Two Bozeman Shows Saturday

Band of Horses Find Their Stride

By David Nolt, 11-16-07

	Band of Horses

You have to love the indie music community and the speed at which unassuming but talented, dedicated musicians can rise through its ranks. Take, for example, Band of Horses: Ben Bridwell moves from South Carolina to Seattle where he at one point becomes happily homeless, works at the legendary Crocodile Café, plays in an obscure band for awhile, forms a new band with fellow southerners, joins longtime friend Sam Beam of Iron & Wine at a Subpop Records dinner and within months has a record deal. And not only has a record deal, but also goes on to produce a really, really good album that everybody loves.

Such is the life now of Ben Bridwell and Band of Horses. The band just released another great album—Cease to Begin—and are in the first stages of a tour that will take them to Bozeman this Saturday and then across the U.S. and Europe.

Bridwell’s Southern sentiment and love of straightforward rock and roll render a decidedly simple, gritty, guitar-driven sound, and his echoing, sheer voice cuts to the chase of his words. On Cease to Begin, Bridwell fully takes the sound formed in Seattle back to his Southern roots.

Where Everything All the Time had a more atmospheric sound, Cease to Begin is full of boisterous musicianship and lyrical revelry. Bridwell says he wrote with more personal creative freedom on the new record, and one listen to Cease to Begin will attest to this.

Ben Bridwell graciously granted the Livingston Weekly an interview on October 25, 2007.

Livingston Weekly: Thanks for doing this, man. This is awesome.

Ben Bridwell: No problem, man. You’re my last of the day, so you have all my attention. Those other people got crappy interviews.

LW: And they deserved it.

BB: Absolutely.

LW: What’s it been like coming out with another album in as short of time as you have and getting as much exposure as you guys have for a sophomore album? I imagine it’s been a bit of a whirlwind.

BB: Yeah. It’s been a good whirlwind, or we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation. It’s good, though. I try not to think about it too much, how high profile we are or how many people are paying attention to us or whatever. To me it still seems a bit like a dream. It almost seems like it’s not happening. I just try not to think about it too much and do my job and stay positive.

LW: You went through a lineup change with the band and a change of geography moving back to South Carolina. Can you talk a bit about how the band transformed, about what the new band is bringing and about how that move back to South Carolina affected the music?

BB: I had lineup changes even before Mat had joined the band and many more after that. Mat’s the most high-profile one just because he wrote a couple songs on that record and helped craft that record quite a lot. Fortunately was the norm just to get started finding the right people. I feel like now we’re close. If we don’t have it already we’re really close…I feel really happy with the dudes we have right now, though, and feel like we’re really bonding as a full band.

As far as the move, my family lives here. All our families are here. Siblings are having babies. Parents are getting older so we wanted to be close to them. It was nice just to come back here and have some downtime to try to finish up the writing for the record. I hadn’t finalized lyrics and stuff like that so I needed some alone time just to finalize things and even write a couple songs that ended up being on the record.

LW: You moved up to Seattle initially to become a musician and get into the music scene. Now that you’ve moved back to South Carolina how has that affected things because I’m sure there’s probably not as much music there as in Seattle? Do you get to spend more time together as a band?

BB: Down here it’s more of the simple kind of stuff like going down to the beach and taking it easy when we’re here. It’s catching on down here, though. It’s funny, some of the younger kids know who we are and come up and say hi and make conversation. But for the most part we can kind of slide around anonymously over here. It’s interesting, we kind of look just like freaks or looters or something. I think people probably grip their purse a little tighter or move their kids away from us. It’s nice to be anonymous.

LW: Lyrically, you said you approached Cease to Begin a lot differently and had a lot more ease writing the lyrics and it’s definitely evident especially on “Marry Song.” I really love that song. It has a freer flow than what was on *Everything All the Time.* Where was a lot of your inspiration coming from because this definitely seems like a cheerier album? You’re singing “the world is such a wonderful place” and “la di da.” It just seems to have a bit more of an optimistic tone to it. Can you speak a bit about your writing process?

BB: You’re the second person in a row to say that. For me, as much as there is positivity in the songs there’s also the opposite end of the spectrum. Maybe “Marry Song” has a bit of a cheery feel to it, or “General Specific” is really cheery to me. “Ode to LRC” is a paranoid freak-out to me, lyrically. Actually, it’s “*if* the world is such a wonderful place.” So it’s funny to hear that people thing that it’s such a positive record because I think dueling forces are constantly present to me.  That’s just the way I write.

LW: Have you been to Montana before?

BB: Absolutely, man. I love Montana. We’re looking forward to that show.

*Band of Horses will play two shows at the Filling Station in Bozeman on Saturday, November 17th. Contact Cactus Records or Porterhouse Productions for more information.

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