July 25, 2022 13:28
Ben Harper is kind. Every gesture of him seems to be calibrated to the millimeter to put the person he is talking to at ease. He spells out the words, smiles, he likes to ask questions and not just receive them. He is hooking up on Zoom from his Los Angeles home, wearing a green T-shirt and an orange cap. In the background you can see a wooden cabinet where skateboard decks (his favorite sport of him) are stored, but paintings and guitar cases also pop up. “Since I was twenty, the same thing has happened every day: I wake up, make myself coffee, pick up an instrument and sit down in front of a blank page. Filling that page is a battle with myself, ”says the musician. “I learned that you can also put hundreds of instruments in a song but, in my case, in the end guitar and vocals are enough and advance. This time, however, it was different, very different ”.
Harper refers to Bloodline maintenance, his latest album, released on July 22nd. An album in which, in addition to the guitar and the lap steel, he also played bass, drums and percussion, exploring for the first time different rhythmic territories and structures than in the past. The emblem of the new course is the splendid Problem child, a piece dominated by an irregular rhythm and by the winds of jazzman Geoff Burke, a friend of Harper’s, a kind of jazz punk that refers to certain things of Morphine. “This piece is about myself thirty years ago and myself thirty days ago, but also about the conversations I keep having with my father inside my head,” explains Harper.
The bloodlinethe lineage evoked by the title, is one of the main sources of inspiration for the songs. Bloodline maintenance comes from absence. The absence of Harper’s father, who died several years ago, who was of African American and Cherokee descent and separated from his mother, a white woman, when the musician was only five years old. And the most recent absence of a friend, bassist Juan Nelson, backbone of the Innocent Criminals, Harper’s historic band, who passed away in June 2021 at the age of 62.
“The music I listen to always finds a way to free me from pain. The one I compose even more. It is a cathartic and necessary process. Much of this record was composed with bass, it had never happened to me. It was a way to feel close to Juan. The lyrics, on the other hand, came out of imaginary conversations with my father ”. What will the new Innocent Criminals be like, who will be touring this summer with Ben Harper for six dates in Italy – the first in Palmanova (Ud) on August 2, the last in Brescia on August 11 – without Nelson? “It will be impossible to replace Juan, because with only one instrument he could be a bassist, a wind section, a keyboard, a gospel choir and a second guitarist at the same time. To fill that void I had to expand the band to six elements and find a new sound. And I also did it thanks to Bloodline maintenance. Even after his death, Juan was a guide for me ”.
With the new Innocent Criminals Ben Harper will also shoulder the pop star Harry Styles for 15 dates in Inglewood in California. “I’m really happy. Harry is a wonderful human being. When we were in the studio together to record Boyfriends, a track from his latest album, we first sat down to eat. Can you imagine a better way to start a session? ”Jokes the musician.
Ben Harper has always had a close relationship with the black music tradition. After all, he grew up in an instrument shop, the Folk music center in Claremont, California, which was owned by his maternal grandparents. The past is a constant source of inspiration for him. And also this time there are explicit homages to his musical ancestors: for example in the single We need to talk about it – a protest song about slavery and racism where the line “You’re either a Christian or a racist, you can’t be both” stands out, you are Christian or racist, you can’t be both – it seems to refer to Mavis Staples, with the which he has collaborated several times in the past years. “Besides Mavis, my models are the usual ones: Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder. That verse about being a Christian is obvious if you think about it, even though many people who are subscribed to my Instagram don’t think so, ”she laughs. And what do you respond to fans who criticize him for his political positions? “I honestly don’t know what to do with it, I’m going my own way and staying true to my principles. Some time ago I said: ‘If you are a supporter of Donald Trump, don’t listen to my music anymore’. I don’t really care if a fan of mine is a Democrat or a Republican, I just don’t tolerate meanness. Trump is as much a Republican as I am a Martian. He has nothing to do with what America stands for, ”he adds.
Another piece that seems to come from the past is Honey, honey, one that Harper is most attached to. “It made me think of Ray Charles. That kind of sound isn’t often heard in modern music. I tried to do what Mark Ronson did with Amy Winehouse, to make contemporary the soul of the past ”.
Speaking of landmarks, while recording Bloodline maintenance Ben Harper had it in mind Mule variations by Tom Waits, the great singer-songwriter born in Pomona, just like him. “When I first listened to that record in 1999 I thought: ‘How is it possible that Tom Waits made such a record after more than twenty years of career? He had reconnected with the roots of American music, he had returned to the sound of his origins of him and yet he had done a modern thing. It is very difficult to do such a thing, it means still having fresh ears. With this record I tried to do something similar: to tie myself to the past to find a new path, to fight again against the blank page “.
But has Ben Harper ever suffered from writer’s block? “Never. To be honest I feel guilty about it, because so many of my friends have clashed over and over again. But I think I should have spent more time on some of my compositions, they would certainly have come out better ”, he replies. Arrived at the time of the greetings, after the usual thanks, he says “Good to see you again”. Was it a cliché, or do you really remember having an interview with me four years ago, twenty minutes of chat during a busy day of promotional commitments? Who knows. Perhaps the answer is simpler than it sounds: Ben Harper is a kind person.
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