Ben Barnes is finally making his music dreams come to life after first finding success in film and television roles like Prince Caspian in the “Narnia” movies, the Darkling in Netflix’s “Shadow and Bone” series, and villain Logan Delos in “Westworld.” The 43-year-old British artist released his first EP, “Songs for You,” in 2021, and is starting his tour of his full-length album, “Where the Light Gets In,” which gets its release on Jan. 10. Produced by Sam Farrar of Maroon 5 and drummer Paul Hamilton, the album features Barnes’ pensive, hopeful songwriting. He’s heading to Minneapolis as part of his U.S. tour on Jan. 21. at the Fine Line.
Here’s an interview with Barnes. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Sheila Regan: Doing the acting thing and the touring musician thing must be fairly complicated just in terms of scheduling your tour amidst shoots. How do you work that out?
Ben Barnes: It is complicated, is the answer. I’ve just been shooting for the last four months a new TV show based on a Stephen King novel called “The Institute.” I was in Canada shooting that, and the whole time we were sort of prepping and planning the tour. I think generally that December, January, February tend to be quiet in terms of new projects starting up. So I just made the decision four or five months ago, before I started filming, that that would be the time for the tour, and if anything came in, movie wise or whatever, then I was just going to take this time for me and for music and for the tour. This has been a dream I put off for over 20 years. It’s important sometimes to do something for yourself and to make space for the things.
SR: Congratulations about “Where the Light” gets in it. You had an EP in 2021 – “Songs for You,” but this new one is your first full-length album?
BB: Yeah,I released the EP during the pandemic, which was sort of done all very remotely, and people were sending in instrument recordings from all over the place, and then it was sort of put together. There were songs I’d written completely by myself at the piano. Music can be such a collaborative endeavor, and so to make a full album, it was so wonderful to be able to write songs and collaborate with people, to be able to have producers in a studio, a whole band in a room coming up with ideas of little riffs or whatever. And I think that my favorite kind of music is played by bands of musicians, and so it was a real treat to be able to finally do it that way.
SR: How did you get connected to Sam Farrar?
BB: I actually met him through James Valentine (also of Maroon 5). James and I met in a gym in Los Angeles, and he had seen some covers on the internet that I had done with a band called Scary Pockets, which is an LA based band, and think has played with them as well, and he had seen them, and knew me from that, and I think from some of my acting stuff. He stopped me to talk about that, and then I reflectively geeked out over him being such an amazing guitar player, and he sort of walked off. And then I just thought to myself, I’m trying to do music here. What am I doing? Allowing this man to walk away? So I chased after him and said, I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d ever want to try and write something together, is there? This feels like kismet, that we kind of met in this way, and then he and Sam, actually, we wrote one song together on the album, which is the title track, “Where the Light Gets In.”
SR: For the other songs on the album, are you coming up with lyrics or the melody before you get into the studio?
BB: Yeah, a few songs I’d started writing back in Budapest when I was filming “Shadow and Bone” in season two, so I had four or five songs that were in pretty good shape. And then with my friend Kevin Burke, who is another artist and had played in a band with me, we kind of polished some of those songs. So I had basically lyrics and melodies for about half the songs, and then I collaborated with people on the music for the rest of the songs, and all the lyrics essentially are mine. But for the first time ever on this album, I actually wrote some lyrics to some music that other people had kind of sent me, which was a fresh endeavor for me. I wanted to try all the different ways to see what’s working, kind of experiment in that way. It was rewarding to see what would work. I didn’t have confidence it would work unless I wrote the lyrics first, but actually I think if you’re in the room with people while it’s happening, and the songs are about things that you want to write songs about, it feels incredibly rewarding, and they still feel like yours, which is the crazy thing. When we’re rehearsing the tour, I’m like, wow, I’m seeing these songs that are mine.
SR: What character are you playing in the Stephen King movie?
BB: I’m finally playing a good guy after a few years of playing psychos. I’m playing an ex-cop who finds himself in a small town where there mysterious goings on, and we find that there is an institution nearby which is full of kidnapped telekinetic and telepathic children.
SR: Did you tell your agent, “I want to play a good guy next time?”
