Interviewing Ben Harper
August 7th, 2007
Ben Harper @ Virgin Festival, Baltimore, August 2007 - click to rate this photo
Long before my job was interviewing bands and artists, I always came from the school of thought that if I really liked someone’s music and then met them only to realize I didn’t quite dig them as a person or couldn’t seem to connect with them at all…it had an effect on how that same music hit my ears after the encounter.
Conversely, I can sit through an entire set and listen to a full album of music I don’t totally dig if it’s from a person who I consider a good human being or that I have some sort of connection with. It might seem stupid, but it’s always how I’ve worked.
Today however, I interviewed Ben Harper, who I’ve been listening to for 10 years and rank him high on my list of favourite songwriters. Without a doubt one of the coolest dudes I have ever met and if it’s possible, I’m a bigger fan now than I have ever been.
His new album comes out August 28 - it’s called Lifeline. One of the perks of my job is advance copies…it is a brilliant collection of songs. Mark the date on your calendar and buy it!
Watch for that interview on the Loop Weekend in the coming weeks, and THIS weekend check out interviews with Tegan and Sara, Two Hours Traffic and…Hanson, yes Hanson. I’m still listening to their new album, and I don’t need Bono to tell me they are great songwriters, all I had to do was listen. Furthermore, since they were such nice dudes…I am happy to keep listening.
And yes, it is possible to listen to Bad Brains, Slayer…and Hanson - I have just proven it.
MMMMMMBop.
=mw
Photograph Courtesy Getty Images
Posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 5:54 pm by Matt Wells and is filed under Music & Videos.
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4 Responses to “Interviewing Ben Harper”
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Golly! Is my face ever red (and it ain’t just the sunburn talking. Though that’s half of it. No. 60/40 embarrassment to sunburn. 30/70.)
I’ll own up to a gaffe. The sites that I pull new releases from are broadly reliable, to the point where I’ve never second guessed (and triple checked) the information. While the Ben Harper DVD is listed as an August 7 drop date from V.I.E.W. Inc. on videoeta.com (http://videoeta.com/movie/95579), and could possibly be a small scale release — done without Harper’s permission or awareness? Scandal!– it’s not listed on the TK lists of major sites (a l’Amazon) or Harper’s homepage. I should have checked, but come now Miss Nicole, back up the ol’ interview research. Not to wag a finger. Either we’re both at fault or neither of us are at fault. The latter is flattering, the former more likely to be true.
Is this the part where we agree to disagree that the two parties involved should be less passive and Ben should remain exactly as he is: Super nice, approachable and charming?
I’m curious to sniff this out and see what the status of the DVD is. Until I know, the reference has been removed from the enhanced screen. Thanks for giving us a heads up and glad to hear your tete-a-tete went well.
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i love ben’s cover of the verve’s “the drugs don’t work”. great song!
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hehe yep, admittedly I should’ve double checked the ticker, but I was in a rush to interview him the morning I saw it!!! He laughed and said that perhaps the ticker is from the future, because he would, in fact, love to play Poland and other Eastern European countries. So there ya have it! Ben’s a champ.
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I, too, interviewed Ben Harper today, and I have to say that thanks to MuchMoreMusic’s erroneous news ticker, made a fool of myself! Well, not really - we laughed it off, BUT the news ticker says that Ben Harper has a “Live In Poland” DVD coming out this week, which I found out from the source is NOT true. Someone should fix this!
Other than that, I agree that Ben is super nice, approachable and charming in real life.
NK