Interview: Ben Kweller

The last time Ben Kweller played Asheville, Barack Obama was a junior senator from Illinois, only a few months his underdog campaign for the U.S. presidency.

Since that 2007 show at The Grey Eagle, the Texas-based indie rocker has experienced multiple unimaginable hardships — namely acute carbon monoxide poisoning in 2013 and the tragic loss of his 16-year-old son, Dorian, in a 2023 car accident near their rural home. But he’s consistently returned to music, and the results have been nothing short of astounding, including his excellent 2025 album, Cover the Mirrors.

Prior to his long-awaited return to town on Friday, Nov. 21, at Eulogy, Kweller spoke with Asheville Stages about his renewed creative inspiration, notable collaborations — official and otherwise — and being a “new” artist all over again.

Edwin Arnaudin: So you just got back from Spain? How was that?

Ben Kweller: Dude,  it's been a whirlwind. This year, Liz, my wife, had a big birthday. She turned 50 this year, and all year we've been thinking, “What do you wanna do for your birthday?” And she said, “Well, my dream would be to go to Majorca, Spain, and go to the Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy.” We're big tennis fans and we love to play tennis.

We looked into it early on in the year and we were like, “Oh, it's a shitty time of the year,” because our son's in school and it's expensive to get to Spain. And so we never did anything about it. We were like, “OK, we'll put it on the back burner and one day…” That's like a dream vacation.

And I swear, a month ago, I got a random text from my old drummer, Fred Eltringham, who plays with Sheryl Crow now. He toured with me on the Sha Sha album and played on On My Way — like early days; early 2000s in New York [City]. So, Fred texts me out of the blue and is like, “Hey, I have a friend in Spain. He's a promoter. He wants to talk to you about coming and playing a festival.” I'm like, “OK, that's cool.” So, I hop on a FaceTime with this promoter David, and I'm thinking, you know, Madrid, Barcelona — but that's cool: let's go to Spain! 

So I get on the phone and he’s like, “We're starting a brand new festival, but it's on this little island called Majorca.” And I'm like, “You gotta be fucking kidding me, dude!” And he's like, “Yeah, it's on October 12, 2026.” I’m like, “Well, that's crazy because my wife's birthday is October 13, so it looks like we're gonna get to go to Majorca anyway. It'll just be one year after we wanted to go.” 

And he’s like, “The other thing is we want to do an announcement party and we were wondering if I could fly you and your wife to Majorca in two weeks and you could play an acoustic set.” And I'm like, “What?!? Dude!!!” And so of all the places in the world, we ended up going to Majorca for her birthday, and I played a show and we just can't help but think that Dorian, from the clouds, is making his mom's birthday wishes come true. It's amazing. 

EA: That's awesome. 

BK: It was really fun, and now I'm totally run down because we've been flying all over the world and I'm getting sick. And then on top of that, everybody on my crew is dropping like flies. My guitar tech woke up this morning with excruciating pain. He's, like, 20 years old. He is a young kid and his wisdom teeth are coming in and now he has to go get surgery, so he can't do the tour. It's one thing after another. 

I'm on the bus right now heading to Dallas. I'm gonna meet Rhett Miller from the Old 97's and we're gonna do a songwriter-in-the-round song swap. So, the tour has begun and it's gonna be something. It's gonna be great, whatever it is. But I'm just putting it out there, man, that you gotta submit to the universe sometimes and just go with whatever it gives you, you know? 

EA: Agreed. So, I don't know if I've been as stoked for a show as this one in a while. And I think part of it is that, I believe, the last time you were in Asheville was 2007?

BK: [laughs] Yes, dude! That was the last time. It’s so sad. It's one of those great markets and I love Asheville. What a great city! But they just don't book me through there much. I can't believe it — ’07. Wow, that's crazy. So, I was really happy when I heard we were going back and it's been the fastest selling show, actually, of the tour. So, clearly there's fans there that are like you. They're like, “Dude! Man! He's coming back.”

EA: Do you remember much about that last time you were in town? 

BK: I remember the venue. I remember just having a great show and I didn't get to really see the sights. But everybody was friendly. It left a good feeling in my heart when I departed Asheville. I'm like, “Oh, I like that place.” So, it's about time that I return. 

