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Interview - Ben Weaver
In 2008 The UK's music-buying public seemed to develop a growing obsession with American artists verbalising their rural existence. From Bon Iver's stark tales of wood cabin therapy through the rich harmonies and pastoral themes of Fleet Foxes, nothing seemed to connect more with British music fans than the concept of leaving behind the trials and tribulations of their chaotic urban lives and pursuing a purer increasingly-rural life.
No artist evoked this vision more than Minnesota's Ben Weaver. His splendid recent album 'Ax in the Oak' was chock full of bucolic imagery and rural charms, whilst all the time walking the tightrope splendidly between folk rock and 21st century blues.
Last week FDM.com was lucky enough to sit down with the charismatic songwriter and talk through his impressive recent rise in profile, the inspiration his hometown of St Pauls has on his music and of course the unrelenting rise of pastoral folk. Here's what he had to say.
FDM: Hello Ben, thanks for agreeing to talk to FDM.com. Can you firstly start by introducing yourself to the readers of FDM.com - some of whom may not be overly familiar with your music; how did you get the point now of being one of America's most exciting new songwriters?
BW: Well... I am Ben Weaver. I am 29 years old. I have brown hair and as long as I have been able to grow a beard I have always had one. Which means that since I was about 15 no one has ever seen me without a beard. Sometimes girls ask me to shave it just to see what I would look like, but I don't. I consider myself young. I don't know a lot about life. I make a lot of mistakes and I am overwhelmed by the world I live in. So, how did I become one of "America's most exciting new songwriters?" That is a good question. I have no idea. I wasn't even aware that I was that exciting. It is flattering to be exciting I guess. For the last 8 years I have been trying to make sense out of the world around me and the only consistent way I have found to do that is to write songs, and even then the world doesn't really make much sense to me. I feel honoured that people consider my attempt at deciphering this world interesting and valid enough to buy my records and come see me perform.
FDM: Your music is hugely evocative of a slice of Americana that us Brits are fascinated by (and to be honest quite in thrall to). Can you understand why we would find your music so captivating?
BW: I make music because I have to, but also because I want to connect with people. The people who like my music seem to be people who read a lot and pay attention to many of the small details in life that often get missed. Does that mean that Brits read a lot? Does it mean if a Brit sees a penny on the ground they always pick it up? I just like to make things and put them out into the world. I think if I thought too much about why people were fascinated with what I put out there, I would be more of a scientist than a songwriter and I don't really like to do math or statistics. I prefer to leave it up to the art and the people, to decide weather they like each other or not. I stay behind the curtain. Aside from when I am on tour of course. However just before every show I do try to get the songs to go out on stage by themselves, but they are often shy and want me to come out there with them, so I always do. It's a give and take relationship.
FDM: There are rural qualities to your music that have been quite a prevalent theme for American musicians of late - Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver to name but two. Why do you think 2008 seen this kind of pastoral imagery rise to the fore?
BW: I have always written about rural things because I have spent a great deal of my life living in rural places. However I have also spent a lot of time in urban environments. I find it interesting how the two things relate to each other and inevitably balance the other out, rural and urban. Personally I can't live with just one or the other. I need both. It does seem that rural qualities are very present in a lot of art at the moment, especially music and literature. What is interesting to me is that it seems a lot of these artists creating with rural themes are not living in a rural setting, or they have lived in the woods only as long as it took to create the art. I wonder if it is the fact that in a way cities are becoming more rural. Not in the sense of more trees, but in the sense of the communities and the sustainability. There is a large and growing population of urban farmers, markets, CSA's and people that are simply being more conscious about their lives. My experience with rural living has always been more about that kind of thing, being conscious of how you fit into your surroundings, more than it has been about the ratio of noise and concrete to trees and wildlife. This is a total guess and I don't like to pretend I know things I don't, but I think it is possibly a sign that people are looking more within themselves and generally being more thoughtful about life and the way they relate to the spaces they inhabit. Or it could simply be what it always is with art, in that something is constantly being romanticized and longed for from afar, and in this case it could just be a wide spread case of young hipsters longing for the country.
FDM: Tell us a little bit about your hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Is this the central inspiration on your music?
BW: Saint Paul is on the North bank of the Mississippi river. It joins the city of Minneapolis and here we call them the Twin Cities. It is the 16th largest metropolitan area in the states. There is a lot of art here and also a lot of music. The streets in Minneapolis are all laid out in a grid, and the streets in Saint Paul are windy and have no consistent pattern. I have lived in Minnesota on and off since I was young. I like coming back here. I like it when it is cold. I like the snow. I don't know if Saint Paul is on my list of direct inspirations, but it is part of my life, and therefore plays a part in anything I create. It was settled by some Irish people I am told, and often times people say that the reason the roads are so windy in Saint Paul is because when they were planning the streets they were all drunk. That's about all I know. When I look out my window I look across the Mississippi river at downtown Saint Paul.
