Ben Weaver Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Feb 26th 2010 4:30PM by Carl Atiya Swanson
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Ben Weaver has a voice and style suited to his Minnesota heritage -- a gravelly rumble like country roads, and an ear for stark detail like trees stripped bare in snow. The Minneapolis-based songwriter has released six records, most recently 2008's 'The Ax in the Oak,' drawing comparisons from the likes of the New York Times to early Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen. Weaver has also published two books of poetry and drawings. Like the old settlers on the prairies, he's working to carve out his own sonic and artistic landscape. Before he ventures down to Austin for SXSW, Weaver took a minute to talk to Spinner about his inability to explain why he makes music, what keeps him balanced between his artistic practices and why he hates the Beatles.

How would you describe your sound?

I don't know, I'd say I write songs about things that people think about but don't talk [about]. I just like to write songs about animals and grocery carts and things. I don't really know, because I don't try to describe my music. That's why I make music.

Who are your musical influences?

Probably the old blues and old troubadours. Old blues people like Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, people like that. I don't know what I do -- I just do it, and that's what I identify with about the blues. It's not a question of what you're doing. You just do it because you have to. I like anything that has any kind of soul or necessity to it. Obviously there's people like Howling Wolf that I can list off that were doing it in that way, but in a larger sense I'm just interested in doing it because I have to. That is what inspired me more than any specific genre or any specific person. It was recognizing there is something inside of you that needs to come out, and you are going to let it out.You wrote most of your last record, 'The Ax in the Oak,' in Berlin. How do you use travel for inspiration?

I just really like to travel. I find being in a new place, everything looks different -- the future and the past and the present. Sometimes it's just easier not only to be inspired, but to have some sort of perspective on your life when you're not looking at in the Petri dish, so to speak. I just like to move around. That's part of why I wanted to play music in the first place.

'The Ax in the Oak' was released in 2008. Have you been working on new material?

I just finished a new record. I took most of last year off and got a job. I worked my first job in eight years as a line cook. I needed to get away from music and get a different perspective on things. I went through some personal stuff, got divorced, and I felt like I had spent eight years doing nothing but going for it, feeling like I was constantly gone. I just wanted to slow down a little bit. I recorded a new record in January and we got some pieces of the puzzle to put together, so it's probably not going to come out until the fall. It's called 'Poor Fir,' and I'm in the process of writing another one right now.

You are also a visual artist and a short story writer. How do those practices relate to your music?

Sometimes if I write a song and it doesn't really work out, I'll take a piece of it and use it in something else. There will be an image that makes me want to draw something, or vice versa. So I guess in that sense they kind of play off each other. But they all come from the place of having a lot of s--- in my head that I need to do something with.

With all your various practices, do you have any desire to put together work incorporating all those aspects?

I think for the most part I'm happy with the way they're existing. Some of the video things I'm planning for the new record, I sort of did on my last record with one of the videos that I made. I made the video [for 'White Snow'] myself, with some of the drawings I animated out a car widow. That was an example of music and drawing coming together. That's the way that I see them helping each other. The necessity to do stuff myself kind of dictates the arts and how they come together, but I don't have some idea of being on stage and singing songs and projecting images and reading poetry. I kind of like that they all exist in different places, because I can go back and forth between them. By doing one thing it gives me a break from the other thing, and I can come back with fresh eyes or ears.

Do you have anything you've learned on tour that helps you?

I'm sure I do [laughs]! This isn't very specific, but I think the most I've learned has come from tours that I've done with people who have done this a lot longer than I have. Just watching people command not only themselves but the environment, who have done it longer -- you absorb and learn a lot that way. I remember tours by hotel rooms and backstages. I love that. I love strange places that you find yourself in.

The Beatles or the Stones?

John Lennon. I hate the Beatles but I love John Lennon. I love the Stones, but John Lennon, I don't think you beat John Lennon. I hate the Beatles because I can't stand Paul McCartney and George Harrison. They just drive me absolutely crazy. Their voices -- I hate their voices.

Carl Atiya Swanson is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.