Venues
Events
VideoMusic
Proof that Music Ain’t Dead
Ben Sollee Releases His New CD – Inclusions
Discovering really good music is as rare as finding a needle in a haystack. It’s even less likely to find an artist who is genuinely committed to their craft. However, when one discovers truly beautiful music, it’s life changing. I am glad to say that I recently experienced such an ethereal transformation: Ben Sollee is that amazing. The Kentuckian cellist/songsmith/singer recently chatted with Encore about his love for music, his passion for the Appalachia and his new album, Inclusions (released May 10, 2011).
The gifted lyricist is humble, but with more people discovering his music and having nothing but positive feedback, it’s difficult not to react. “I’m still fairly young and new. I don’t necessarily know how people are going to react to what I’m writing. I just do with what I feel is right and I think that’s what it should be like for an artist. But when I get reactions from people about my music, it does affect me. Doing interviews just like this, people say ‘tell me about it, tell me the story,’ then I have to learn how to tell my story in that way. I look at myself and say ‘oh yeah, that’s interesting,’ or ‘I never really thought of that’.” Ben Sollee is about creating honest music. “I’m not sure if it’s important to know that people are getting it; it’s not necessarily about capturing a certain audience. If you don’t go out of the way to capture people, but write something that’s provocative to you then that’s the most universal thing you can do because people can relate. ”
For many artists, being out on the road can be tiring and can easily make it difficult to stay in focus of what really matters- music, but traveling is fuel for the twenty something father. “You could get really worn out with how quickly the industry changes but I’m really honored to do this for a living at all. I will do whatever I can do to keep it going because it’s a main part of my life. Also, in this day and age, it’s great to be doing this with social media. You can figure out how to do it on your own and do it on your own terms. You just have to show up.” Connecting with people is something that’s important for Sollee, not just with music.
In 2010, the folk/blues musician embarked on the “Ditch the Van Tour” in which he traveled on a bicycle. “It orients you more toward the communities you’re playing in. It gets you in touch with these amazing things on the road which is easy to lose touch with when you drive through in a van or fly by an airplane. You miss a lot. The bicycle gets you on a smaller scale and there’s inspiration for sure.” Even more importantly, during his Appalachia Voices Tour, Sollee had the opportunity to get in touch with the people about his concerns regarding the mountaintop removal coal mining in central Appalachia- an issue that he has been deeply involved with, although not politically, but musically.
His concerns, experiences and inspirations from the road are highlighted in his new album, Inclusions. For his new EP, he “collaborated with DJ 2nd Nature and DL Jones back from Detroit and tried to find a cross pollination between hip-hop, R&B, folk music and classical and had a lot of fun doing an experiment. I learned a lot from these two, who make music from things that already exist and I think they learned some from me as a classically trained musician who creates sounds from scratch. I then took this back to the studio and worked with producer Duane Lundy. What we hoped for was an honest representation of contemporary folk music, what folk sounds like in a world where more people live in urban settings.”
Sollee will again be touching base with music fans in the next 2 months and NYC is will one of his stops. He will be playing at The Rockwood Music Hall with Sean Rowe on May 12th and 13th and he is also scheduled to make an appearance in the Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 29th. To purchase tickets and learn more about this brilliant artist, visit http://bensollee.com.