Ben Lee Is "Vehemently Disinterested In The Past"

"I don’t feel like a veteran or anything like that,” laughs Ben Lee, “I just feel like someone who’s trying to make the best work today, like every artist is. There’s something about the commitment to being an artist, you just keep walking that path. If you keep walking, then other artists look at you at some point and go, ‘Hey, good on you.’ They don’t have to love every record you’ve made… [there’s that respect].”

Lee, speaking from his home in Los Angeles where he’s been based for around four years, is reminiscing about his career thus far, a run that’s coming up to a quarter century – no mean feat in this musical day and age. As well, 2015 marks the tenth anniversary of the release of his defining double-platinum album, Awake Is The New Sleep – so there’s a lot to look back on.

“There’s an interesting Buddhist teaching that says, ‘One definition of the ego is memory,’ meaning that we build all of these stories based on things that happened in the past, and the past doesn’t really exist in any meaningful way.

"There’s an interesting Buddhist teaching that says, ‘One definition of the ego is memory,’"

“I’m not talking about dishonouring the past. But as far as being a defining factor in the decisions that we make, I’m vehemently disinterested in the past. I believe in moving forward.”

This sense of moving on forms the base theme for Lee’s newest release, Love Is The Great Rebellion. As he says in the album’s press material, “Love is always inviting us into the present moment… and one of the prerequisites of love, whether it’s love in a marriage or for your child or for your craft, is that it can exist only in the present. So the reality of stepping into that moment involves letting go of the past.”

Heavy themes, but one wouldn’t really expect anything less from Lee, and therein lies a good deal of the man’s artistic appeal – he’s proven he’s able to write songs centring on these challenging ideals, married with his unique brand of pop music, for which he has an uncanny knack. 

Love Is The Great Rebellion is no exception, a rock-solid pop album, all long-legged melodies and floppy-hatted harmonies playing together in the summer sunshine. It harks back to his earlier work, and while he did step away from this mode for a while, he’s come full circle, and not particularly consciously. “I actually thought I was going to make one of the most abstract records of my career,” he admits.

“But then a few catchy songs came out, and it was at that moment that I reassessed… so the impetus was a very organic one, and after that point, I realised I wasn’t finished with what I have to say with pop music. I still feel I have something offer. I may be delusional, but I feel like I [still] have something to contribute to that conversation. I realise I’ve spent the better part of my life learning the science of how to write a pop song, so to throw all that out feels kind of wasteful.”