Wishing Kwell

Jewish Telegraph, June 2002

BEN Kweller celebrates his 21st birthday in nine days — yet he is already a veteran of the music business. San Francisco-born Kweller burst onto the scene as a 14-year-old with Radish.
The group released three albums and enjoyed top 40 success in Britain.
‘‘I suppose we were marketed as the rock Hanson,’’ Ben said. ‘‘There were lots of young groups around that time, but you can’t help how old you are.’’
Ben describes his parents as ‘‘hippies from the East Coast. We moved to Texas and I grew up in a small town called Greenville.
‘‘As the only Jewish family in the town I always felt left of centre. Being a Jew in a small town helped me form my identity. It was cool; everything in my life has been different.
‘‘I am proud to be Jewish. I was barmitzvah and continued to go to cheder and talk to the rabbi. He was a cool, modern thinking. I attended a progressive but conservative synagogue.
‘‘I fell in love with the ideals that the rabbi talked about. I’m not religious now but I like to go to shool.’’
Of his home life, Ben says: ‘‘There were always instruments in our house; I couldn’t escape it.
‘‘My father taught me the drums. Someone else taught me to play Heart and Soul on the piano. I saw the chord pattern and thought ‘OK, what if I play the first key, skip the second one, go straight to the third then back to the second key, and then the fourth one?
‘‘I did it and it sounded completely different than Heart and Soul.
‘‘After that, I started writing words modelled after the ‘girls’ and ‘love’ in Beatles songs my parents would blast through their stereo.
‘‘I was seven years old and hardly knew what a girl was but figured this is what you sing about when you write songs.’’
Aged 12, Ben was given his first guitar, a Fender Stratocaster.
‘‘I learnt the E and A chords and wrote songs using them,’’ he recalled. Two years later he formed his first band, being driven to gigs by his parents.
Then came Radish. After one independent album, Dizzy, the band were signed to Mercury, releasing Restraining Bolt.
‘‘I was extremely naive,’’ Ben says. ‘‘I was happy to be travelling the world. Give me a stage and I’m happy.’’
But at the back of Ben’s mind, he was worried that the threepiece band would become too big.
‘‘I hoped we wouldn’t be huge because when it died down I’d always be remembered as the boy genius.’’
But Radish fell apart after recording their third album, Discount Fireworks.
‘‘Our record company was in the middle of a merger and we were just waiting around,’’ he adds. ‘‘We all started doing different things. I moved to New York to be with my girlfriend Liz.
‘‘Radish was fun but it was time to move on.’’
Ben recorded his first solo album, Freakout, on a computer in his apartment.
‘‘I sold the album at gigs,’’ he added. ‘‘It was like the last unreleased Radish album with more experimentation.’’
Later this year, Ben releases his new album, Sha Sha (679 Recordings). The album will include some of Freakout re-recorded.
In the meantime, Ben has his debut EP Phone Home released later this month.
He is already receiving plenty of radio support, most notably from Jo Whiley on Radio One, whilst his support slot on the Mull Historical Society tour has also widened his fan base.
‘‘It’s been a good tour,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve been signing 40–50 CDs a night.
‘‘In America, the EP and Sha Sha have been out a while and doing really well, selling around 20,000. I can’t believe it is all happening so naturally.
‘‘This is how it should be done.’’