EA: I've been listening to your music since 2002. I remember it because a girl I had a crush on in college made me a mix CD and the second track was “Falling.”

BK: Oh! Dude, I love that. That’s the best.

EA: And just being a fan for a long time and listening to your work, I feel like few artists are as good at building songs as you are. So many tracks start in an engaging way, but then you take us on a journey. And by the time we get to the bridge, we’re at an even more exciting place. 

How consciously did you develop that style? Because it seemed pretty well-formed when you burst on the scene. 

BK: It's really funny because I feel like I've had a few different lifetimes in music. I started as a little boy. The first time I started playing music, I was seven years old. My dad taught me drums. I learned piano. I was, like, eight or nine, and started writing songs. And so I put in, you know, my 10,000 hours early on. And a lot of that early stuff was me really studying The Beatles, honestly, because they were my favorite band and because that's what my dad was always playing. The Beatles and [Jimi] Hendrix and The Hollies — all the ’60s rock and roll. 

Then Nirvana came out and changed my life and I'm like, “OK, well, fuck! Now I need to start a band.” And so I formed the band Radish and we happened to get a record deal with Mercury Records. I was 15 years old. I'm sorry I'm repeating all this because you probably read a bunch about this.

EA: [laughs] I like it. Good to hear it from the source.

BK: Just to kind of recap in here. [laughs] So, I had my band Radish and learned a lot — you know, worked with producers, went into the studio, toured the world. And so then by the time I moved to New York City when I was 17 or 18, I was writing more autobiographical music, which would eventually become the album Sha Sha.

And so by the time I kind of burst on the scene, like you said, as a solo artist, I had already had two chapters fully developed — me as a little boy, learning how to write songs and finding my voice; and then me as the leader of this band Radish. And so creatively, I was already ingrained. I was already off and running. 

But also, I learned from the music biz side of everything. I was well established because I learned, through all the Radish stuff, all of the horrible shit in the music business and to keep that stuff away. But then the good people that I met and the good things of the music industry, I was able to keep close. And so I feel like, going into that debut album, Sha Sha, I creatively was in a good head space. But also, mentally, I knew what I wanted and I feel like I was on a good path. I’d already gotten rid of a lot of trial and error.

So, for a lot of people — like you getting “Falling” on a mix CD or someone reading about Ben Kweller in a magazine back in 2002 — I was a brand new artist. But I had been training for, like, 15 years already. 

It's funny, I heard this, this interview on NPR. It was about Michael Phelps, the swimmer. They were interviewing his best friend from childhood, and he was saying when the first Olympics happened where he won all those gold medals, Michael Phelps was an overnight sensation and everyone was like, “Where the fuck did this guy come from?”

But this dude they were interviewing was like, “Well, I saw from the time he was six years old, he would go to the swimming pool at 7 a.m., every day and swim. And he did that for, like, 10 years and then started competing.” So, it's that classic thing — there’s really no such thing as an overnight success, I guess. Unless you’re the Hawk Tuah girl, apparently, or some such TikTok-ery out there in the ether. [laughs] 

But yeah, man, it's interesting. And it's so many cycles — everything kind of ebbs and flows, I find, just with life in general, as I'm sure you see in your life on so many levels. This new album, Cover the Mirrors, there's so many people coming to these shows that just heard about Ben Kweller. It's like you back in 2002 — there's people in 2025 that never knew about Ben Kweller and they think I'm a new artist!

EA: [laughs]

BK: Because they're seeing Waxahatchee is on a track and they're hearing it because of Katie [Crutchfield] or MJ [Lenderman]. And then they're coming to the show and they're like, “I love this new Ben Kweller guy!” It’s so cool. And I'm not telling them that I've been doing this for fuckin’, you know, 28 years. I'm like, “OK, whatever. I'm new, man!” [laughs] I love it. 

And I produce bands from time to time, and because I started so damn young with Radish and the record deal and all that stuff when I was a kid, I really love helping young artists. I feel like it's a way that I can sort of teach things that I learned — what not to do, you know? And one thing I tell them all the time is, “There's no such thing as an old song,” because everything is new to someone. There's always someone in the room — it's a new song to them. You're a new artist to them. So, when you're on stage, you don't have to be like, “This is an old song” or “This is the new song.” It's all new, man. Just do your thing in the moment. 

