Vi mødtes med Benjamin Booker, inden koncerten på Atlas i Århus, til en snak om hvad, der inspirerer ham i hans musik og hvordan han begyndte sin musikkarriere.
Af Anders Herfelt Jensen
What inspires you?
I guess just life and the people around me. And just everyday things inspire me.What’s the inspiration for your song ”Violent Shiver”?
I don’t know if it’s appropriate to talk about, but I guess it’s about people having different pasts, and how things that have happened earlier in your life can affect you a lot later on. The song is really about a girl I dated who was in to weird stuff and s***. It made me uncomfortable and made me think about how individuals want certain things in their life. And how things that happened in my childhood have influenced my life, and how things that have happened to her have influenced her life. So the song is about exploring that kind of stuff, and about our relationships to our parents. The relationship ended in total disaster, and we never found a way – which is opposite of what I’m singing in the chorus.What about the song “Kids are never growing older”?
I worked non-profit at a time in New Orleans, working a lot with poor communities. And I was working in places and with people who were formerly incarcerated, in city hall, in schools and kindergarten. I had gone to school and done like a bunch of stuff in school related to politics and social change. When I got out of school and into New Orleans I just got jaded so fast, because things were so ridicules and so corrupt. On a larger scale it just felt so impossible to get anything done. I just felt society fighting against progress, getting older and taking responsibility for the social problems, and that’s what the song is about. LÆS OGSÅ: "Benjamin Booker gav en inderlig og intens optræden"Do you have an advice for kids who are uncertain about what to do with their future?
If you don’t know what to do, don’t go to college. Just get a job or go to a trade school, but don’t go to college. It’s just a waste of time, if you don’t know what to do. I had a good time in college, but I also regret it so much. I wish I just never had done that. I think it’s important that you figure out what you want to do before you invest time in it.How did you get into music?
I had written a few songs, and shared songs with friends. And then a national radio station in Los Angeles picks up some songs, and after I got played on the radio I just started to get phone calls.
