Along for the ride with Band of Horses
Seattle indie rockers Band of Horses are heading to Perth this summer, joining The Teskey Brothers, Sierra Farrell, and more on the line-up of A Day On The Green at Burswood Park on Wednesday, January 8, 2025—with tickets on sale now. KYRA SHENNAN spoke with singer and guitarist Ben Bridwell at his home in North Carolina to find out what we can expect from their first live performances in Australia since 2016.
It’s great to have you returning to Australia this summer! What did the band get up to in the six years between your most recent albums, 2016’s Why Are You OK and 2022’s Things Are Great?
We’ve been lucky to have been doing a lot of touring for the last one, Things Are Great, which is crazy. It came out around COVID, so that was challenging. Luckily the album has enough legs that we’re still working it a bit. I feel like those last two albums are like cousins, so now it’s like we have to start a new family of albums, because they definitely felt paired together.
With the title, Things Are Great, was it supposed to have a sarcastic tone given the time it came out? Did that tie in with the theme of the album?
It was mostly a personal kind of sarcasm, kind of unravelling at the time, then it happened to coincide with the COVID epidemic, so it looked like a gift for everyone to kind of snark at.
The Why Are You OK thing was from one of my kids. She accidentally sent an email to one of my other kid’s teachers, so like a very serious email from one of their teachers that autocorrected to ‘why are you ok?’ and I just thought it was so hilarious that I had to stick with that for the album.
You were recently supposed to play an Elliott Smith benefit concert, but what happened?
Ooh, this is brutal. We’ve been going through so many hurricanes here that I was on my way to the airport and had to turn around and deal with the house that had been flooding like hell. I was so ready for Pretty Ugly and Coast to Coast; I was going to be singing. It was nice to at least promote the idea and get people to help out the cause that they were doing there for the event, and I didn’t have to embarrass myself. Some of those songs are pretty intense to sing. Maybe we’ll get another opportunity, now the words out I gotta do it!
We’re looking forward to touring with The Teskey Brothers and the other bands involved with A Day On The Green. I’ve had some great times touring Australia on the Big Day Out festivals Band of Horses played at. You’re travelling with other artists, and hopefully you have that camaraderie of a travelling circus in a way. So I’m really looking forward to getting to know everybody and getting to know everyone’s music as well.
As the only ongoing band member throughout the 20 years of Band of Horses, how has the essence of the band changed through the different line-ups?
By being a tyrant (laughs). For one reason or another, some people fall by the wayside. I really love the band we have now, so hopefully we’re not going anywhere! It keeps things fresh too. Right now we have this young kid who plays guitar with us; well, he’s probably 30; he’s not a young kid, but still young to us, and he’s got a bit of a different guitar sound that brings a fun kind of vibe to the songs, and I think we’re in a nice place emotionally and mature enough to really enjoy these moments and not be so afraid of them like maybe we were in the past.
Has there been the usual rock and roll drama of feuds? Or were the changes more organic than that?
Sometimes it’s just like I hate travelling with that dude, or this dude is such a baby, always wants things for free, malcontent ass… or sometimes the lifestyle just doesn’t fit where they want to be and kind of have a more calm existence without all the living in airports and buses, or just trying to keep relationships going, so there’s such a wide range of reasons why people haven’t worked out. But I don’t think it’s ever been any real, like, headhunting or big ego struggles; at least I hope not!
Well, you might not know as the tyrant!
Yeah, we should introduce someone else. Damn! (laughs) No, I’m really happy. I love the job, and we’re all very grateful to be doing what we’re doing and know that we’d be idiots to mess that up.
And how do you balance family life with touring? You have three daughters, is that right?
No, I have four of them. They’re everywhere! Swing a dead cat and hit one of my daughters around here. It’s wild. I feel like I’m always getting ready to go or just recovering from having gone, and acclimatising constantly, and I often find myself right before it’s time to switch up again. I’m like, ‘God, I need to get back out to the other one, and once I get out there, it solely gets to where… I can’t do this shit; I need to get back home and see my kids, be normal’.
So I think we have a good balance at this stage in our career, where it’s like, you can play a certain number of shows per year and at least keep the lights on, so we play with that a little bit. By keeping the bills paid, it allows for ourselves to branch off with different opportunities, and hopefully no one’s financially desperate. It’s really difficult. I wish I had some secret to how to keep it balanced, because I don’t think anyone does; the kids always miss you, and the job needs you. The girls are getting older now, though, so they’re starting to understand what I do and get more excited about it.
Maybe they could be your roadies?
That would be sick, dude. We’re always hiring.
Band of Horses’ second album, Cease to Begin, was an important album for me at the time of its release. Did the band attempt to recreate that sense of nostalgia with the new music?
Yeah, I think I keep that in mind, like with that last record I tried to approach the vocals with the same kind of wonderment that I had, or reckless abandon with singing. I know I do employ those little things that are characteristic of this band. I hope I keep those little things intact without trying to placate the audience or kowtow to the industry in any way. I hope it comes naturally where I can’t get away from who I am, so it’s gonna sound like me, and I’m not trying to reinvent my own wheel where I lose myself in that process.
Despite the time in between, 2007’s Cease to Begin has similar qualities and conjures similar feelings to 2022’s Things Are Great…
A lot of that, honestly, comes with the luxury of time. I’m sick of going down whatever path the producer wants to go down and his version of Band of Horses, his or hers, whatever. Can we just sound, warts and all, a bit more like ourselves? So that was deliberate for sure. Even my sloppy playing or whatever, we deliberately wanted to keep that kind of stuff in there and not just scrub out the wrinkles because that’s really a part of our identity, and I’m not a trained player or nothing like that, so I think that personality should be shined on more rather than trying to dim it.
I’m sure new listeners, as well as your older fans, appreciate the authenticity.
You can’t fake amateurism like this (laughs).
You’re doing something right.
I hope so; I’m trying my best, for sure!
What are you and the band most looking forward to during their trip down under?
I’m really looking forward to seeing some old friends that we only get to see when we’re out there or somehow we meet up at festivals and stuff. And honestly, atonement for some sins of our last trip there. It ended in a really sad, kinda meltdown on stage at the Opera House. I’ve just kinda had nightmares about that ever since, so I need to put some ghosts to bed there. I’m looking forward to all of it, getting to see some new areas and not just the same spots.
What things are great with you and the band right now?’
We have a lot of people that love us, and we can recognise that and love back in a very pure way. We’re very happy to be alive and somehow able to do this as a job. So I think that gratitude really shows itself wherever we go; I hope it does. Things are just great; things are great, and they don’t have to be difficult, and they don’t have to be confusing. I think simplicity and living good are why things are great, really.