Ben Kweller

I think Scotland's probably my favourite place to play a jovial Ben Kweller admits, and like a kid with the promise of pudding after just two more mouthfuls of dinner, the fickle Skinny is putty in his hands.

Two weeks into his latest US/European tour and Kweller's already feeling the strain. "I hardly get any sleep... not since the baby was born." Whilst travelling in promotion of his most aptly-titled album, 'Ben Kweller', the now NY-based purveyor of fine melodic pop is enjoying life. "Touring's great fun, we have this massive trailer now so I can bring my family along." Kweller and wife Liz Smith have just recently been joined by a baby, so surely this will be reflected in any new material, no? "I don't really see it affecting my music, I was always kind of sentimental anyway."

Certainly, the latest long-player is brimming with honey-soaked pop nuggets, dripping with honesty and as addictive as nature's own nectar - and while other artists may have to admit a certain amount of assistance in obtaining sounds or ideas, with a credit list for the instruments on the album being just one name long, Kweller's work is all his own.

So how does this transfer to the live arena? "I'm lucky because the guys I've got playing with me I've known for a long time and they're all great musicians. They play the new songs the way they're meant to be played which is cool but they also add something new to the old songs which keeps them sounding fresh."

Kweller was part of the early-naughties NY revival and is jamming buddies with a who's-who of many of those exports. "I guess the main thing was that we were all there together while the town was buzzing. It was more than just the music, we'd all go to each others shows, play each other new tunes (he has vivid memories of Julian Casablancas playing early 'Room on Fire' tracks in the back of the tour bus), something was happening on a friendship level just as much as anything else."

Fast-forward a few years and Kweller has amassed a fairly substantial fanbase from all over the world, all seemingly hooked by his knack for a tune and general nice guy attitude. He's certainly no slouch either, and has been known to shed blood to keep his faithful happy. At a recent festival appearance in Austin, Kweller braved a chronic nosebleed which resulted in him losing a dangerous amount of blood just so that the amassed wouldn't go without. "I hadn't taken cocaine, I hadn't even picked my nose" recalls Ben, "but there was no way 20,000 people were going to miss my show because of a nosebleed!" As it turns out, the severity of the nosebleed, untamed by tampons thrown from the crowd, was too much and when a piano-playing Ben became unable to control his fingers from slipping across blood-covered keys, his manager came to the rescue and dragged him to A&E.

Still, on planet Kweller, every cloud has a silver lining: "We're thinking about approaching Tampax for a tour sponsorship."