EA: I guess all the new fans, they're coming in, like, “Man, he's got a deep catalog!” [laughs] “What's going on here?” 

BK: I know! [laughs] Exactly. Like, “Damn!” 

EA: You mentioned latching onto the good parts of the industry and the good people, and to me it seems like the Guster guys are some of those people in your life.

BK: Yes, bro! You're hitting the nail on the head. [Frontman] Ryan Miller, I met him at a party. I’d just moved to New York. I must have been there for two weeks and someone introduced us and was, like, “You guys need to know each other.” Him and Brian [Rosenworcel (drums)] and Adam [Gardner (guitar/vocals)], they were integral early on as some of my closest friends in music when I went to New York — and the embodiment of musical integrity, artistic integrity, and that's pretty special. 

EA: Nice. Yeah, I'm a huge fan and I'm hoping to make it up to their On the Ocean Festival next year. I've been wanting to go for a while. Are you lobbying to play that by any chance? 

BK: Dude! You know, I haven't, but I better get on it. Because I've certainly seen footage of it. It looks amazing. So, yeah, I have to text those guys. It's funny, I just texted Ryan and Brian together the other day as I was packing up gear and prepping for the tour. I put on their new album, Ooh La La, in the studio as I was packing. I'm like, “Yo! I’m listening to Ooh La La right now. This is such a great record. Congrats!” So yeah, we're tight. 

EA: They're wonderful. They’re way up there for me. 

BK: And let's just say, for the record, as far as one-off co-writes that came out of nowhere for a movie soundtrack [Wedding Crashers], “I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today” — what a banger. 

EA: Oh yeah! 

BK: I mean, we did that out of thin air. That was such a strange, magical night where the muse just hit us and we wrote this song. We were at a jam session. It was like a party — they used to throw these jams and it'd be, like, 100 people and you'd just switch instruments. And we all looked up at, like, 1 a.m., and we were the only four people in the room playing music. [laughs] And Ryan started that bass line and I came in with the guitar and I just started singing [sings] “I'm awake, you’re still sleeping.” What a fun thing to have between us — not only our friendship, but that we created the song. It's just really special. 

EA: It's a beautiful track.

I had another kind of off-the-wall question from the 2000s. I'm a hip hop guy, too, and I remember in college, I'm listening to this new Talib Kweli album [Right About Now: The Official Sucka Free Mix CD], and then all of the sudden, I hear…

BK: Ohhhh yeah. Ohhhh yeah. [sings in falsetto] “Another night slips away.” Yeah, dude!

EA: Yeah! How involved were you in that whole process? Or was it pretty hands off? 

BK: Well, that's a really funny story, actually, because I was as hands off as anyone could be. So, this is the way I found out about it: I got a message from a friend and they were like, “Yo, I love the new Talib Kweli track [‘Ms. Hill’].” And I was like, “Huh?” And then Rolling Stone magazine put out a review and was like, “There's this amazing Ben Kweller/Talib collab.” And we're all like, “What is this?” And so we had to go buy the CD.

We don't really even know what happened. But we have a hunch that his producer [Charlemagne and Steven Kang] must have had Sha Sha — I guess, clearly — and dug that melody and just sped it up and used it for the track. I’ve never met Talib. I was honored that he used it, but I'm not even sure if he even knew what he was doing. You never know with hip-hop — the music comes from all different places. And so it can be kind of confusing sometimes to decipher who wrote what or who did what. So, I don't know if he knew that was a sample or what. 

But yeah, I remember because I was on ATO [Records], and they at least had to go tell [Kweli’s team], “Hey, just so you know, this is a song by Ben Kweller.” [laughs] I don’t know what happened, but if you look up the song, I do have songwriting credit on it, so that's kind of cool. And I'm a fan of the track. That was pretty ahead of its time, too. You didn't hear a lot of sped-up [vocals]. That was what, like, 15 years pre-TikTok sped-up tracks, which is all the rage now. I should do more of that. And, I just love that our names are so similar.

EA: I smell a tour.

BK: Sure! We could at least do one song together.

Jason Schwartzman, left, and Ben Kweller in 2002. (Photo courtesy of Kweller)

EA: You mentioned all these rich collaborations on Cover the Mirrors, and having Asheville's own Jake Lenderman on there. How did y'all connect? 

