Ben Harper
by Rob Elder

Ben Harper is a rarity in music today. Soft spoken, shy and pensive, Harper is almost the antithesis of the 90s rock star. In a year that seemed to focus more on image than music, Harper still drew crowds and released a new album, Will to Live. Harper's success can be attributed to his explosively riveting live shows. His mix of rock, blues, reggae, and soul vibrating off his signature stripped-down slide guitar has drawn huge crowds worldwide.

Sitting down for most of his performances, a 1920s Weissenbor Hawaiian guitar on his lap, Harper plays electric slide guitar like a man possessed by demon bluesmen of the past. His musical style has been compared to Jimi Hendrix - which is both dead-on and misleading. While Harper plays Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" in concert, he is concentrated more on the thick high-to-low range soundscape of the music than he is Jimi's trademark distortion. However, Harper captures both the emotional intensity and technical skill that Hendrix personified. But Ben Harper is very much his own man. With a singing voice that starts at a fragile whisper and ends with a gospel-powered baritone, Harper has the confidence and the ability to both woo and captivate his audiences.

He first started playing with his band The Innocent Criminals in 1994, when he released Welcome to the Cruel World. Although Harper has experimented with his sound on every record since (including 1995's Fight For Your Mind and recently, Will to Live), he's retained a loyal fanbase. He has several Internet sites dedicated to him and bootlegs from his concerts have become a hot commodity.

Oregon Voice recently caught up with Harper backstage at a show in Portland. Laid back and always polite, Harper is a private person who will listen to questions quietly, then draw you into his world:	going You've been called the acoustic Jimi Hendrix, what is your reaction to that?

BH: Oh, that's crazy. Acoustic or electric, Jimi was over the top. I love Jimi and I've listened to him every day since I was eight or nine, so if I can reflect a little bit of what he's brought to my life through my music, then that's doing something extremely right.

OV: How do you think you've changed since your first album, Welcome to the Cruel World- what have you learned?

BH: I've learned a lot about touring, about playing live, about writing, about recording - I think I have learned the things that I set out to learn about [such as] learning about how to be open to anything - leaming how to listen and how to straighten the ability to which I've committed my life to, which are singing, playing the guitar, writing music, writing songs, lyrics. . .

OV: You've said: "Who you are is ng to come through your music. I think people know me through my music."  I think a lot of musicians would disagree with that statement. I don't think we know any more about Mick Jagger after hearing Satisfaction." But why is it true for you and what do you think people know?

BH: I think the music is extremely telling in that it comes from a place of inspiration in my life, from experience, and also from experiences I've heard about that affect me. Things that I've dreamed even come out in the music. It is telling. I think music is a reflection of a person, consciously or unconsciously. It's hard to say, "This song reflects me in this way." Some are reflections, sine are interpretations about events or situations that I've heard about.

OV: Can you tell me one song that is a direct reflection?

BH: Well, I don't like to get into particular songs because then it sort of gives too much away. The song should speak on its own musical
strength. When you start talking around or about a song, somehow it belittles the meaning.

OV: One of the obvious themes, and one thing that I've learned about you through your music, is that you are very spiritual. Can you tell me about how that ties into you as a person and your music?

BH: Well, I hope I can and I want to be as straightforward with you as I can at all time with any question. Spirituality is something that is so strong, yet so fragile that talking about it.. . is unnecessary. Because it's felt, for me. I've never believed anything anybody's told me unless I feel it, 

OV: Have you been able, then, to articulate your faith or you spirituality through music?

BH: I hope that I have. I hope that people can feel ... You see, I believe in God, and my belief grows stronger every day. And it changes. Not by the day, but you can feel it. I think the openness to have an evolving belief is the key to strong belief.

OV: Is trying to capture your live sound a goa'in recording? I've seen you live a couple times now, but none of your albums come close to touching you live. Would you consider releasing a live album?

Yeah, that's going happen.

OV: Soon?

BH: Yeah, relatively soon. We're getting it together now, slowly but surely. In each album you want to bring a live feel and a live tonal quality to the record. At the same time, records are records and live is live, and the two have never been the same. It's just trying to get the two to reflect one another in the best way possible. And by saying that, I mean the studio versions set a foundation for the live show. It establishes the root of the song. Live, you can go with that and improvise, and that's where the song evolves and grcaows. Not that it n't do that in the studio, but you have to end up with a finished song sometime in the studio.

You get to a point where you're confident and comfortable inside a song in the studio. And by nature of playing that song time and again, you will, by nature, improve upon it and that's where the growth lies. Then you can bring that growth into new songs.

OV: You've said that your favorite place in the world is behind a guitar. What is your second favorite place?

BH: Maybe San Francisco. I like it there a lot in terms of being in a place physically.

OV: One final question: last time you talked with the Voice, you said that you don't tell people what to hear, that "music is people's justice." Can you better articulate that for us?

BH: Music can speak for the people. Music for me has always stated something that I've stated or wanted to say. It's spoken that for me.
So music in a way is redemption; it has definitely been a form of redemption in my life. ~~'of gives too much away. The song should speak on its own musical strength. When you start talking around or about a song, somehow it belittles the meaning.

OV: One of the obvious themes, and one thing that I've learned about you through your music, is that you are very spiritual. Can you tell me about how that ties into you as a person and your music?

BH: Well, I hope f can and I want to be as straightforward with you as I can at all time with any question. Spirituality is something that is so strong, yet so fragile that talking about it.. . is unnecessary. Because it's felt, for me. I've never believed anything anybody's told me unless I feel it, 

OV: Have you been able, then, to articulate your faith or you spirituality through music?

BH: I hope that I have. I hope that people can feel ... You see, I believe in God, and my belief grows stronger every day. And it changes. Not by the day, but you can feel it. I think the openness to have an evolving belief is the key to strong belief.

OV: Is trying to capture your live sound a goa'in recording?

I've seen you live a couple times now, but none of your albums come close to touching you live. Would you consider releasing a live album?
Yeah, that's going happen.

OV: Soon?

BH: Yeah, relatively soon. We're getting it together now, slowly but surely. In each album you want to bring a live feel and a live tonal quality to the record. At the same time, records are records and live is live, and the two have never been the same. It's just trying to get the two to reflect one another in the best way possible. And by saying that, I mean the studio versions set a foundation for the live show. It establishes the root of the song. Live, you can go with that and improvise, and that's where the song evolves and grows. Not that itn't do that in the studio, but you have to end up with a finished song sometime in the studio.

You get to a point where you're confident and comfortable inside a song in the studio. And by nature of playing that song time and again, you will, by nature, improve upon it and that's where the growth lies. Then you can bring that growth into new songs.

OV: You've said that your favorite place in the world is behind a guitar. What is your second favorite place?

BH: Maybe San Francisco. I like it there a lot in terms of being in a place physically.

OV: One final question: last time you talked with the Voice, you said that you don't tell people what to hear, that "music is people's justice." Can you better articulate that for us?

BH: Music can speak for the people. Music for me has always stated something that I've stated or wanted to say. It's spoken that for me.
So music in a way is redemption; it has definitely been a form of redemption in my life. ~~'