Band of Horses
Interview with Ben Bridwell
Words: Michael Rabinowitz
Photos: David Belisle

March 21, 2008
The Social, Orlando

March 22, 2008
The Cuban Club, Ybor City

March 24, 2008
Common Grounds, Gainesville

Part II Continued from REAX Issue 21

With the growth of a fan base comes criticism about what an artist can do with his own music.  Ben Bridwell, lead singer for Band of Horses, learned this the hard way when news broke he struck a deal with the Death Star of retailers, Wal-Mart, to license his songs for commercials.  In this second half of a two part interview with Bridwell, he explains his decision making process behind the Wal-Mart deal, and why he saw the light to nix it. 

REAX:  On the new album, I was worried you went all U2 on us when you released "Is There A Ghost" first, but was happy to see you stuck to your roots with "Marry Song" and "Ode to LRC.”  "Ghost" is a great song but an aberration, being so big and anthemic, like U2.  Where did that track come from?
BB:  When I moved into this house in South Carolina, I was just trying to learn to use my recording software.  It was just a stupid little throwaway song.  And, while we were recording the album, it was producer Phil Elk’s idea that we needed more upbeat jammers on it.  It was just too melancholy.  When we got back from lunch, Rob Hampton and Creighton Barrett had been working on that demo.  It was on my iPod and they queued it up, took the mellow jammer that it was and just rocked it.  We got back and thought it sounded fucking rad.  We thought “No One Is Going To Love You” would be the first single, then Phil Costello – he’s worked with Radiohead and all these fucking massive bands – it was his advice, for radio, to start with that song because it was so loud and poppy.  He thought that would be a great way to kick the record off.  I can see how it doesn’t fit cohesively with the album as a whole, but it attracted a whole new listening base for us. 

REAX:  I call it anthemic because of the echo effect on your voice, like you are playing a huge arena.  Was that echo effect on your original demos?
BB:  The way I record myself, there are just massive amounts of effects.  When I brought it to Phil, he could barely make the song out amongst all the effects.  We put a little bit of that in the final masters, but nowhere near the amount if I was at the helm.

REAX:  A blogger’s furor broke when word got out that you might license BOH songs for a Wal-Mart advertising campaign.  You went public, stating your reasoning, that it wasn’t a big deal, but then later changed your mind.  Why the reversal?
BB:  No.  I always thought it wasn’t the right thing to do, to be honest.  I thought the money was awesome and I had some news that I was becoming a dad that kind of influenced me to say, “Fuck! There is a higher purpose here. I need this fucking cash.”  Laughs.  But in the end, as things were still unfolding, the deal wasn’t done.  It kept kind of egging at me.  I was thinking if I don’t have faith in this band to make more money in the future then why not take the money and run and accept maybe we’ll become irrelevant next month.  But, I don’t feel that way.  I have more faith in the band that money will come or go either way and it doesn’t have that much of an immediate effect where I just have to grab it now.  In the back of mind I knew I didn’t want to do it.  So, I turned Wal-Mart down and Ford was like, “Well, we’ll take it.”   And, who knows the lesser of two evils, who is right or who is wrong. Wal-Mart just created too much of a bad taste, I guess.

REAX:  There seems to be some care taken with your licensed tracks, like the Ford sunroof ad.  Do you have any control over that or is it just luck that an ad guy used it that way?
BB:  We got really lucky.  I had no say as to what the use would’ve been.  I am really glad the way it turned out.  I just saw it for the first time on TV while watching the Sugar Bowl with my dad.  All my family, all my friends are watching.  So, I feel like I played the Sugar Bowl.  Laughs. 

REAX:  You seem to focus more on southern shows.  Is it geography (being close to South Carolina) or scene preference?
BB:  I do like playing Southern shows.  I like the vibe that’s down there.  We play smaller rooms and that’s fun to break away from the pressures of playing to 2,500 people in New York.  It’s going to be a different atmosphere either way.  At the same time, we’ve played London three times in a year.  We’re going back to Norway again.  I don’t think we give favorites to any area.  I think we just keep trying to play catch up where the markets are growing.  If there is a market for us, we’ll go there, basically.  I don’t feel like we prefer any special place.  It’s just like, “Where’s the oil at?” Laughs.  You go wherever that is.

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