Former child prodigy and current indie darling Ben Kweller will play alongside headliner Incubus Oct. 6 at the Alltel Pavillion. RECESS music editor Robert Winterode speaks with the singer-songwritin’ wunderkind about his sophomore album, On the Way, what to expect from his live show.
Recess: If you can, explain the cover of On The Way. Is there any symbolism there?
Well, originally, I just thought it would look really cool to have me standing with a pack of wolves. It was just really a visual thing. But now when I look back I can see the symbolism with the wolves because they mate for life and they travel in packs and they’re warriors. It sort of goes hand in hand with the lyrics of the album because my new album is a lot about family and friends and keeping them as close as possible.
What genre of music would you say you fit into?
My music’s just rock ’n roll. I kind of see myself following in the footsteps of people like Neil Young who just do their own music and experiment. It’s kind of hard to pigeonhole them into a category.
Who are your favorite bands?
Kings of Leon. The Strokes. Adam Green. They’re basically people I’m already friends with and people I know.
You’ve been making the rounds in music magazines. I swear in one issue of Rolling Stone, you must’ve been in there three different times. You outBritneyed Britney. Do you care to shed some light on that?
The truth is I was going out a lot in New York and I regularly play private concerts at places like Spin.... But maybe one reason for that is that I see so many bands out there right now who just want critical acclaim and once a group starts caring about the press, that’s what going to screw them up. I’m just doing my own thing outside of all that. Maybe people notice.
What can people expect at the upcoming concert?
I’m playing a short really high-energy show. I think I’ll first come out with my cover of "Ice Ice Baby"—that’s the part of the show, where people usually say, "Who the f--- is this guy?" And then I’ll probably do a few of my faster songs and a piano ballad.
You’re touring cross-country with Incubus and playing in larger venues, what’s the response been so far?
I’ve been really surprised that they’ve been so into it. I’m not playing my acoustic set or many of my ballads. I’ve got to perform the more up-tempo songs for the kids.
And I also know that you also recently toured and recorded in a side-project called the Bens [a joint collaboration among Kweller, Ben Folds Five and Ben Lee]. How did that come about?
It was just something that happened out of the blue really. We’re all friends and we were hanging out in Ben Folds’ studio and we just started recording. We didn’t even tell our labels because we didn’t want any false expectations.
Okay, my all-time favorite Ben Kweller song is "In Other Words," but I’ve been meaning to ask you about the line that talks about passive-aggressive butterflies…
Well, I meant like butterflies are so beautiful and they really don’t have any problems, at least compared to our lives. The passive-aggressive thing just sounded good when I wrote it down. I’m not sure what it means. People keep asking me about that. Maybe the next time we talk, I’ll have the answer.
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