"There was a lot of intensity around that song": Ben Abraham On War In Your Arms

Ben Abraham has a habit of putting his foot in it. During his interview with Headliner, the L.A-based Australian singer-songwriter reveals he is not a huge music fan, he hates London, assures us that he’s an awful person, reveals the name of his (then) unannounced forthcoming album, and discloses that despite his music career taking off in a way it never has before, he wishes he was a screenwriter.

“My first ever trip to London was in November of 2015 and I lived there for a month, and the weather was miserable! I'd never been and I hated it. Just to clarify, I have since gone back during different times of the year and I love it,” he adds quickly.

It’s these types of admissions that make Abraham such a joy to interview – he’s refreshingly unguarded and laid-back to the point that Headliner jokes that his management might be having words with him after the interview.

“I'm quite an awful person,” he retorts (he’s of course, nothing of the sort). “I've got to fool people into thinking I'm a nice guy.”

This leads quickly to his second confession in minutes: “I often have to confess to people that I'm not a huge music fan. I obviously do like music, I love music,” he corrects himself. 

“There’s music that I listen to that really moves me, but I am not the consumer of music that I hope my fans are! Even when it comes to gigs…” he trails off. 

“I remember Radiohead coming through Melbourne a few years ago and I just wasn't going to buy a ticket even though they are my favourite band in the world. A friend of mine was like, ‘You're an idiot and I’m buying your ticket and we're going’, and then of course, I went and had the best time. But I just don't like live music. I don't see a lot of live music!”

Between admissions, Abraham talks about his forthcoming full-length debut for Atlantic Records, the title of which Headliner has been told is confidential (“it feels dumb… my album’s called Friendly Fire and it comes out next year”), which promises to spotlight the cinematic yet emotionally raw sensibilities that he has previously shown in penning songs for artists like Demi Lovato, Macklemore, Kesha and The Chicks. However, despite his success in the songwriting world, he initially intended to work in film.

“I still wish I could be a screenwriter. I don't think I'm good enough. I am much more of a film fan than I am…” he trails off again. 

“If there's a music festival and a film festival in Melbourne, I will ignore the music festival and sign up for 30 films at the film festival. In the process of doing a screenwriting course, I had a job at a hospital and started playing music for sick kids, and I realised how immediate it is to make music. 

"Bearing in mind I'd grown up playing music with my family [his parents played together in an Indonesian pop group], but it just never crossed my mind that I would want to do it for myself. But it came to me a lot more naturally, so I very quickly sidestepped the dreams of my screenwriting career.”

His 2014 self-released debut LP Sirens earned widespread critical praise, leading to a 2016 reissue via indie label, Secretly Canadian.

“When you are self-releasing, it’s like you're pushing this boulder up a hill, and it feels like at some point, someone will jump on board this machine and take over and the boulder will tip over the edge and start rolling down the other side. Signing to the label, I realised it was just a different version of the boulder – I’m still pushing it up the hill and working towards something. 

"I spent a lot of the first establishing years as an artist being ignored by the Australian music industry,” he points out. “My audience would build, but the industry itself wasn't really interested in what I was doing.”

His heavy-hearted single, War In Your Arms, taken from the forthcoming album, was the final nail in Abraham’s screenwriting coffin.

“Through that song I ended up ultimately getting signed by Atlantic Records. It became the yardstick by which we made the rest of the album. There was always a lot of intensity and pressure around that particular song. 

"When it came to finding a producer for the album, I always knew that I wanted to make the album in the traditional Peter Gabriel way where I had one producer across the whole thing. So because of that, it was really hard to find a good producer that could not only tackle the expectations of a song like War In Your Arms, but that would be willing to go the distance with me for the album.”

Despite meeting with various super producers, it was tricky to find one willing to take on the entire album.

“When you're at that level, often you'll take a song, but why would you take on a whole album when you could just do 12 songs with 12 different artists? We ended up using War In Your Arms as the way to find the producer, so we started sending it out and we would basically say, ‘whatever you do with this song will tell us if you're the right producer for the album’. 

"It was through that process that I met James Flannigan. I have 10 versions of the song on my computer from different producers, but James’ version was so special and huge. It just captured the emotional scope of the song. It was intense, it felt classic, but also felt fresh and exciting.

“What's interesting about this particular song is that it was not telling a specific story. I wrote the chorus as I walked through Melbourne, and it didn't feel connected to anything,” he admits. 

“For a while, I wrestled with that because it doesn't feel as deeply truthful as some of the other songs on the album, which were much more autobiographical. I reflect on it now and I'm like, ‘wow, it actually is deeply personal’. I didn't realise at the time, but it was at the end of a relationship and things were difficult, I just wasn't cognizant of it when I was writing.”

Thinking ahead to next year’s album release and the promise of performing live again, (which Abraham’s fans will be relieved to hear he has actually missed) – “I'll be honest, I've probably started going a little crazy without having the live music aspect, although it's been so long I don't even know if I know how to play guitar anymore”, he searches for the right words:

“When people listen to the album, I hope that they go in knowing that it tells one story. Sonically it's so much bigger, more dramatic and more exciting than my first album. This one's a bit more aggressive in its production – they're bolder choices. I think it's the best work that I've ever made and I'm really proud of it. I hope people connect with it, otherwise I'll be out of a job.”