FDM: 'White Snow' is the song from your album that most UK listeners will be familiar with. Can you give us a bit of an insight into the song - it contains some rather unusual lyrics?
BW: I wrote the majority of this new record in Berlin the summer of 2007. One day I met a friend for coffee and we were sitting there and this June bug landed on my hand. As I went to brush it away my friend said, "How many dots does it have on its wing? You know you get one wish for each dot?" Also at this time I was thinking a lot about Tennessee Williams and Wallace Stevens. I was reading some stuff about gardening and I have always wanted a place by the sea with salt on the windows. After that meeting for coffee I guess all those different ideas came together to form that song. This is something I am always trying to do, to join unrelated things together, to put a bunch of strangers in a room and start making them talk to each other. In this case the room being the song, and the strangers being the different ideas. It goes back to the way I experience life and how connected everything is, physically and emotionally.
FDM: There's been quite a few comparisons between your music and Tom Waits. How does being consistently compared to such a seminal artist make you feel?
BW: I don't think a great deal about this. I mean I would rather be compared to people like Tom Waits, than a lot of other people, like the Jonas Brothers or something. When I get compared to other people, especially people who are far more known and at a completely different level of success than I am, I don't see it as something I have to live up to. Like I said before, I make my music because I don't see any other way to get through life. I think Tom Waits is likely the same way, so in that sense it is an honour to be compared to someone like him, or anyone else who creates out of necessity.
FDM: Finally Ben, what is your opinion of the UK's music scene in 2008? Do you see it as the creative/ fertile place it perhaps once was?
BW: That is a hard question because I have spent very little time in the UK in the last year. I know that I am very inspired by Burial, and Joy Division, and I guess between the two of them they represent the way it is and the way it was. But maybe that is ignorant because I don't know a lot of factual stuff about music. I just prefer to listen to it. I think every place in the world has creative potential and its more a matter of what people are doing with it, and weather its getting out into the world or not. It's like romance in that it always seems to be about timing. There is plenty of unknown genius and unrequited love out there in the world to go around, it just has to be found in its own time.
Ben Weaver's album 'The Ax in the Oak' is available now through Bloodshot Records. For more information visit www.benweaver.net
You can read FDM.com's review of 'The Ax in the Oak' by clicking here - http://www.freshdeermeat.com/eatmore.php?id=28
No artist evoked this vision more than Minnesota's Ben Weaver. His splendid recent album 'Ax in the Oak' was chock full of bucolic imagery and rural charms, whilst all the time walking the tightrope splendidly between folk rock and 21st century blues.
Last week FDM.com was lucky enough to sit down with the charismatic songwriter and talk through his impressive recent rise in profile, the inspiration his hometown of St Pauls has on his music and of course the unrelenting rise of pastoral folk. Here's what he had to say.
FDM: Hello Ben, thanks for agreeing to talk to FDM.com. Can you firstly start by introducing yourself to the readers of FDM.com - some of whom may not be overly familiar with your music; how did you get the point now of being one of America's most exciting new songwriters?
BW: Well... I am Ben Weaver. I am 29 years old. I have brown hair and as long as I have been able to grow a beard I have always had one. Which means that since I was about 15 no one has ever seen me without a beard. Sometimes girls ask me to shave it just to see what I would look like, but I don't. I consider myself young. I don't know a lot about life. I make a lot of mistakes and I am overwhelmed by the world I live in. So, how did I become one of "America's most exciting new songwriters?" That is a good question. I have no idea. I wasn't even aware that I was that exciting. It is flattering to be exciting I guess. For the last 8 years I have been trying to make sense out of the world around me and the only consistent way I have found to do that is to write songs, and even then the world doesn't really make much sense to me. I feel honoured that people consider my attempt at deciphering this world interesting and valid enough to buy my records and come see me perform.
FDM: Your music is hugely evocative of a slice of Americana that us Brits are fascinated by (and to be honest quite in thrall to). Can you understand why we would find your music so captivating?
BW: I make music because I have to, but also because I want to connect with people. The people who like my music seem to be people who read a lot and pay attention to many of the small details in life that often get missed. Does that mean that Brits read a lot? Does it mean if a Brit sees a penny on the ground they always pick it up? I just like to make things and put them out into the world. I think if I thought too much about why people were fascinated with what I put out there, I would be more of a scientist than a songwriter and I don't really like to do math or statistics. I prefer to leave it up to the art and the people, to decide weather they like each other or not. I stay behind the curtain. Aside from when I am on tour of course. However just before every show I do try to get the songs to go out on stage by themselves, but they are often shy and want me to come out there with them, so I always do. It's a give and take relationship.