BK: We met through Kevin Morby and Katie, and we met two years ago or something in New York. He had a gig and we basically got together near his hotel, had coffee, hung out, went back to his room, played songs for each other, and just kind of hit it off. 

And when I was making this album, I didn't really set out to have as many collabs as I do on it. That was kind of just an interesting thing that happened naturally. But once I had the [Flaming] Lips and I knew that Jason Schwartzman was gonna be on “Depression,” because he and I had been working on Coconut Records stuff for the past year to hopefully put out another Coconut Records album. And then Katie's stuff, obviously, on “Dollar Store,” which is awesome. I knew this last song, “Oh Dorian,” it was such a special song and I just kept hearing this sort of “Jerry Garcia guitar” — that’s how I kept explaining it to myself. And I played it for Jake, like, “Yo, dude, check this out. You wanna rip on this?” He’s like, “Fuck yeah!” 

And he's so great. I mean, what a guy. He has been so busy and he made the time — literally, I think he was touring the U.S., had one day at home in North Carolina, he was just moving houses, and had, like, one day before flying to London. And he was like, “I'm gonna record at my drummer [Colin Miller]'s house. We’re just gonna lay it down.”

And so we hop on Zoom. And then we realized that Zoom sucks for audio transmission. Tips to any collaborators out there trying to do some remote collaborations: FaceTime is the best for this, we quickly learned. And so we just had our phones and FaceTime and just talked through parts. And he just, I mean, he needed no direction 'cause he's just such a guru. And it's one of my favorite parts of the album — that guitar solo. It just reminds me of Dorian. It's amazing what music can do because Jake never knew Dorian. But he felt the song, deeply. 

And that's the thing with this album, too, and the collaborations is that it all goes back to community. Because when Dorian died, our local community in Dripping Springs and in Austin just stepped up and held us up, and I think that this album sort of became a reflection of that. Instead of me going into the studio and saying, “OK, I'm making this album all about my grief and being very isolated and feeling alone,” it's actually the opposite. It's the most collaborative thing I've ever done, which is pretty unexpected for me. I wouldn't have predicted that would've been the album I made. But, again, you gotta surrender to the universe, and that's what it became. And I'm so thankful for it. It's a really beautiful album. 

EA: Agreed. Yeah, it seems like you're in a really creatively fruitful place right now, just trying to get as much music out as possible. 

BK: Yes! Yes. 

EA: How are you harnessing that inspiration? Is it structured or is it just sort of coming to you naturally?

BK: It's coming to me naturally. But yesterday, Lizzy played for me the latest episode of The Telepathy Tapes [podcast] — it was all about creativity. And [Elizabeth Gilbert], the author of the book Eat, Pray, Love, was talking about how she sits down, sets a timer for one hour every day, and just shows up. And whether you get something good or not, she shows up. 

But not only that, she does the Ernest Hemingway method where once you get in the flow state — say you're, like, 40 minutes in and it's going really well — when the timer goes off, you have to stop, no matter what. You're not allowed to keep going, even if you're, like, mid-sentence. You have to get the fuck up and leave and start again tomorrow. And the method behind that is because, as you know, as a writer, once you get in the zone, man, it feels so good and you can just keep going. Three hours later can go by so quickly. But if you work it through to the finish line, three hours later, you've closed the loop. So if you show up tomorrow, there might not be anything left in the tank. But if you leave after that one hour with the sentence half finished, when you sit down tomorrow, there's a better chance that you'll be able to pick it right back up. 

So, I kind of like that. I've never thought of that until yesterday, and I'm gonna start making an effort to be a little more strict about it. Over the years, I've tried everything, dude. You gotta try all the fuckin’ tricks because that's the thing — writing songs, it's such a magical act, or creating any art, right? It's like you're just pulling it out thin air, and it's the best drug. It's like gambling — whenever you write that perfect line, you feel so good. So, you wanna keep coming back for more. 

I've tried all different things. I've definitely been, like, “OK, I'm gonna treat this like a 9-to-5 job and I'm gonna wake up Monday through Friday.” And because I’m a morning person, naturally I have my most energy in the morning. I wake up early around 6 a.m., but I've never tried anything as simple as a 60-minute timer every day. So, I'll let you know. Give me a few months, we'll see how it goes. But I do have a lot of voice memos right now that I'm on, and then I have no idea which way the album's gonna go, but I gotta keep going.

