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By Forrest Reda
Ben Harper |
On the day that Ben Harper seized his destiny, destiny didn't even know he was coming. His dear friend and manager, J.P. Plunier, had arranged a meeting with the proverbial Mr. Big at a record company to drop off a demo. When Ben rolled in with his Dobro, the bemused executive let the young kid with the poofy afro do his thing, and the rest, as they say, is history.
"I had ambitions and dreams way beyond anything imaginable, but at the same time, I was a very green, very young slide guitar player," Harper says. "As far reaching as my ambitions and dreams were, and still are, I always kept a humility about them because I knew the music was against the grain of pop culture. I started by saying, 'If I can feed myself, I'll be cool,' and just kind of built it from that."
Harper is talking to me from Chicago, where he has just visited the radio station XRT to play some songs from his new double album, Both Sides of the Gun.
It is an extraordinary album that shows Harper reaching back to his roots while pushing himself to musical places he's never been. Harper is responsible for producing the album as well. Take note, Both Sides of the Gun shows Ben Harper at his still-rising best, a superstar pushing the limits of his field, fulfilling his potential and at times, perhaps even exceeding it.
Both Sides of the Gun has a wonderful live feel, a presence that is discernible. Harper explains, "I learned that [producing] is its own gig, its own share, separate from the playing, the singing, the writing. It's definitely a distinctly individual task, separate from the rest, and I enjoyed it."
JamBase: The overall production of the album has some aspects, you can hear things in the studio that some producers would frown upon - well maybe not frown upon, but it's a dirty sound, a live-sounding record.
Ben Harper by Pamela Martinez |
Harper: Yep, I know what you mean when you say "frowned upon."
JamBase: You know, just different from the norm.
Harper: Flawed. It's sonically appropriate where necessary, it's flawed where necessary. I think this record for me, if I can sort of, ya know, espouse my own opinions about myself momentarily...
JamBase: Please do.
Harper: I think it's a good cross between produced and reckless abandon.
JamBase: I think you are right. When I was listening to it last night, some moments I could practically see the bow sliding across the cello.
In Harper's press release, he mentions you can't call one disc hard and one disc soft, "because sometimes the soft stuff hits you harder than anything else." He's right. The slide guitar solo on "Reason to Mourn" comes on like a hurricane.
JamBase: Did recording the record in Silverlake add to the sound of the record?
Ben Harper by Forrest Reda |
Harper: I think so. It's a funky studio. The studio does have a personality. I like to think I could have made this record anywhere, and at the same time, I'd like to think that the studio's personality played a role on the record as well.
Harper has long given fans their Hendrix fix, belted out Marvin Gaye for the ladies, and given us Stevie Wonder tunes to enjoy. But thanks to learning the art of studio vocals with the Blind Boys of Alabama, it seems that anything is possible from Harper, from James Brown to Cat Stevens, and he's still going to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What good is a man
Who won't take a stand?
What good is a cynic
With no better plan?
Harper said that working with the Blind Boys of Alabama on the critically acclaimed, two-time Grammy-winning 2004 collaboration There Will Be a Light turned him into a singer instead of a person who sings. Along with the Blind Boys, Harper has been studying with the Funk Brothers, by performing with them on Standing in the Shadows of Motown, which was in turn followed by the riveting Live at the Apollo DVD. The man has been to the school of soul, and if this is his thesis, he graduates at the top of his class.
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People inherently need to complain; it's part of the human experience. And that's cool. If you're not challenging your own status quo, you're creatively stagnant and therefore you're not growing within your art form and that is a direction, a road, that I'm not interested in going down.
-Ben Harper
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Photo by Jay Blakesberg
JamBase: What's the greatest thing you learned from The Blind Boys of Alabama?
Harper with The Blind Boys of Alabama |
Harper: If I'm pressed to just distinguish one, it would probably be their tireless energy in the studio and their enthusiasm to try different things, as well as a fearless abandon when it comes to just getting the take and not worrying about it. They just do it, and they nail it. It's not big overdubs, they just go in. Because they're from the school of where when you made records, you got one shot. When you come up for so many years having one take, when you've got a half-hour in the studio... They even come from the school where when you cut records, it's direct to disc. What's logged, what you're doing is going straight down, being cut on a lathe, and then the records are being pressed from there.
So when you come from the school of one take, it gives you a certain confidence in the studio, which I had really never seen in anyone before. It was incredible to watch that old-school fearless recording approach. Where it's not cerebral, they get out of the way of their heads and thoughts and go straight from the soul. So to witness that was a huge influence on how I make music.
JamBase: I think you have gone to another level with the way you use your voice.
Ben Harper by George Weiss |
Harper: That comes full-circle to your first question, "What does it mean to be a producer?" You have to be self-disciplined enough, if you're going to produce yourself, to push yourself to places that are uncomfortable and either land somewhere or work your way back from it."
Radio airplay hasn't been the key to Harper's success as much as massive word-of-mouth, excellent records, passionate performances, and a sound that changes. Someone told their friend about the amazing song they had heard, and they told their friends. Their parents liked it too. It has soul. Harper channels everyone from the Stones to Bob Dylan on this record.
