One of our favorite finds from Bonnaroo back in June was Ben Sollee, a classically-trained cellist whose music is a unique combination of folk and traditional strings, jazz and R&B percussion, and genuinely good songwriting. Ben met us in the press area at the batting cages (yes, batting cages are necessary to a press area) to have a chat about his musical history and current projects. Read on for an especially interesting discussion on the transformation process that occurs when one goes from being 'in a band' to 'being the leader of the band.'

Ben: Should we do our interview while we're batting?


IYS: Yeah, let's do it.

Ben: You can throw questions at me, and also throw the balls.

IYS: Care to introduce yourself to those of our readers who aren't familiar with you as of yet?

Ben: I'm a young white boy from Kentucky. I've grown up steeped in all of Kentucky's roots of music, art and culture, but I've now traveled and have these inclusions of other things. For example, when I was helping my grandfather farm his land, I was also listening to Lauren Hill. When I was studying classical cello, I was also playing bluegrass. I would like people to keep in mind that it's not me trying all these different styles for the sake of variation, rather, everyone has such a wide range of influences on them, and I'm just putting that in my music. Hip hop beat in my music? Totally. I've love hip hop my whole life. Kick-ass fiddle work in some of my songs? Yes, because that's also a part of me.

IYS: So you have your solo career, and you're also a part of The Sparrow Quartet, right? And that project is still active?

Ben: Yeah, though it's not as active as it was before. We played a few shows at the beginning of this year, but we've slowed things down a bit.

IYS: Can you give us a little history behind how you moved from being a classically-trained cellist through The Sparrow Quartet and into your solo career?

Ben: So I started playing cello in public school. I was nine. I was the only cellist in there for a little bit, actually, I remember, playing in the orchestra. So I never felt like I had anyone there next to me, defining boundaries.

At the time, I was playing a lot of fiddle tunes with my grandfather on the cello. He's an Appalachian musician, and my father was an RnB guitarist, so I learned RnB tunes from him. So the music at home, and the vernacular music in my life was very much RnB, roots, and folk music.

But then, as I progressed on the cello, I started learning what is conventional cello -- because the cello is very much stored away in this institution of classical music. Partly for tradition, because a lot of the music is written that way, and partly, I think, to keep the cello at a higher, more prestigious level, you know? There's no finger-markings on the cello, the tuning pegs are still friction pegs -- It's a very difficult, almost archaic instrument to learn how to play, right?

So while I was studying classical music -- I wouldn't say I'm classically-trained in the cello. I got a degree, but I would say I studied the cello. I would not say I'm trained. So as I was studying classical music, I kept meeting all these different people and I was doing more and more music, being asked to play blues music, being asked to play with bluegrass bands…

I eventually met Abigail Washburn. We came together to record Song of the Traveling Daughter, which is the first record, and then we toured the country for two or three years, just as a duo. In doing that, I learned how to back up a vocalist in the right way, to do lots of chordal stuff, really work rhythm on the cello… You have to spread out and do lots of variation.

Then Abigail, when it came time to tour China, she put together this band with Casey Driessen on fiddle and Béla Fleck on banjo. We toured China and we all had a really good time doing that, so when it came time to make a second record, we just did it as a quartet.

Now in doing that record, I really learned a lot from Béla in particular about timing in music. He always said, "Anything can work musically, if you justify it." I think what he's saying there is that if you have a good musical reason to put something in there, whether it's furcini opera in a chinese folk song, or whether it's a screaming banjo/fiddle number in a whole tone scale, if you've got a reason for it and you go after it, and you can justify your decision, it's going to work. So I learned a lot from that. I did a lot of touring with The Sparrow Quartet last year and I learned a lot about touring from that.

IYS: So The Sparrow Quartet was really just a band for that one album, and each person moved off and started to do their own thing?

Ben: Yeah, well everyone just got busy. You know, Béla got busy because he's always got a ton of projects going on, and the Flecktones are always working on new stuff. Jeff is going on to play with Dave Matthews Band now. Futureman has the Black Mozart Ensemble going on. I started doing my solo thing -- everyone just got busy.

IYS: Your solo debut was the EP, If You're Gonna Lead My Country, and that came out at basically the same time as the Sparrow Quartet album, right?

Ben: Yeah.

IYS: Sounds like a busy time for you.

Ben: Yeah, very busy time. My first commitment at that point was to The Sparrow Quartet though. I had already obligated with them, but then it turned out that our albums ended up aligning. So I did a lot of work with them on it. Abigail is very generous band leader. She was always willing to let us work on our solo stuff as well. That really helped.

IYS: It was only a few months after the EP that your full-length came out, right?

Ben: Yeah, the EP was really supposed to just be a teaser for the album. Just a digital A/B, to give people a taste of what the album would be like.

IYS: As a solo artist, you're in the driver's seat as far as songwriting, decision-making, everything. What was the contrast like between that and being a member of a band?

Ben: With Abigail, when we toured, it was as cohorts on the road. So it was a very collaborative thing. It was around Abigail's music, and yes, she was the band leader, and yes, she bore the financial risk. When money wasn't there, however, we all did our part to make things work.

Now it's different, however. I'm married, I'm putting out my own music. I definitely have felt a huge shift in responsibility. You know, as a band leader. You definitely feel that, you know? You put a band on stage and sometimes you don't make any money, but you have to pay your band, because they're out working hard for you. It all eventually comes back around though, because you're getting the recognition capital out of that. Your guys are playing with you, they're playing a great show, and it's your job to hire a great band, but once you do the real show, it's your name that people take away from it.