EA: We'll be excited — whatever comes from it, whenever it comes.

So, your touring band, are they staying healthy or are they dropping like flies, too?

BK: Dude, it’s — what do they call it when there's an emergency? It's, like, on a day-to-day, minute-to-minute basis. We're just watching and waiting and seeing. But I’ve got a trailer full of guitars. I got my piano. So, it's a guarantee you'll have Ben Kweller. Hopefully I don't get sick. Even if I get sick, I'll just stay away from everyone. But I'll come and play my show and I'll take requests and it'll be great, whatever it is.

I will say, Chris Mintz-Plasse [aka McLovin’ from Superbad] is unavailable, ladies and gentlemen. He's not on bass on this tour. He did get a movie. We always knew this was a thing that could happen, and for three years it hasn't happened. We've been very lucky — his acting work and the music has all lined up really easily.

But a month ago, he called me up and was like, “BK, we knew it would happen. It finally happened and I got a movie that I can't turn down.” And I'm like, “Dude, of course. You gotta go do that. That's your thing.” It's funny because I call it his “hobby gig” — playing bass with Ben Kweller. I can't compete with Disney. But he is doing well. And he's texting me constantly and he is one of my homies, man. He's great. 

A Ben Kweller show is interesting because it's all over the place. I remember my first manager Dalton Sim — who actually manages Guster. Great dude — when I was first starting out as a solo artist, we made an intentional decision to always bill my shows as “Ben Kweller.” It was never “Ben Kweller with a band” or “Ben Kweller solo.” It was just “Ben Kweller,” like “Beck” or something. You don't know what you're gonna get when you go to a Beck show, but it's gonna be really good and he’ll be there. It might be a fuckin’ disco band. It might be an acoustic vibe, but it's Beck. 

And I'm glad we did that because it’s allowed me to be less fenced-in, creatively. And I think that it helps on the album side, too. I never feel like I have to make my music a certain way because it's always just Ben Kweller music, whatever that is. I'm still trying to figure it out. 

EA: I like that. Well, I wanted to ask one more collaboration question, closing out. I got to interview Ben Folds a couple of months ago when he played with the Asheville Symphony, so now I've spoken with two out of three members of the Bens. 

BK: OK! Well, we gotta get you with Ben Lee. We'll make that happen. You'll have to wake up really fuckin’ early or be up really fuckin’ late because he's in Sydney.

EA: I can do late. I'm a night owl. 

BK: You can do late! All good. We'll make it happen, man. 

Man, I saw Foldsy probably two years ago. He came through Austin, we hung out. 

I really wanna do The Bens again. That's one of the saddest things is, like, it was such a fun project. All three of us were so busy with different things. We only got to do one tour and it was only in Australia. And that's such a sadness. We gotta do a U.S. Bens tour. 

EA: Yes! 

BK: At least, we gotta do a tour. If we get lucky and can write three more songs, that's pretty much an album at that point. [laughs] If you add the other three, we'll go Kanye [West] and call it a six-song album. I would love to do that. I like to think that we're all a little bit less busy. Right now, I'm extremely busy again, but I would drop almost anything to get The Bens together just because I know how much joy it would bring the fans.

For me, it would be fun musically, creatively, and on a friendship level. They're just two of my closest, and so we gotta do that. But more than anything, it's the fact that there's so many fans that love that music and love the three of us that never really got to experience it unless they lived Down Under. So, I'm petitioning for that. 

So, The Bens and the Guster fest up in Maine — those are my two goals. 60-minute timer. Don't get sick. Avoid COVID, because that's apparently back. So, I’m using my list, and I'm glad we talked today because you've helped me get my shit straight. 

EA: Excellent.

BK: We got good marching orders and then we'll recap in six months. We'll do another interview. [laughs]We'll do a preview of whatever I'm doing next — see how it all went.

IF YOU GO

Who: Ben Kweller with Modern Love Child
When: Friday, Nov. 21, 8 p.m.
Where: Eulogy, 10 Buxton Ave., burialbeer.com/pages/eulogy
Tickets: $36.16

(Photo by Kylie Bly)