FDM: There are rural qualities to your music that have been quite a prevalent theme for American musicians of late - Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver to name but two. Why do you think 2008 seen this kind of pastoral imagery rise to the fore?
BW: I have always written about rural things because I have spent a great deal of my life living in rural places. However I have also spent a lot of time in urban environments. I find it interesting how the two things relate to each other and inevitably balance the other out, rural and urban. Personally I can't live with just one or the other. I need both. It does seem that rural qualities are very present in a lot of art at the moment, especially music and literature. What is interesting to me is that it seems a lot of these artists creating with rural themes are not living in a rural setting, or they have lived in the woods only as long as it took to create the art. I wonder if it is the fact that in a way cities are becoming more rural. Not in the sense of more trees, but in the sense of the communities and the sustainability. There is a large and growing population of urban farmers, markets, CSA's and people that are simply being more conscious about their lives. My experience with rural living has always been more about that kind of thing, being conscious of how you fit into your surroundings, more than it has been about the ratio of noise and concrete to trees and wildlife. This is a total guess and I don't like to pretend I know things I don't, but I think it is possibly a sign that people are looking more within themselves and generally being more thoughtful about life and the way they relate to the spaces they inhabit. Or it could simply be what it always is with art, in that something is constantly being romanticized and longed for from afar, and in this case it could just be a wide spread case of young hipsters longing for the country.
FDM: Tell us a little bit about your hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Is this the central inspiration on your music?
BW: Saint Paul is on the North bank of the Mississippi river. It joins the city of Minneapolis and here we call them the Twin Cities. It is the 16th largest metropolitan area in the states. There is a lot of art here and also a lot of music. The streets in Minneapolis are all laid out in a grid, and the streets in Saint Paul are windy and have no consistent pattern. I have lived in Minnesota on and off since I was young. I like coming back here. I like it when it is cold. I like the snow. I don't know if Saint Paul is on my list of direct inspirations, but it is part of my life, and therefore plays a part in anything I create. It was settled by some Irish people I am told, and often times people say that the reason the roads are so windy in Saint Paul is because when they were planning the streets they were all drunk. That's about all I know. When I look out my window I look across the Mississippi river at downtown Saint Paul.
FDM: 'White Snow' is the song from your album that most UK listeners will be familiar with. Can you give us a bit of an insight into the song - it contains some rather unusual lyrics?
BW: I wrote the majority of this new record in Berlin the summer of 2007. One day I met a friend for coffee and we were sitting there and this June bug landed on my hand. As I went to brush it away my friend said, "How many dots does it have on its wing? You know you get one wish for each dot?" Also at this time I was thinking a lot about Tennessee Williams and Wallace Stevens. I was reading some stuff about gardening and I have always wanted a place by the sea with salt on the windows. After that meeting for coffee I guess all those different ideas came together to form that song. This is something I am always trying to do, to join unrelated things together, to put a bunch of strangers in a room and start making them talk to each other. In this case the room being the song, and the strangers being the different ideas. It goes back to the way I experience life and how connected everything is, physically and emotionally.
FDM: There's been quite a few comparisons between your music and Tom Waits. How does being consistently compared to such a seminal artist make you feel?
BW: I don't think a great deal about this. I mean I would rather be compared to people like Tom Waits, than a lot of other people, like the Jonas Brothers or something. When I get compared to other people, especially people who are far more known and at a completely different level of success than I am, I don't see it as something I have to live up to. Like I said before, I make my music because I don't see any other way to get through life. I think Tom Waits is likely the same way, so in that sense it is an honour to be compared to someone like him, or anyone else who creates out of necessity.
FDM: Finally Ben, what is your opinion of the UK's music scene in 2008? Do you see it as the creative/ fertile place it perhaps once was?
BW: That is a hard question because I have spent very little time in the UK in the last year. I know that I am very inspired by Burial, and Joy Division, and I guess between the two of them they represent the way it is and the way it was. But maybe that is ignorant because I don't know a lot of factual stuff about music. I just prefer to listen to it. I think every place in the world has creative potential and its more a matter of what people are doing with it, and weather its getting out into the world or not. It's like romance in that it always seems to be about timing. There is plenty of unknown genius and unrequited love out there in the world to go around, it just has to be found in its own time.
Ben Weaver's album 'The Ax in the Oak' is available now through Bloodshot Records. For more information visit www.benweaver.net
You can read FDM.com's review of 'The Ax in the Oak' by clicking here - http://www.freshdeermeat.com/eatmore.php?id=28
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