It's the middle of summer in Los Angeles, but with the swimming, beers, and Aussie company, singer-songwriter Ben Lee has carved out a home away from home within the sprawling US city.
"There's a lot of Aussies in LA at the moment," Ben says. "Like, Gordi, Alex Lahey, Holly Rankin [aka Jack River]. I'm actually going to see Camp Cope tonight. It'll be fun!"For many Aussies, including his LA companions, Lee is held in high esteem within Australian music.
First making a mark in the '90s at the precocious age of 14 with his band Noise Addict, Ben has penned such classic Australian tunes as 'Cigarettes Will Kill You', 'We're All In This Together' and 'Catch My Disease', and dabbled in everything from acting and podcasting to competing in the TV series 'The Masked Singer' and a one-sided social media comedic feud with The Wiggles' Murray Cook.
Despite his busy schedule, Ben shows no signs of weariness as he plunges ahead with his 20th album, 'I'm Fun', a record that looks back at his 30-plus year career and analysing his past-self, from the good memories to his bad behaviour.
"I wanted to allow myself to reflect," he says. "I looked at the types of careers I liked as people got older, the people that I really admired are people like Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt, and they never tried to stay young.
"They allowed themselves to write honestly about whatever phase they were in, and to reflect and to have regrets and to struggle, but to do it all with a sense of gratitude for the journey they were on.
"I've had such a, at various times, an adversarial relationship with my audience or with the media. I wanted to write about that; I thought that was great material."
Since announcing his new album, Ben has rolled out a series of bright and garish visuals. The video for first single 'Born For This Bullsh.t' sees Ben's head superimposed on a naked, muscular body, wearing a pink cowboy hat and busting moves.
While fun, they hold a deeper purpose, tying with the album's self-analytical lyrics. "There's a great Oscar Wilde quote: 'Give a man a mask, he'll show you the truth,'" Ben says.
"A little bit of abstraction allows you to be a little bit more real in profound ways. But I think that I knew I wanted to allow this Ben Lee guy to be a character and to write about him and almost to analyse him with a little bit of distance.
"I think that's why I leaned towards a bigger exaggeration in the visuals and everything; it allowed me to look at this character and say, 'Who is this Ben Lee? What is the essence of this guy that has been a pain in the arse for me and also the rest of the world?'" he laughs.
One song that puts Ben's past-self on full display is his latest single, 'Arsehole' (featuring backing vocals from Camp Cope's Georgia Maq).
The song opens with the lyric: 'When I was younger, I was an arsehole,’ and proceeds to list his own youthful follies, such as his well-documented boastfulness. But rather than eviscerating himself, the song looks back fondly on the child he was from the perspective of the man he's become and offering advice to his own daughter.
"Isn't it funny how if you sit by yourself and you go, 'When I was younger, I was an arsehole. . .'; that is a brutal moment.
"But when you stand on a stage and sing it, it's glorious because you're also celebrating it. I think that it's one of the great secret tools that artists have; our shame becomes our great, heroic qualities," he laughs.
The global lockdowns and isolation forced Ben to record the album remotely with collaborators such as producer Jon Brion, Megan Washington, Zooey Deschanel, and heaps more. But now he's excited to be amongst people again, especially when he returns to Australia to perform live.
"It's feeling like we're starting to get more shows happening, so I'm excited," he says. "I've done bits and pieces, but the regularity has been patchy. I want to get back into the swing of regularity. When the audience is there and they want gigs, I'm like 'Let's book gigs. Let's do it!'
"I don't ever want to let that go because it's been a very big journey I've been on with my audience in Australia."
'I'm Fun' is now available. Ben Lee also supports The Corrs one-off Australian concert at Hope Estate (Hunter Valley) 26 November.
