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Pop Is Art

Wunderkind Ben Lee brings his irrepressible knack for hooks and choruses to Rockin’ at the Knox

He started making records at 14 years old while just a schoolboy in Sydney, Australia. Now at 30, he’s steadily earned his place as a youthful elder of indie pop.

Ben Lee

Ben Lee was the kid fronting lo-fi garage rock teens Noise Addict when they were signed to a record deal by the Beastie Boys; eventually he rose to international acclaim via a series of stunning yet unpretentious solo records.

Though he’s continued to grow as an artist of depth, one thing hasn’t changed: He still crafts unforgettably catchy songs. Calling from Los Angeles after recently completing the forth-coming The Rebirth of Venus, Lee spoke with AV as he prepared for his first trip the Queen City this Saturday, where he will share the stage with the B-52s and Metric at Rockin’ at the Knox.

AV: So how are you splitting your time across continents these days?

Ben Lee: I’ve lived in the United States for the last 12 years but my career does pretty well in Australia, so I get to back five or six times a year.

AV: What can you tell me about the new record you’ve just finished?

BL: It’s called The Rebirth of Venus. A lot of it is up, really up, fun, sing-along songs, but less pop songs. It’s about the ideas of the world being a little bit out of balance. To my mind, a lot of it is about how the world and human race has gotten too masculine about the way we deal with the economy, the military, emotions, and indigenousness cultures. I wanted to make this record and sort of celebrate the tender touch not just of women but of femininity, you know?

AV: Is it along the lines of progressing from where you were heading with 2005’s Awake Is the New Sleep and 2007’s Ripe?

BL: You sort of have to believe that there’s some of trajectory being formed as you’re making records, but at the same time they are sort of each…you go in and make what’s interesting to you at the time. It’s cool because I do so much music—making all kinds of records and side projects and stuff—so when it comes to making an “official” album there’s less pressure on it. I like the creative process and I like it to be low anxiety. I think you can touch a certain sort of creative truth by not putting pressure on yourself.

AV: So in between making the new record and last year’s Ripe, you do something like Ben Lee Sings Against Me!’s New Wave, which you leaked to the internet?

BL: Yeah, and I do a soundtrack to an Australian film, or work with a bunch of different artists. The cool thing about having a career for 15 years is that you’re not going to put out a record like a band like Vampire Weekend…a sexy, right out of the box, bright young thing. It’s liberating. You can do whatever you want.

AV: You’ve never made the same record twice. Was that something you were working toward?

BL: Perhaps naively, I always felt my creative journey, my growth as a human being, my maturity and spirituality were all connected. I look at all these amazing bands that come out and they’ve all crafted this thing that they were into and what they were going to sound like, but I don’t know. I’m sort of in awe how careerist a lot of artists are. I’ve always been of the mind that my primary job was to be honest and I think it might have worked to my disadvantage in a career sense. If I was to meet my younger self now, my advice would probably be to not make such drastic jumps between albums because you do lose fans that way…but that’s just in a “career” sense. By the same token—in a “human being” sense—I’m very proud for being brave and making each record that I wanted to make. Ultimately, it’s more important to be a human being you can be proud of than being an artist you can be proud of.

AV: When you look back to being a young kid, 14 or 15 years old, and making a record like the early Noise Addict recordings or your solo debut Grandpa Would, do the songs still hold up?

BL: I think craftwise, they were good songs. They had catchy melodies. A pop song is not rocket science. Either you get it stuck in your head or you don’t. I think they’re good songs. I was much more guarded as a youngster and I had more of a sense of wanting to impress, which works against a true piece of art versus a pop song. The really great pop songs do both: They show craftsmanship but are also naked and vulnerable. The early songs, to me, weren’t like that. But I don’t know if you should be making songs like that at 14. [He laughs.] My songs then were about wanting to be cool! That’s totally appropriate material to be writing about as a teenager.

AV: It’s funny to imagine you as a kid at 14 writing songs about worshipping Lemonheads’ Evan Dando [“I Wish I Was Him”] and flashing forward 10 years, when you’re writing song for him [“Hard Drive”] to record.

BL: Life’s always been a bit funny like that. It’s not necessarily fate but I’ve enjoyed watching my life play out as though I’m a spectator of it. It’s had a number of twists and turns that have had a certain kind of comedic value like that.

AV: On the new record you’ve returned to work with Brad Wood. Was it necessary to work with people like Britpop maestro Ed Buller or avant hip-hop experimenter Dan the Automator to be able to go back and refresh that relationship?

BL: It’s not just producers but also bands I’ve worked with and toured with. I’ve never worked with a producer who I haven’t learned from. The trick is to take the lesson and make it yours…I’ve learned lessons from everyone, whether it was from Jonathan Richman or Jay-Z. I try and keep my mind young and keep my head in a place where I want to learn. There’s a nice value to that humility.

AV: Has the 15 years flown by or has it gone slow?

BL: It’s been a mixture. On one hand it feels like it was gone in second, but on the other I look at what I have now and I can’t believe how long it’s been. I feel lucky. I feel very blessed. It’s cool looking at it as a whole.

AV: You are finally coming to Buffalo. It’s long overdue, isn’t it?

BL: Yeah. It’s also taken a while, but I’m psyched to play with B-52s and Metric!

Ben Lee plays at the Albright-Knox’s Rockin’ at the Knox on Saturday, September 27, at 5pm.

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