Ben Harper is a fan's artist, a critic's artist, and an artist's artist. He achieved fame outside the United States before becoming one of our biggest touring acts with The Innocent Criminals. He has an intense presence onstage and a voice like velvet.
JamBase: Describe the role reversal, having your manager J.P. play drums on "Crying Won't Help You Know."
Ben Harper |
Harper: It was great to get him under the mic, so to speak.
JamBase: How many takes?
Harper: One take. On that track he plays bass, drum, guitar, and vocals.
Some days I'm the Lord's servant
Some days I'm Satan's pawn
Some days I just wish
The voices in my head were gone
JamBase: Obviously there is a duality to this album. Does everyone have two sides?
Harper: It's hard for me to answer for the masses, but I do think we're not one person all the time and I do think that I serve my different personal instincts through my musical leanings.
JamBase: I've argued with my friends about whether evil has to exist or if this world could be all light without darkness.
Ben Harper |
Harper: Good versus evil definitely plays itself out and personifies itself in our day-to-day realities, to different degrees with different people in different environments and different circumstances. The main thing with me on this record was... If I would have made a faster record with a couple of token slow songs, people would have said, "Oh, what happened to his soft stuff?" If I would have made an all slow record with a couple token fast songs, people would have said, "Oh, where's all his fast stuff?" If I make a double record, people are going to say, "Ooohhh, a double record." People inherently need to complain; it's part of the human experience. And that's cool. If you're not challenging your own status quo, you're creatively stagnant and therefore you're not growing within your art form and that is a direction, a road, that I'm not interested in going down.
JamBase: It's been exciting watching you become more of a showman over the years, leading the band instead of sitting in its midst.
Ben Harper by Pamela Martinez |
Harper: [Putting on a show] has its place, and people say, "Where are all the political songs?" Things have to come at their proper time. I'm not always going to sing songs that are politically charged. I'm not always going to sing love songs. I'm not always going to sing reggae music. I'm not always going to sing "Welcome to the Cruel World." I mean, I love Welcome to the Cruel World and Fight For Your Mind, but sonically, I'm in a different place. And I think it's a clearer musical place, quite frankly. I don't need to insult those records to build these records up, but I think if I put this record out first, and put Fight For Your Mind out now, people would have said, "What happened to Both Sides of the Gun?"
JamBase: What's with the fascination with guns?
Harper: I know, because I'm such an anti-gun cat. I don't believe that anyone should have them. I think in the long run, they'll probably be our own undoing, especially in America where we are the ass-end of gun control, but that's another story for another interview. In this case, the guns are just sort of a metaphor.
Living these days is making me nervous
Archaic doctrines no longer serve us
Now we're left as silent witnesses
We don't know quite what this is
Other than a war that can't be won
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I don't believe that anyone should have them [guns]. I think in the long run, they'll probably be our own undoing, especially in America where we are the ass-end of gun control, but that's another story for another interview. In this case, the guns are just sort of a metaphor.
-Ben Harper
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Harper's slow songs initially grabbed our hearts his anthems of social change influenced and informed us, and his reggae-roots-rock has inspired and delighted us. Harper successfully moved from singer-songwriter to bandleader and activist for change. Seven albums into a career that has taken Harper around the world and back, he still has the fire inside and the will to use his voice as a weapon for light in a world filled with darkness.
JamBase: I travel as much as I can, but you are truly a citizen of the world. Tell me about America's reputation overseas.
Ben Harper |
Harper: America has no concept of how it is viewed internationally - none whatsoever. And if it did, it would be quite shocked. It definitely needs a heightened level of international diplomacy and communication.
It won't be long 'till the people flood the streets
And take you down one and all
A black rain is gonna fall
JamBase: "Black Rain" is the most overtly political song. Describe your intentions.
Harper: I'm letting out a voice of dissent in order to make clear that this kind of situation, this circumstance can't stand, not in America, not anywhere in the world. To show that kind of disregard for human life in the face of tragedy is the ultimate governmental slap in the face to not only the impoverished, but also just the mildly less fortunate. And it can't stand. It can't stand without there being a call to arms for at the very least impeachment. I think Bush should be brought up on charges of human endangerment. And a country that doesn't collectively call for that, I am kind of disappointed in.
JamBase: You are playing this summer in Europe, Australia, Japan – basically everywhere. Where would you like to play that you haven't gotten to yet?
Ben Harper |
Harper: I would like play in Alaska, and I would like to play in Eastern Europe. I've never been to the far east of Europe. I would like to get to Czechoslovakia and Prague, Russia, Poland. I've spent a lot less time in America since Bush has been in office.
JamBase: Yeah. It's changed since 2001. During the last election, friends of mine said they would move to New Zealand or Costa Rica if he won again, and he won again. Still, it's hard to say whether you should stay and fight or leave to escape the craziness.
Harper: I've got an idea. Planes hijacked by a majority of Saudi Arabians fly into the Towers, and we go after Iraq. Meanwhile, Iran has the most fierce uranium production program going. I mean it's just... But at the same time, are we the bully on the block? Are we the only ones that get to have nuclear weapons and every one else doesn't? Because if that's the case, then everyone else is going to rally together to collectively come at us because no one likes a bully, especially an arrogant bully. That's why I say America has to wield their "power" far more sensibly and sensitively if it's to be taken seriously in the international community.
