Ben Jelen is the rare singer/songwriter that our callous world has been needing. After graduating from Rutgers University, Jelen (pronounced “Yellin”) moved to New York to work in the recording industry. Originally discovered by Joseph Janus as a model, he quickly transitioned to the role of artist with the 2004 release of Give It All Away on Maverick Records. The debut single, “Come On,” reached the MTV Top 20 and debuted at #58 on Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales chart. Now Ben is ready to continue his musical journey with Ex-Sensitive, a more mature release that calls into question our treatment of nature and the downward spiral society will continue on if our wasteful ways remain unchanged.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?

Ben: I was born in Scotland, in Edinburgh, but I don’t really remember that because we moved to Boston very soon after that, like a month or two after I was born. My first memories are really from Bristol when we moved back to England and then when I was 9 we moved to Texas. I’ve had a pretty mixed up and confused life, where I’m from doesn’t really apply.

Where in Texas?

San Antonio, for 6 years.

I lived in San Antonio for a year. I liked the town but I didn’t like going to school there.

It was hard for me as a kid. As a 9 year old totally English kid, San Antonio’s a really difficult place to be.

I can imagine. What is your earliest musical memory?

My earliest musical memories are of playing the violin. That was the first instrument I played. I remember playing in groups and always liking the dynamic when you are playing with other people. I used to hate playing by myself and loved playing in groups. Those are my earliest memories apart from weird Beatles and weird mix tapes that my mom used to listen to in the car. That’s like way back. I have a lot of weird memories of music from then. I think a lot of my sound comes from that time in my life, like what you listen to when you were 0 to 15 makes all the difference.

When I thought of that question today it made me think back to what my earliest memories of music would be. I was born in Houston and I remember driving around in my mom’s car, I must have been 4, listening to the Top Gun soundtrack, old Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis and the News…

Oh my God, wow. Yeah, now that I think about it, the first album I ever really owned was U2’s War.

Mine was MC Hammer.

Yes, now that’s impressive!

How did you choose “Come On” to be your first single?

We chose “Come On” to be the first single because it’s just an emotional song that seemed to connect on a different level than a few of the other songs. That was just the one that me and the company at the time all wanted to bank on. It was the way it connected with people that really lead us to choose that.

Describe the concept of the video you did for it.

Well, we didn’t want to take the literal concept of “Come On.” It’s a song about a long distance relationship, being a long way away from someone, being in love with them, the flights, and it’s about the reunion after you’ve had the withdrawal from this person for a couple months. You see them again and it’s awesome but we didn’t want to do that with the video. We didn’t want to draw out the story. So in the video, I’m just at a piano, singing in this big, white, pure-looking room…

And all sorts of craziness comes out of that piano.

Yeah there are kids with lighters in the piano and there’s…

I liked the guy who flipped out, the Capoeira guy.

The Capoeira dancers were my idea. I was like, “We’ve got to have Capoeira dancers” because I was like obsessed with Capoeira at the time. So that was pretty cool.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=3-fDmbOMoks[/youtube]

How does your new album, Ex-Sensitive, differ from the first, Give It All Away?

The new album is different in sound because the first album was pretty glossy-sounding, it had a lot of different producers, so it was a lot more disjointed. This album has one consistent sound all the way through because it was in the same studio with one producer. The songs are a little more mature. I think I got out of writing about myself and love and more about the world and the things I see. I’ve realized that not everyone has had a life of traveling around. I don’t have second grade friends, you know? I know people that do and I envy that but on the other hand, I can give them my experiences through songs. So that’s what I was doing with these new songs.

Well I know you’re really involved with environmental issues.

Yeah and I just started the Ben Jelen Foundation for the environment which we just kicked off at South by Southwest and we’ve already raised $10,000. The money is going to several different areas. The first one is to educate teens. I want to keep that local to New York and take kids from the urban environment and get them into nature. It’s like music: you’re not going to learn an instrument until you’re in a band playing it. So with nature, you’re not going to learn about nature in a classroom so I get them out there. Our other objectives are political, a campaign in Washington, humanitarian, to support those worst affected, and then investment, putting dollars into solar power and windmills and to start building things we need to build. Every dollar we spend on that is a dollar not spent on digging down into the Earth.

That’s great, man.

Yeah I’m so proud of it. It really just took deciding to do it. I talked about it for years and then I just put the clamp down and kicked it off and it’s already doing so well. We’ve come a long way.

Why “Ex-Sensitive?”

Well, it was a song first, a song I wrote with a buddy about being overexposed to things that we all used to be sensitive to. Stuff like how we lived and our impact.

So it was meant as commentary on what’s going on right now.

Yeah, I mean, what is fulfilling these days? Seriously, what is going to really fulfill us? The single I put out, “Wreckage,” is basically a song of hope, like that we’ll be able to climb out of this wreckage. I really think we’re in a poor, poor situation right now. We have to listen to scientists about global warming. It’s the same people that brought us light bulbs and televisions, okay? They’re not wrong. This isn’t just some political joke, it’s real and we have to live differently.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=mjzHFeRyDUo[/youtube]

What is your favorite track on the new album?

I personally like “Pulse” a lot. It’s the most cool sounding track to me. I love that song. I get off on the violin. It’s fun playing live. It’s weird because it took me awhile to be able to play [the violin] and sing at the same time because it’s all based on pitch. So you have to be able to hear the note you’re playing and be able to nail the pitch but you have to do that with your voice, too, so it’s hard.

What’s it like working with Linda Perry?

Working with Linda Perry is truly awesome and amazing and I can’t say enough about her. The best thing about Linda is that she takes on the person coming into her studio as a real artist and respects them as that and tries to bring their art out of them. She’s not there to write you a song; in fact, Linda would be horrible if she was working with someone who didn’t know what they wanted. But I’m someone who always knew what they wanted and had things get in the way. Linda cleared all of that. I came in with a CD of 30 songs and she liked the stuff that I liked. It’s hard because when you write 30 songs, you don’t really know anymore so you ask all your friends, they all think different things, and it’s hard to go with your gut when your close friends are like “I hate that song” or “No that song sucks.” But that’s how it goes.

So I read that you have a degree in Biology from Rutgers. How did you go from that to a career in music?

You know, it kind of all happened at the same time. I was studying biology and I realized halfway through that that was not really what I wanted to do. I had already started working in recording studios so the minute I graduated, and I graduated half a year early from college, I went straight to New York and started working in studios and interning. I kind of gave myself two years to see how it would go and one thing kind of led to another and that was eight years ago.

Finally, do you have any advice for aspiring musicians?

Sure! Play, record yourself, practice, listen to yourself, and use the avenues that I never had. I couldn’t even burn a CD when I was a kid. If I wanted to give someone a tape, I had to really make a tape. It wasn’t as easy as it is now. I mean, with my Myspace page now, I can record something one morning and have it out to the world that morning. That’s a huge, huge resource for upcoming musicians that I didn’t have. You can have anyone listen to your music at any time so use that! Don’t worry about the production of the music, worry about the song, worry about the emotion. At the stage you are at as a beginning musician, it’s going to be the song and what you’re trying to get across emotionally that’s probably the most important. And learn how to play everything. You know what sounds good.

To purchase Ben’s music, visit his Official Store or click the album links below.