Ben Kweller - Country Roads, Take Me Home

The Texas Return of Prodigal Son Ben Kweller:
Ben Kweller walks up to a picnic table behind Flipnotics looking, for the most part, just like any South Austin hipster. He’s wearing a Levi’s corduroy jacket — you know, the kind with the sherpa fur collar — and a trucker hat, his wavy mane of hair flowing out from beneath.

He looks like a kid, your average slacker. Carrying a straw tote bag, he pulls out a Thermos, a tiny silver cup filled with herbs and a metal straw that also serves as a filter. “This is maté [pronounced mah-tay], by the way, from Argentina,” he says as he pours hot water over the concoction. “It’s an herb, basically a tea — totally legal!”

That’s something your average guy doesn’t do, bring his own tea setup to a coffee shop. And don’t be deceived by his youthful appearance. Kweller is a family man, a seasoned industry veteran and a shrewd career manager. This former child prodigy isn’t afraid to challenge himself, take risks and try new things, without really seeming to reinvent himself at all.

Signifying a return to his Texas roots, both physically and metaphorically, the indie-pop rocker has just released his first country album, Changing Horses. Kweller, his wife Liz and 2-year-old son, Dorian, moved to Austin from New York City last year. Since then Kweller’s been spending more time exploring the great outdoors with his son than trying to establish himself in any sort of scene.

“I’m a Texan,” he says. “It’s really nice to be back where I’m from. All summer we swam. We went to Hamilton Pool, and to Reimers Ranch and Blue Hole out in Wimberley and San Marcos, all the rivers and the natural springs, and fishing in the lakes.”

Perhaps it’s the fact that Kweller’s been a working musician for nearly 15 years that makes him less enamored with the spotlight than some of his peers. In 1993, when Kweller was just 12, he started the band Radish with John Kent and Ryan Green in his hometown of Greenville. With critical attention and a dose of hype around a band of teenage Texans, Radish eventually signed with Mercury Records, releasing the album Restraining Bolt, and had some notable television appearances on Conan O’Brien and David Letterman.

But by 2000, Kweller had decided the time was right to make a change, and moved to be with Liz, first to Connecticut and ultimately, New York City. “I was done living in Texas. And John was starting a recording studio in Texas. He was also writing his own music and wanting to start a new band. So we really never broke up, but it was just that we knew we wanted to try different things.”

The years with Radish provided valuable perspective, though. “By the time I was 18 and ready to start my solo career, I had already seen the good and bad of the music business,” Kweller says. “So I knew all the things I wanted to keep close to me and all the things I wanted to push away. I just knew how slimy and sharky it could be. I learned a lot when it comes to the business side.”

In New York, Kweller was on his own, honing his slightly quirky, indie-pop sound and solo performance chops. “I guess when I was in that apartment on Smith Street in Brooklyn, and I wrote all these songs, and they were a lot more autobiographical and personal, I looked around the room and realized I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have a band, so I guess I was Ben Kweller at that point.” His first solo LP, Sha Sha, contained the radio-friendly hit “Wasted and Ready,” and Kweller has been recording and touring steadily ever since.

The move to Austin was a quality-of-life decision, made with his family in mind and a desire to give Dorian the kind of childhood that he himself had. “We moved here because it’s our favorite town in the world. We love New York City, but we didn’t see ourselves there forever. ”

Dorian is already playing music with his dad, accompanying him by banging on the drums or piano.

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