Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.10.2017, Page 39

Ben recalls seeing a Beach Boys
documentary about the recording of
‘Pet Sounds,’ in which various sing-
ers had to literally move around the
room to pre-placed marks on the
floor, blending their voices in real
time. “I found it fascinating,” he says.
“I wanted to play with that. We set
up many mics, but the primary mics
were behind my head, to emulate
what I was hearing. I stood in front
of the array of speakers and amps,
and we treated them almost like an
ensemble. If I wanted something
louder, I’d physically move it. I was
making the sound work in the space,
isolated from being able to control
everything.”
Hellfire and brimstone
‘The Centre Cannot Hold’ is also
Ben’s most overtly political album to
date. During the recording, he found
himself in the US on
the night of the 2016
election. He recalls it
as a frightening ex-
perience. “It wasn’t
‘him,’ per se, but
what it represented,”
he says. “Maybe we’ve
all been living in an
illusory time period,
thinking that some-
how things head in
the right direction of
their own volition. If
there is a lesson, it’s
that—as our dear
friends told us—we
have to fight for our right.”
He also had some first hand ex-
periences of the American military
that fed into the album. “I was re-
cording with Richard Weaver, and
we ended up with the US Navy on
an aircraft carrier surrounded by
bombs stacked like fucking milk
crates. Watching these kids from
Texas strapping a teacher’s salary
onto the bottom of a plane so it could
be flown into another country and
dropped on some people—it’s a terri-
fying thought. It would be dishonest
to deny that a part of me that wants
to use that experience to say some-
thing about the state of the world.
When I named the track ‘A Hellfire
Missile Costs $100,000,’ it is some-
thing I want you to think about.”
Drones for lunch
While he’s reluctant to say that the
new album—with other song titles
including ‘Healthcare’ and ‘Thresh-
old of Belief’—is an expression of
his own politics, Ben
admits that the cur-
rent realpolitik has
made him question
his work.
“It’s a strange
time to be an art-
ist,” he says, slow-
ly. “This narrative
we’ve all taken part
in since post-war
Europe—with val-
ues like free market
capitalism, the idea
of democracy for us
and then drones for
lunch for other parts
of the world—they’ve been vaguely
accepted by all of us. There are clearly
alternatives that most people would
prefer, but we’ve ended up with a lit-
eral minority rule. And as an artist,
I find myself questioning the validity
of what it is I’m doing.”
“I’ve found myself questioning
the value of art for art’s sake, which
is dangerous,” he continues. “Art
shouldn’t need to be advocating
something—it strengthens the roots
of everything. So my resolve through
this record is to re-emphasise that
it’s not about my politics—it’s about
this idea of having an awareness of
the world, and being open to its ef-
fects, is enough. I don’t feel any need
to push my beliefs on anybody else.
It’s an accumulation of experience.”
Dealing with it
This level of engagement with all
aspects of his creative process mir-
rors Ben’s committed approach to
playing live. It’s perhaps what makes
his creative output—and, particu-
larly, ‘The Centre Cannot Hold’—so
compelling.
“The title came from Yeats,” he
finishes. “I’d read it in school, but
it felt new when I read it again. It
felt like a probing question. It was
before the US election, and the five
fucking hurricanes in a row, and the
earthquakes. I wondered earlier this
year if it was steering the record in a
direction I didn’t want it to go. I don’t
want it to feel like giving up, like nor-
malising the idea [of destabilisation]
and saying, ‘The world’s fucked, and
our children will inherit a scorched
earth.’ But I decided there’s resolve
in this idea. It’s about having to deal
with things.”
39 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 18 — 2017

THIS AD SPACE IS RESERVED FOR
ROSENBERG KLAPPARSTÍG 27 TO
ADVERTISE THEIR LOVELY BREAKFAST
& LUNCH WHICH EVERYONE ARE
TALKING ABOUT

THIS AD SPACE IS RESERVED FOR
ROSENBERG KLAPPARSTÍG 27 TO
ADVERTISE THEIR LOVELY BREAKFAST
& LUNCH WHICH EVERYONE ARE
TALKING ABOUT
“Maybe we’ve
all been living
in an illusory
time period,
thinking that
somehow
things head
in right direc-
tion of their
own volition.”
Ben, thinnking about Hellfire Missiles, possibly
bergcontemporary.is Klapparstígur 16
101 Reykjavík / Iceland
18.8 — 21.10 2017
Variations
Dodda Maggý

Kjarvalsstaðir
Flókagata 24
105 Reykjavík
+354 411 6420
Open daily
10h00–17h00
artmuseum.is
#listasafnreykjavikur
30.09.–
30.12.2017
Anna Líndal
Leiðangur Expedition