Any Questions For Ben?

"This whole trip [home to Australia] was a surprise; it was to do with my gig on The Voice. And then it was like, 'Hey, this is my chance to tie in doing some stuff for my record,' so it was all unexpected. I originally envisioned that this record would be the kind of record that I'd slowly allow to find its audience, but this surprise kind of gig has given it the platform to expose it to some more people.” Ben Lee explains his current place in the world with relative calm, and you have to appreciate his restraint here. Managing to straddle both the most commercial of commercial (with his new gig as a vocal coach on The Voice), while also making an independent, crowd-funded record, Ayahuasca: Welcome To The Work, he's currently living the dream – the epitome of having the best of both worlds.

“You know, I remember Michael Moore talking about having his documentaries funded through... I forget who it was through, one of the major studios, but he said, 'It's possible to do this. You can actually be part of the system and make work that's about questioning the question.' And what a gorgeous thing to explore,” Lee explains of playing both roles. As he talks, he uses the same energy to explain the chance to develop new (commercial) vocal talent as he does to promote his latest offering, an album which is a musical and spiritual departure from his poppy past. Ayahuasca is named after a South American vine that is used in ritual, but by being part of “the system”, Lee is exploring the importance of self-expression while also creating wider dialogues. “Ayahuasca is not for everybody, the answer is not 'take Ayahuasca', it's more symbolic than anything. This is about something that touched me, but it does stand for something. For some people their awakening comes through a reality TV show, for other people it comes through falling in love, for other people through travelling, or a yoga workshop. It's not about finding one answer, but bringing an open heart and love and an open mind to all of these various possibilities. So I just try and do that.”

Ayahuasca: Welcome To The Work, involves soundscapes, explorations and trips off the melodic beaten track, and while there is a thread that brings it all together, it's not the pop of old. You could call it a through line of basic Lee happiness, but he describes it in slightly different terms. “I've always used the word 'joy' because joy can have sorrow in it. Happiness is when things are going great, but joy has gratitude, and you can have gratitude in a whole range of experiences. And I really, you know, a record like Awake Is the New Sleep (2005), which had some of my most upbeat songs on it, also had some of the most soul searching, sadder songs that I've written. But I think there was a constant thread of joy through it, I was truly grateful to be alive and having those experiences. I've always wanted to live embracing a dynamic life and in the same way give my audience permission to embrace having that range of experiences.”

The press prep proclaims a near-quitting moment for Lee before this album, too, one he does own, but not as a significant turning point here. “I mean, that's kind of happened several times. It's not that I say, 'I'm breaking up for a while,” he begins, explaining a process of turning around and coming back. “Around Ripe (2007), I got into the idea of being a tour musician, writing, recording, doing the whole thing, and then it kind of ground to a halt, and then I had kids, and then I started saying, 'I'm gunna work when I have something to say, or something to explore.' And in a way, every time you do that you have to be willing to walk away. And in a way I'm doing that now, I'll make another record when another record wants to be made. So in a way that's kind of ending it each time, it's a kind of death experience.”

With funds raised through Pledge Music, there's something of a gift economy happening with this offering too. Smiling when Amanda Palmer's recent TED talk is mentioned ('don't make people pay for music, ask them'), he is squarely behind that process. “I find her incredibly inspiring... Not everybody, we shouldn't generalise, but there's enough people who value music enough, maybe more than we think they do, and maybe they make up for the people who want it for free. So it's a really interesting time. I also felt philosophically that an album like this only works if people understand that it's an emotional experience, and it's a risk for me, and a difficult subject matter and it's a discussion, and I wanted people to be involved in that as early as possible, not just 'I've made this thing, now you digest it!', but really share along the way. There's been these updates and an ongoing discussion about why to do this in this way, and why now,” he explains. And the proceeds are going back into the world rather than to him, part of a commitment to keep the gift economy flowing. “[Half goes to] MAPS [Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies], which does research and their big breakthrough was MDMA and post-traumatic stress, which they had huge breakthroughs with last year; it got New York Times cover stories which is a really big deal, because aside from the research what they're really doing is contributing to the conversation about what role do amplified states of consciousness play in the health of an individual and a society, because they do play a role... And the other organisation is the Amazon conservation team, which is obviously a really important cause.”

It's now been well over 15 years since Lee's lived in Australia, and although he might still look and sound familiar, his work, and his outlook, has certainly changed. While Aussies are currently something of a flavour of the month (“[Gotye's] the Crocodile Dundee,” he confirms), that part of the world is just his home now, not anything special. “The musicians are all so cool, people like Julia Stone and cool people like that pass through, and musicians are cool people who always band together. LA's a really warm place for musicians.” Having said that, there's no special treatment necessarily (or a lasting hold) when it comes to being an Aussie in America. Going back to Gotye and his impact (or perhaps 'nice while it lasts' flash), Lee says with a smile, “You know, to me it's like Australians and New Zealanders. You know how New Zealanders think Australians hate them, but it's more that Australians aren't thinking about it? It's the same thing. Australians might think Americans hate them, but Americans are like 'What, Australia?'. It's always like that. You know when there's a girl at a party who you think is being snobby, they're actually just doing their own thing.”

Ben Lee will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 11 April - Paddington United Church, Sydney (with Darpan and Friends, Appleonia, Avasa & Matty Love, Nadav)