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GroundSounds catches up with Nashville based singer/songwriter Ben Rector to talk about his upcoming headlining fall tour, his new album Brand New and the surprising ways the city of Nashville inspires him. Check out the exclusive interview below.
GS: Hey Ben, thanks so much for speaking with us today, how are you?
Ben Rector: I’m good, really good thank you.
GS: This fall is going to be a big time for you, your album has just come out. Can you tell us a little bit about Brand New?
Ben Rector: Yeah, so basically it’s my new record, and I probably should have come up with a new succinct way to say this but, essentially I’ve been touring for a while and I’ve made a handful of records and my life has been super busy doing record cycles and different tours. I think it’s easy for me to look up and forget why I started doing music and with this record I wanted to get back to that, I don’t know, that energy and that passion. But there’s nothing wrong with it feeling like work, I’m totally down to do that hard work, but I just wanted to make something that jumped out of the speakers and felt like a first record. So, that’s what I attempted to do and at least I hope I did.
GS: Awesome! So tell us a little about the process, if I’m not mistaken you recorded most of the album live in Nashville.
Ben Rector: Yeah, so we did a lot of it live. We tried to get guys in a room, and the model was, I didn’t want to build something as much as I wanted to capture something. And obviously we added stuff, but I really wanted to feel the vibe of being vibrant and alive and with these songs I wanted that feel of playing together.
GS: Yeah, that’s great and it seems that your fans are definitely excited about the new album. When the pre-album came out you were behind Taylor Swift at number 2. Do you feel any pressure with all that anticipation from the fans; do you think they’ll be excited about the new album?
Ben Rector: I think they’re excited about the new album. {laughs} So, the record was supposed to come out in the Singer/Songwriter Category but, the first week it came out it was in Pop and we were all so excited and like, “wow we are on top on itunes, take a picture, this is so great”. And when we moved it to Singer/Songwriter it passed Taylor Swift on the overall charts but we never got to take a picture of that so… But basically, I think the people are excited about it, I hope they’re excited about it. At this point, I don’t really feel pressure because the record is what it is. It’s not like I can make it any better or worse. And so, I really do feel good about the record.
GS: Awesome, so, you said that in creating this album you wanted to go back to that feel of a first album. Tell us a little about the process, is there a story you are trying to tell, or is it a compilation of the past year that you’ve had? What are the songs mainly about?
Ben Rector: My aim in wanting to make this album like a first record is with the understanding that I’ve done this now for, depending on how you count it, 8 or 10 years and I can’t make another first record, you can never get back to that. But what I wanted to avoid, was I don’t know I didn’t want to stray away too far away from something that felt immediate and felt accessible but was also crafted well.
So, the process was I wanted to get back in the headspace of not overanalyzing too much and so for this, what I did was instead of just writing all the time, which is usually what I would do, I would set a timer everyday and chase down ideas. So, if it was a good idea, I would keep going but when the timer went off, if I didn’t feel good about it I would stop writing. Because what would end up happening is, if you know, you practice any skill you’ll be able to come up with something. For example, if you’re a chef and you practice cooking a lot, you’ll be able to make a dish any time. It might not be unique or inspired or really good. So for this record, I wanted to make something that felt inspired and unique, so instead of just creating a bunch of different songs, just to say, “hey, look I wrote 100 songs for this record” and I’ve done that for other records and for this one I wanted to only try and catch big fish, you know what I mean? So setting a timer and approaching it like that, I was less interested in finishing a song every single day and more interested in trying to finish a few really good songs. Instead of just having a ton of ok songs.
GS: So, what songs are most excited to have your fans hear?
Ben Rector: Ummm, you know I think either the song “Paris” or the song “The Men that Drive me Places”. I think both those songs to me feel immediate and have a unique and vibrant flavor I guess. I think I’m excited to have them hear those two songs because, they’re both aesthetically pleasing and I think the both say something, which I think is cool.
GS: What song are you most excited to play live, since your tour is coming up this Fall as well?
Ben Rector: I’d say I’m probably most excited to play “Brand New”. I haven’t played it live yet, since I haven’t toured since we finished the record which is pretty recent. And my hunch is that it will be a pretty energetic song and that’s always, I don’t know it felt good when we recorded it and I imagine it will feel good to play in front of an audience.
GS: Okay great, “Brand New” is definitely a catchy song.
Ben Rector: Thank you very much.
GS: Tell us a little bit about your tour this Fall.
Ben Rector: The tour this fall, is a headline run and it’s the first leg of it. It’s pretty much the Eastern half of the U.S. and we’ll probably do the West Coast next year. It’s 30 shows and it will be the first headline tour I’ve done in a year. But I really am excited to play for people again and I’m ready to get to play these new song live.
