2003 for a self-titled EP and a tour of Australia. All three Bens were friends, but it took a fan suggestion to get them working together.
"The idea came from someone's message board, someone posted saying, 'Wouldn't it be cool if the three Bens got together?'" Kweller said. "A lot of fans started talking about it and one day Folds called me and Lee and said, 'I think we should do this, it might be really fun.' Me and Ben Lee scheduled flights to Nashville and wrote four songs in three days. It was very freeing."
Until then Kweller will just have to settle for living his dream life day in and day out.
"When I first picked up a guitar, I wanted to be a rock star. I wanted to do what my idols were doing. Playing music for a living and doing nothing else - it's the life of an artist and all I wanted."
Opening act: Whitley
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Vaudeville Mews, 212 Fourth St.
Cost: $20 through iowatix.com
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