BB: It’s interesting because the last time I went on tour, I was singing these hopeful, joyful and kind of soulful songs to people. And it felt very in line with who I want to be as a man. And then I would go back and play these creeps or kind of vicious men. It was starting to feel like too many in a row, and starting to taint my experience of it. I really enjoy playing the villains and playing people whose minds work in different ways, but I also was keen to see if I could use what I’d learned in the last five, six years of playing bad guys and create fuller, more interesting, more dynamic characters that you might be rooting for a bit more.
SR: In the video for your song “Beloved,” it seemed like a therapist appointment that was being portrayed.
BB: My mom was a psychotherapist, and when I was touring in Europe, I was talking about the song “Beloved,” about how it was gentle encouragement to people to allow themselves to be loved. I made a joke on stage, and I just said, Oh, wow, I’m being everyone’s therapist right now. Lots of people posted that moment, and so I was like, Oh, maybe I should be someone’s therapist in the video.
SR: It seems like you’ve got a lot of engagement with your fans.
BB: Yeah, they’re very active, and they make beautiful posters. I actually hired one recently. Someone had been posting all these amazing designs, so I got someone to contact them and say, would you be interested in designing a poster for me? They’re making all this amazing stuff anyway, which I really want to repost. So I just decided to get them to make something for me which was amazing. They’re pinned on my Instagram. They’re a professional designer, but they also just happen to be making a lot of stuff as a fan as well. So it was pretty wonderful.
SR: Do you think that has to do with all your work in fantasy and science fiction? I think of those genres as having active fan culture, especially with fan fiction.
BB: I’ve been around for a while now doing this stuff. Narnia was getting towards 20 years ago when I filmed that, and I think I’ve done lots of different kinds of genre stuff. Book lovers and people who fall in love with different stories, and the characters in them can be fiercely loyal. They’ll follow you into horror or comedy or action films or whatever it might be, and gratefully, into the genre of music that I’ve been putting out as well. It’s been fantastic to have that kind of engaged fandom.
SR: I was listening to your music with my boyfriend, and he thought you sounded like an early David Gray. Are you a fan at all?
BB: I noticed on Apple Music today, the upcoming albums were myself next to the new David Gray album. So that was kind of interesting. I actually have a piano at home that David Gray recorded on. I tend to think my influences are more sort of 70s, like Stevie Wonder, Elton John kind of influences, but I love David Gray, so I’ll take it.
SR: How did that happen to have the piano?
BB: I got it from a producer, John Alagia, who was one of John Mayer’s producers, and he helped produce my EP. And then, in the pandemic, when his studio was shutting down, there was a baby grand piano in there that they were trying to re-home, and I loved it from the very first second. So I got to have it. Then after I got it, he told me the history that I think David Gray had recorded on it.
SR: What’s so special about this instrument?
BB: It’s just the warmest sounding piano I’ve ever heard. It’s a 1970s Yamaha.
SR: When did you start playing?
BB: Honestly, in my mid 30s, I had one lesson when I was a kid, and hated the teacher. I think I was about six, and she was mean, so I didn’t want to go back. And I regret it very deeply, because I would actually be a decent piano player now, but it’s amazing what you can do with motivation.
SR: Do you practice specifically on the piano, or is it mostly supporting your music writing?
BB: I think it supports the way that I write. In the middle of the set I always play a couple of tunes by myself at the piano, because I think it’s nice to have that sort of different storytelling dynamic. I get lessons from other people in my band.
SR: What kind of prep are you doing for the tour? I imagine doing films and TV also has really long days and travel.
BB: Vocal health for the next two months is definitely something which scares me. I’ve been doing a lot of training while I was filming. We had some great rehearsals this last week, and I’ve got an incredible band. So I think the hardest part is actually being quiet during the day for me, because I just want to take charge of things and help get everything how it needs to be and solve everything for everyone. And my actual job is to sort of keep quiet during the day, which is harder than it sounds.
SR: And your band that you’re going to be touring with, are some of them the same people that did the recording?
BB: Yes. The drummer, (Paul) Hammy is also my music manager. And then Charles Jones, who’s also going to open for me, is playing piano. He’s an incredible, incredible talent. Sophia James actually is in the band, and she also played on the record. The band is actually made up of solo artists, So all of the band, except the drummer, will all open at some point. I wanted it to feel like a real sort of festival of joy.
Ben Barnes performs Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 8 p.m. at the Fine Line, $46. More information here.
Sheila Regan
Sheila Regan is a Twin Cities-based arts journalist. She writes MinnPost’s twice-weekly Artscape column. She can be reached at sregan@minnpost.com.
