Ben Kweller’s upcoming album, Cover the Mirrors, isn’t just about the loss of his teenage son, Dorian (ZEV). It’s about time folding in on itself. It’s a journal only BK can read. It’s an amalgamation of the decades preceding — a storied career that started in Kweller’s teenage years, continued during his days as an early 2000’s indie rock stalwart, and evolved as he grew into the father of a son on the precipice of his own rock & roll story. Loss and love are woven throughout, but in the end it’s about living on. The album drops May 30th, on what would’ve been Dorian’s 19th birthday. “There's a lot of reflecting — not only on the loss of Dorian but of my own time on Earth. Kweller has embodied myriad genres over the years — from the post-grunge Texas ‘90s band Radish to the anti-folk/indie pocket of his solo years, breaking out in 2002 with his radio-ready premiere Sha Sha. BK toggles between the dark and the light — the playful and morose. Over 12 tracks that volley between heartache, nostalgia, and hope, Cover the Mirrors encompasses not only Kweller’s career, but his love for his family, friends, and his son — whose career was snuffed out before it began In a sense, then, Dorian lives through these songs. Featuring fellow indie luminaries like Waxahatchee, The Flaming Lips, Coconut Records and MJ Lenderman, the record is both a journal and a blueprint — a mournful elegy and a joyful ode and in those pages Dorian lives on. Forever.

AmericanaFest 2008

Ben Kweller

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