IYS: Oftentimes the backing band is completely unknown.

Ben: Yeah, unfortunately. I want people to know who my backing band is, though. That's an important thing I learned from Abigail.

IYS: She did the same thing for you.

Ben: Yeah, she really made it much more of a collaborative quartet than a backing band, even though it was all under her moniker. Even though it was always the Abigail Washburn band.

IYS: So, with that shift in responsibility, how do you like the absolute control (if you take it) of the sound and evolution of the band?

Ben: Well, I try and will always try to keep it a collaborative effort. Every musician has a brain, but I specifically hire and want my musicians to be the true deal. Beyond that, as I guess I'm producing the show, I just have a lot of fun with it. I mean, it's already pretty funky. It's already a cello and a voice, a seven-string guitar and RnB drums. It's already weird enough that we don't have boundaries.

IYS: You recently did a bike tour, where you rode bicycles from town to town and venue to venue, ultimately ending up in Tennessee at Bonnaroo. Can you tell us a little bit about that, why you did it, and how it went?

Ben: In early June, we climbed onto Xtracycles. Myself, Marty Vincent and Katy Vincent (who came from California to document the trip). [Xtracycles are] basically extended-frame bicycles with what is basically a hauling area where you can carry about 250 pounds of cargo. So we hopped on those and went on a little tour of Appalachia to raise awareness about the technology of the Xtracycle, and for the work of Oxfam America, which is an international help and relief foundation.

The tour went really well, but I had only ridden a bike for about eight miles before we started out. [Laughter] So it was really difficult for me. It's not like just getting on a road bike and rolling around the hills of Appalachia. It's essentially like driving a truck. You're not standing up and booking it up the hills; You're just working slowly and steadily up them and letting them push you on the way down to get back up the next one. It was a really neat experience. I feel like I've been on a fast. A fast from all the craziness of being a musician, where you get on planes, trains and automobiles all the time, where you get on a plane, zip across the country, play one show and fly back, then immediately drive down the coast just to barely make your next show, you know? I feel like I took a real fast from that. I feel healthier. I feel vibrant. More in right where I'm at.

Introducing the bike is a beautiful limitation, because you localize yourself. I have to pedal to this place. I have to use my body, and I have to treat my body right in order to do that, and then I have to play a show after that. The people are going to watch me pedal in, probably, and I'm going to be sweaty, and I'm going to have to get cleaned up when I'm there… So it was all about being there, right where I was at any given time. It's something I'm going to have a lot of trouble letting go, when I go back to getting in a car to go from show to show, or on a plane. I don't think I'll let go of it.

IYS: You think you'll do it again?

Ben: I'm going to do it again in different places. Hopefully expand it out a little bit. I booked it a little too much like I would have booked a car tour, with show after show, but that also kept me moving. Otherwise I might have just laid down for a few days and quit. [Laughter]

I know if I had more time, though, my body would have recovered better between legs of the trip. If I had like one day to rest in between each show.

IYS: I remember reading in one of your on-the-road updates that you had noticed the effects of your diet pretty strongly on your performance.

Ben: Oh yeah. A cheeseburger and french fries gives my particular body nothing to work off of. I wanted to die on the road after that meal. Then I ate a Clif bar, with whole grains and natural sugars, and I got two hours of solid riding out of that. And I was happier! It was almost a spiritual transformation between the two. It's crazy how much nutrition effects everything. It's like the flux capacitor or something, I don't know. It's the key.

IYS: So the bike tour ended with your arrival at Bonnaroo, right?

Ben: We pulled into Bonnaroo, and they immediately took our bikes and locked them up in some storage semi. Apparently we can't have them on the grounds.

IYS: How have you liked Bonnaroo so far? You've already played a show.

Ben: I'm playing shows every day. I'm also doing panels on music and social change. I've been really, really busy, but that's what an artist at my level should be doing. You know, you're not going to have one big show where you can try and pull everyone, so you have to be doing lots of small shows. Work the pavement, you know, sow seeds.

IYS: So would you say social activism is an integral part of your music?

Ben: Well, when I'm on a stage playing a show, my primary concern is playing music that evokes emotion. I don't really feel like it's as effective if I stop the show and bring an activist angle into it.

For example, yesterday, I played a show for forty minutes, and then Bobby Kennedy walked up on stage. Now there's a social activist. He knew his shit. He knew everything about the subjects he talked about. I mean, he really knew it. That's something that, as a musician, I don't have. It's hard to be a musician, get all your practicing, writing, recording, creative time, etc, and be totally informed.

IYS: Well, being informed is a full-time job for anyone.

Ben: Yes. Completely. [Bobby Kennedy] really showed me that. So for me, it's really important for me to give a platform to that type of person so that they can speak. I think it's much more about inclusion of activism and those people, those activists, in my show. So putting on a tour that gets media attention because I'm an artist with a cello on the back of my bike and whatnot, I am able to bring attention to causes that those fully informed people are doing. That's how I want to be an activist, by including those other people, rather than trying to do it myself.

I'm much more of the approach that if you have an artistic idea, you basically walk into somebody's life, place it on their kitchen table and let them look at it and think about it. If they make it a part of their lives, great. If they don't, they wouldn't have anyway. It's not about worrying that I'm going to push people away with preaching, or that I'm worried about being divisive either. I'm being honest, and that's going to attract the right people anyway.