Ben Harper, Au Naturale

The soulful rocker went to Paris and back to basics for his latest, 'Lifeline'

By Julianne Gorman

Special to Metromix
October 25, 2007
(Photo Credit: Scott Soens)


Ben Harper seems to shine when the clock is ticking. His 2004 collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama started as a “just a few tracks” and hyper-evolved into a Grammy-winning album during a mere eight days in the studio. Maybe that’s the kind of kick-started creative evolution that Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals had in mind when hatching the plan behind “Lifeline,” their most recent release.

Tapping into the raw energy propelling their eight-week concert tour, the band wasted no time getting into a Paris studio to capture that post-tour electric high. Stoking the situation with self-imposed technical limitations (no Pro Tools, the audio editing software that’s become the industry standard), they knocked out the album in a week.

As he prepared to return to the road, Ben Harper discussed the creative process behind “Lifeline,” the importance of writing non-political songs and his newfound love of YouTube.

You recorded in seven days, with no Pro Tools or computers, directly after completing your European tour. How did that impact the momentum and feel of the album?
The concentrated amount of time gave the music an urgency and a sincerity—not that it wouldn’t have had otherwise—but I think [the album] found its strongest voice by having limitations.

How did you pick the Studio Gang location in Paris?
Once we decided on it definitely being an analog record, it instantly limited our options. Of those options, it was clear Gang was the only option: A, it’s in Paris and B, it’s just got the right feel.

Did you know that it was going to be just a seven-day affair?
I imposed a six-day limit that got stretched to seven days.

Did the fact that you weren’t going to use technology sit in the back of your mind during the recording? Did it affect the process?
No, we let go of that. [Imposing] the time restrictions and the technological restrictions—it’s not showing off, and it’s not nostalgia for the past, either. It's just knowing what’s going to give the strongest voice for this particular group of songs. I love Pro Tools. I think it’s great. But with that said, I’m very excited about revisiting analog for my next couple of records. I’m just a huge fan of the saturation that the tape brings. And for extended listening, I think you can’t beat it.

Were all the songs completed before you started your last tour?
They were written on tour, by the band and myself.

Did you work out the songs live during the shows?
We wrote and rehearsed these songs on the two-month tour of Europe. Because we were playing such big places, [there were] people who were taking the tickets, cleaning up, the ushers…so that by the time we were done rehearsing there were 100-plus people kind of hanging out and listening. But we never formally tested the songs under the lights, at a gig.

In fact, I saw a YouTube posting of you playing “Fool for a Lonesome Train” in a Brussels hotel room, during that tour. Are you a fan of the YouTube phenomenon?
Yeah, I think it’s great. Especially for us bands who don’t get played on TV. It’s a great way to get your band played on a square box.

You do a lot of festivals—Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza. How do you find those experiences differ from headlining?
[There’s] a little different edge because there are a bunch of people who are there, hopefully, to see you—and a bunch of people who aren’t. So, while you’re playing to your fans on a high-powered stage, you’re also introducing your music simultaneously to a bunch of heads. And that adds an edge that I appreciate and that I enjoy.

I understand that at Lollapalooza this year, you joined Eddie Vedder and a U.S. soldier who’d been in Iraq on stage for a song they co-wrote. How did that come about?
There’s a movie about this specific solder; it’s called “Body of War.” His name is Tomas Young. I met him for the first time at Lollapalooza. He is an Iraq veteran, strongly vocal in being against this war, who has seen the underbelly of what it means to have been there. He and Eddie collaborated on the song, and they invited me [to perform it]—and of course, I obliged. I was excited to do it.

Our world is very politically charged these days, and “Lifeline” isn’t. Did you intentionally avoid being political?
Well, I’m coming off a record that’s titled “Both Sides of the Gun.” I’ve always wanted to stray away from repetition—maybe even at my own expense. But I like to make different [music]—I don’t feel one way every day, and not every hour. I’m always switching it up…I don’t want to be the person always singing one style of music.

The comedy is as important as the tragedy?
If you’re always singing songs about social circumstance, it’s going to be expected. And somehow might be less urgent. If it’s expected, then the element of surprise is gone—it takes something away from the process for me. When you’re making music, if you do certain types of songs—ballads, soul music, gospel—it keeps it fresh and real, and keeps it meaning something to me.