‘He’s in everything I do’: Amid tragedy, visions of his son underpin Ben Kweller’s new album

Ben Kweller has been playing music most of his life, reaching the kind of success most artists only dream of before he was even out of his teens.

That musicianship and raw talent would be passed down to his two sons, Dorian and Judah – so much so that the family planned a summer tour with 16-year-old Dorian, who performed under his middle name Zev, opening for his father, and 13-year old Judah working the merch table.

Their plans were tragically sidelined in 2023 when Dorian was killed in a car crash near the family’s home in Dripping Springs.

Just months after Dorian’s death, Ben Kweller did what many might consider the hardest thing to do – he continued to perform, and in late May he released a new album called “Cover the Mirrors” on what would have been his son’s 19th birthday.

While difficult, the constant companionship that music has provided to Kweller throughout his life again remained a reliable outlet.

“He’s in everything I do,” Kweller said. “One constant in my life has been music. And when a tragedy like this happens, for me, I have been thinking a lot about, okay, well, what is it? What is my soul’s purpose? Why am I here? Why are we all here? And I keep coming back to the fact that I was given this gift of music, and you do have to nurture those things.”

It was a gift that father and son shared, one that Kweller remembers seeing grow in Dorian and connecting it to his own upbringing in music.

“Now that he’s gone, I can’t help but feel like, okay, well, I’m still here. I better get back to work and really just carry out my soul’s purpose,” Kweller said.

While the tragedy permeates “Cover the Mirrors,” somber tones don’t dominate the sound. Rather, a sort of curious sense of joy can be found in tracks like the album closer “Oh Dorian.”

“I just started thinking more and more about him as a person and his beautiful, long hair and his spirit and his smile,” Kweller said. “And then I was thinking about all of his friends that lost him.”

Following that sonic thread, a song of remembrance became a song looking forward to a reunion.

“I quickly realized that this song is actually from the perspective of his friend,” Kweller said. “The song never says, ‘Oh, Dorian died and he’s gone forever.’ It’s just like, as if he’s just a friend of ours who moved away.”

Dorian’s memory hasn’t only inspired original music from his father. Kweller says his son was himself a prolific songwriter, leaving behind dozens of finished songs on his laptop and hundreds of unfinished ideas.

Kweller says he hopes to eventually release some of the material into what would have been his son’s debut album.

But in working with the pieces his son left behind, Kweller says he’s also found ways to still collaborate. Dorian’s unfinished song, “Trapped,” for example, appears on “Cover the Mirrors” – his father having picked up where his son left off.

“It was a song that he was working on for a few weeks before he died, and I just remember walking into his bedroom while he was singing that first verse, and it has like this haunting melody,” Kweller said.

“Fast forward a few months, now he’s gone. At this point, I know I’m making a new album, and so I decided I’m gonna just try to finish it. And so I looked up to the sky and I’m like, ‘Dorian, bring some lyrics to me, dude. Let’s finish this song.’ And so we did.”

“Cover the Mirrors” has its fair share of other collaborators. MJ Lenderman and The Flaming Lips make appearances, as well as Waxahatchee on the song “Dollar Store.”

But alongside such names, Dorian’s presence is still felt. Kweller said he composed the song, along with much of the album, in his son’s room – a space still untouched since his passing.

It’s a space Kweller says has become something of a music room, one he shares with his younger son, Judah, who also became a collaborator on the song in a way.

“I was messing around in Drop D, which is really fun guitar tuning to work in,” Kweller said. “And Judah walked in the bedroom and was like, ‘Dad, what’s that? Like, that’s really cool. That’s the coolest thing you ever made.’ I’m like, oh, when your kid tells you it’s cool, you’ve got to pay attention.”

Listen to an extended interview with Ben Kweller in the audio player towards the top of this article.

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