GS: Is there any venue you’re particularly excited about playing?
Ben Rector: You know actually, the size venue that we are doing on this tour is my favorite size. We’re playing a lot of theaters and auditoriums. In the Spring, my tour with Need to Breathe we played a lot of outdoor venues which is cool, but you’re pretty far away from a lot of the people and so a lot of the venues we are playing this time, I guess are relatively big, well there’s no real way to decide what’s big, but probably between like 2,000 and 2,500 people. It’s nice because it feels energetic but you’re still able to connect with everybody.
I’d say specific venues, we are actually getting to play two nights at the Ryman in Nashville. I live in Nashville so that’s a special thing, I never thought I’d get to play the Ryman, much less two night which is so awesome. I’m definitely most excited about that one.
GS: Do you have any tour golden rules you live by either for the bus or for live performances, or both?
Ben Rector: That is a really good question, no one has ever asked that. Umm, let me think. I try to make it a point to enjoy any city we are in, we usually have a little time in the afternoon when there’s not much to do. And it’s easy to kind of live on the bus and inside the venues because you’re kind of tired. But usually we try to go out and see the city a little bit. Everyone loves good coffee and good food. So, we try to find a little bit of that. And then I like to, probably more than the rest of the band does, like to play catch with like a Frisbee, or football or baseball. So I’m always trying to get the guys to play catch with me because I’m always trying to stay active.
GS: Very cool. Now, you said that you were excited about playing in Nashville and a lot of the album was recorded live in Nashville, what specifically about the city inspires you?
Ben Rector: Well, to be fair there are a lot of other cities on the tour that I’m genuinely excited about playing. I would say what I like about Nashville is, I’m from Oklahoma and I really like New York and Los Angeles, but Nashville feels a little bit more familiar to me than those places. I love doing work in New York and L.A. but as far as music industry cities, Nashville just feel really familiar to me and my wife. I think part of it is there’s just a bunch of really talented and creative people, but it still feels really familiar. And there’s a great group of friends that we have and it just feels like home to me. {laughs} and as I am saying this one of my friends just walked up and handed me a cookie. {to friend} she literally just asked me why I love Nashville and it’s because of stuff like this, you giving me a cookie. {laughs}. (Back to GS) Where are you from?
GS: I’m from L.A. born and raised
Ben Rector: L.A. is such a great city, lots of great food, I love it every time I go out there.
GS: It is a very diverse and great city. And there are actually a lot of artists that are out here that choose to not sign with major labels and use social media sites a lot more to promote their music. You yourself didn’t sign with a major label and have had a lot of success so, how do you think the music industry is going to evolve with artists finding new paths to promoting their music?
Ben Rector: First of all, I think that’s the million-dollar question. Everything is changing so fast I don’t know if anybody has the answer to that. I think in general what is happening with music is happening across all businesses. I feel like there aren’t as many gatekeepers as there used to be. Because of that, if you can make a song or a video, or whatever, that people can connect with and it can grow on its own, I think it’s awesome. Because if you can make something that people enjoy it’s great. As far as how it’s going to change things? Gosh it’s already changed so much a lot of facets have changed and I don’t know if I can even answer that. But generally it’s hard for me to imagine that the music industry won’t get a little more fragmented as it already has. It used to be there were a smaller number of artists that were more successful and now I feel like there’s this huge gap in the middle there are those artists selling out stadiums and then there are artists that find a good tribe of people that support their music and can make a living on music. And I think that gap in the middle is going to grow, just because both producers and consumers of art have more access to it. But it’s anyone’s guess as what could happen since it’s changing so rapidly.
GS: My last question for you is at GroundSounds we have what we call Grind Time. Grind Time is when you are doing what you love, what you’re passionate about, it may be music for you but what else do you like to do on your Grind Time?
Ben Rector: Here’s the deal I used to be embarrassed by this because I feel like most musicians probably say they like writing poetry or super creative stuff, but I like golf and real estate. I know that’s super lame but that’s me being honest {laughs}. I’m not great at golf, but I really like it. I like getting out and walking and I think it’s a really fun sport. I like real estate, I think houses are cool.
GS: Do you mean flipping houses or investing in real estate and property?
Ben Rector: I’m not super handy so I can’t flip houses and honestly I’m not home enough even if I was handy to do that. But I’m just interested in real estate I did a commercial real estate course when I was in college, which is the least musician-y thing in the world, but it is what it is. And obviously music is my passion and it’s what I love but both those things are hobbies of mine.
