Ben Lee: Changing The World, One Pop Song At A Time
» Ben Lee to tour Australia with a whole bunch of friends - August 8, 2005
» Ben Lee + Missy Higgins - Tolosa Park, Tas - October 19, 2005
» Ben Lee - Ripe for the picking - October 15, 2007
» Ben Lee - self realisation is not a dirty word - July 14, 2005
“Once I saw Fabio, outside a burrito joint”
The LA-based Ben Lee is talking about magical LA. “Initially I had more fans here anyway” he explains. “It’s about the same numbers-wise but it means more in Australia. There's lots of opportunities, plus I like a challenge”
When he is not doing the rounds in sunny Los Angeles, he is promoting his latest record, The Rebirth of Venus which he describes as “an eclectic, collage-y record.”
“It’s got a little more politics on it” Lee states, “a bit more femininity”
“I’m a bit divorced from the process of the way people react to the music I make” he says when asked of the process of making any record, especially the business side of things.
“I’ve just gotten more and more consumed with the process of making it. Some things I do slip under the radar and other things draw people in. I don’t want anything distasteful done, things are run by me, but I don’t spend all my time coming up with Marketing plans. If you make good records and write good songs, at the end of the day, they find their way to their audience” Lee says happily. This is his deal; he is a pleasant character.
“A pop song is so egalitarian, it’s for everyone” he explains when I ask him of the importance of Pop Music in this day and age. Pop is considered a dirty word to the more elitist and snobbish punters who cream their jeans listening to Sigur Ros. “
Catchy is catchy” Lee says wholly. “I don’t think Catch My Disease is a phrase a lot of five year olds can relate to, but they enjoy the song [laughs]. Fashion changes every five minutes” I mention having heard him say, in an ARIA acceptance speech that “Pop music can change the world”. While many jeered, I found the notion quite prophetic and optimistic.
“Pop music can change the world, it’s changed mine; it can have collective, big effects. It’s easier to think that something is a dead because it absolves you from doing anything in or about it. People get cynical. Cynical is comfortable cosy, womb-like...it’s hard for all of us to think outside the box in the world we’ve come to know. It’s just about keeping your own integrity and believing in what you do. I’m just making sense of my life”
As we wrap up our short spell, Ben signs off: “Be well, hey?”
Thanks, Ben, I’ll try!
Ben Lee plays the Festival Theatre in Adelaide on the 13th and 14th of March before heading to Europe.
The Rebirth of Venus is out now through Dew Process/ Universal.