Politics, it's a drag
They put one foot in the grave
And the other on the flag
System's rotten to the core
Young and old deserve much more
Than struggling every day until you're done
Harper: And it gets even dirtier when it's a war that his father fought and didn't finish. It's sitting on that level of sins of the father, ya know?
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Are we the bully on the block? Are we the only ones that get to have nuclear weapons and every one else doesn't? Because if that's the case, then everyone else is going to rally together to collectively come at us because no one likes a bully, especially an arrogant bully. That's why I say America has to wield their "power" far more sensibly and sensitively if it's to be taken seriously in the international community.
-Ben Harper
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JamBase: And when you think of Bush as an oil man who bought a baseball team and then became governor of Texas, it's like a monarchy. It's scary.
Ben Harper by Danny Clinch |
Harper: Dude, I mean, check this out, man... How deep do you wanna go with this shit? Because George Bush, Sr. - how long was he running the CIA? What, 13, 15 years or something? Whoever runs the CIA is running the country, basically. Then the guy becomes Vice President for eight years, and no offense to Ronnie, but he was kind of going downhill health-wise for a minute. So basically [George Bush] Sr. and Nancy are running the country, right? So then you've got eight years of him being Vice President. Add that to 15 and you've got 23 years of Sr. being behind the scenes, right? Then four years of his presidency, so then you've got 27 years of him being the puppet master? Okay, so then Clinton comes along, cleans his clock. Then he gets his son back in for another eight and surrounds his son with all of his puppets. You know he's controlling that show for [George Bush] Jr., Cheney, and the good ol' boys club. So that's like 35 years of a political social regression at the hands of the Bush. And we've suffered on all fronts - socially, culturally, and environmentally. Tax cuts for the rich - rich people don't need tax cuts and politicians. Rich people are self-governed for the most part. Poor people need fucking government. Poor people need political systems to help THEM. If you're rich, what do rich people need government for? To fix the potholes in the street basically. Government should be structured in and around the working class and for the poor. No one who makes under $40,000 a year should pay a penny in taxes. People who make between $40,000 and $80,000? It should be a graduated scale. There should be socialized health care. I mean if you really want to get knee-deep in this kind of stuff, it's an endless conversation.
Ben Harper |
JamBase: It is, and I would love to talk with you for hours about that, but I'm going to have to wheel it back into the album. I'm sorry for talking so much politics.
Harper: These are politically challenging time, and it's bound to come up in conversation.
JamBase: Okay, let's ease back into it. I'll say someone's name, and you say what comes to mind.
JamBase: Leon Mobley.
Harper: Oh man, his smile lights up the stage.
JamBase: Marc Ford.
Harper: Man, I think The Black Crowes are the most important rock band out there, and I am super excited for them and their reunion with pretty much the original nucleus there. They are just taking names and kicking ass, absolutely. I sat in with them about three months ago in L.A., and I can't wait to do it again.
Ben Harper by Pamela Martinez |
JamBase: Damian Marley.
Harper: You know what? Of course it's a special feeling to be with anyone connected to Bob, especially family, but I'm connected to Damian because of his music, not his father's. Damian is extraordinarily talented, and I'm honored to be on the road with him.
So in that manner, I brought the interview back to talking about the music, even though the music describes itself. I did ask him about the sweet-sounding "Happy Everafter In Your Eyes," a beautiful ode to a child.
Harper said: Heath Ledger is a really good friend of mine, and he called me up one day and he was having a baby. And he said, would you write a lullaby for my little girl? That's not really the kind of thing that I'm accustomed to doing, but right when he said it, a melody shot through me. I went straight to the piano and it was done in an instant.
JamBase: That's a great story. Are you going to be playing piano on tour this summer?
Harper: I haven't. I might do it on this tour. I just might. I might do a version of "Roses From My Friends" on the piano. I'm thinking about knocking that out.
JamBase: That would be pretty intense.
Harper: I'm just excited to be talking about it. I'm excited about the record, and I'm excited to be making the statements that are out there in the world right now. At this time, at this stage of my life, I'm really just glad to talk to you about it.
Ben Harper has issued a call-to-arms on the fiercely political new album Both Sides of the Gun. He has created his most diverse album to date by letting both sides of his personality shine through: the soulful songwriter and the intense activist.
The singer-songwriter could have used his uber-sweet voice to make a career out of mellow acoustic songs, but instead, he continues to educate while entertaining. He's a global ambassador for a generation that lives in a country governed by fear. Ben Harper's message is worn firmly out front. He does not abide to any man except his own soul. He had this advice for his fans coming out to see him this summer, "Make your voice heard. Vote. Be proactive in your own community, and that is bound to spread and to extend beyond your reach. Anything that can or does contribute to elevating culture and the collective conscious of your community is change.
Throw your hands up to the sky
And scream I'm not alone
Is it irony or fate?
Don't become what you hate
We've all got stardust in our bones
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