The new BK

Ben Kweller's voice has a raspy quality to it that exudes excitement. When he speaks, regardless of the topic, he seems terribly enthusiastic as if he is sharing an amazing secret.

Then again, what red-blooded American youth wouldn't be exited in his shoes? The Greenville, TX native recently finished a tour that began at the Reading festival in England and ended in Japan. Additionally, he has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In November will begin touring in November with the "it" band of the moment, the Strokes.

While one might worry that this would all be two much for the young man it is important to know that Kweller is no stranger to the limelight Having begun his musical career in high school. The Daily was able to catch up with Kweller and discover how much there is to this man.



>TD: Can you give your life story in fifty words or less?



BK: Wow, fifty words, umm ok. I'm going to have to use my fingers. My life story is I grew up in small town. I started playing drums at seven, piano at eight. I wrote my first song on the piano at eight. I was about loving girls because that's what the Beatles wrote about. I got my first electric guitar a t 11, and then Nirvana came out and changed my life.

At 15 my band, Radish, got signed and I got to tour around the world. I slept on floors I got to see lots of amazing things. I got to see the Eiffel Tower is person instead of a textbook. And when it wall over I came back here. The once I made an album by myself on my computer and I looked around and I realized I was the only one in the room so I called it "Ben Kweller" then my label brought me ought here. (New York) Somewhere along the line I fell in love with Liz Smith, and we live together in Brooklyn.

He then begins describing his great love of the Violent Femmes:

'I'm looking at their pictures and stuff now, they just came out with this anniversary album and there are all these great pictures and stuff."



TD: Who are your musical influences?



BK: Starting with the Violent Femmes like I said, the Beatles. Nirvana, Bob Dylan, Neil Young [pauses] yeah definitely the Violent Femmes, Beatles, Nirvana, Bob Dylan and Neil Young. They're really what shaped my music.



TD: What is in your CD player right now?



BK: The Violent Femmes first album, I've been listening to it forever.



TD: What would you do if you weren't doing this?

BK: I'd be a fishing tour guide, showing people how to catch bass. Or I'd own a baseball card shop here in Brooklyn (laughs). I'd just want something low-responsibility and low-hassle.



TD: If you were a tree what kind of tree would you be and why?



BK: I'd be a bonsai then because I'd be little, but then I'd start to grow in weird directions. Then people would have to trim me or I'd grow weird. Or I'd be a bamboo tree and grow straight up... something Asian.



TD: Well you certainly had unusual adolescence with the touring and all, what was high school like for you _ off tour?



BK: Basically we toured around Dallas a lot. By my sophomore year I was doing this home school program with my mom. She would teach me and we would send my grades to a school in Maryland, and then they would send them back. But the touring got so extensive that I ended up just getting my GED. I don't know, I may go to college one day



TD: Do you know where you would like to go [to college] if you could?



BK: It's so not anything I've thought about. It takes so much research and stuff and right the most important thing is my music. I could to a college here in Brooklyn or the city. I would probably study history or something. Something not music related at all



TD: What's your favorite color?



BK: I always have two colors. For me it's not just one color, it's the way two colors react together. Right now it's hot pink and black or pink and red. Maybe it's pink since it keeps popping up. But I really like the way colors react together so they kind of clash _but they don't and it looks cool. Like white and off white or pink and red. What I really like is turquoise and blue.



>TD: Now for the Glen Phillips challenge: Can you compose a haiku about your creative process?



BK: Oh those are the one that are five-seven-five right?

Crazy love this that

Happens Naturally

Crazy love hey punk rock



[Laughs] I hope that was ok.



Ben Kweller will be headlining at the Paradise nightclub on Nov. 1