Interview with Ben Jelen

Ramone: I was also in Manhattan on 9/11. I didn't see the first plane hit, but I remember looking up at a cloud of smoke. The lady next to me and I both looked up and brushed it off as some crop duster accident from Jersey. It was only later, after we saw the second plane, that we realized it wasn't an accident or a crop duster at all. It reminded me of how desensitized we become to the events surrounding us. So many Americans have become desensitized to environmental issues; so many gays have become desensitized to HIV...

Ben Jelen: That's what the song "Ex-Sensitive" is about and the album matches. Ex-Sensitive is a word that we came up with that basically is someone who used to be sensitive to these issues, but has just been over-exposed.

Do you think there is a solution to our ex-sensitivity? Do we have to reach complete devastation before we react?

You know, that what I spend my life trying to prevent. It's about education. Educating the young is so important and getting them to understand fulfillment. All these kids know is gadgets, but they're not going to make them happy. What's going to make them happy is culture and family. I sound like an old fart saying this stuff, but it's true. We need to have these things. We need to be taking care of each other as a country. We've become desensitized. We're apathetic. We don't even think about these issues. We don't stop and think maybe there shouldn't be a war because on the television for the last couple of decades we've seen it everyday. That desensitizes you. It makes you think war is just a part of normal life and it shouldn't be.

Speaking of family and society, how important is it for you that gays have the right to marry?

It's very important. To me these issues are not black or white nor gay or homosexual; they are human rights issues. When I was a lot younger I didn't really understand homosexuality. I didn't have any gay friends so I didn't think about it. And then I moved [to New York] and low and behold I have a gay manager. Linda's gay. I have a gay roommate. I have gay friends everywhere. You come to understand that it's real. Gay people aren't making it up. It's real to them. If I can get married to someone I'm in love with, why can't two men or two women? It's familiarity that's given me the opportunity to understand it.

Hey, Ben... Who's Isabel?

Isabel was my first girlfriend. Probably the subject of most of my first album as well.

So fans can expect some of the second album to be about the ex-girlfriend? That's the usual progression, right?

Actually, it's funny because on this album I was thinking on a slightly grander scale than the songs that could be looked at as love songs. "Wreckage" can definitely be seen as a song about relationships and climbing out of the wreckage together, but I'm actually talking about the World and how we can all come together. It doesn't matter how bad things have gotten, we can still get out of this. I can still see that there is a future waiting for us.

On your last album, you and your brother Sebatian sang "Baby Girl" in memoriam for your sister. Has her death affected your art?

She was my baby sister. Three weeks into recording Ex-Sensitive, I got a phone call from England. She died from a heart attack from a rare condition that no one knew about. It's had a deep affect on me. It's the reason Ex-Sensitive took so long to record.

What's your relationship like with your brothers?

Good. I have two younger brothers, Luke and Sebastian. Sebastian is a musician. He also played harmonica on "What Have We Done." I love them very dearly and we're very close.

You have a degree in Biology. So, you went from the lab to modeling and now you're a recording artist with Linda Perry. What was your original plan?

I don't know if I really had a plan. When I was studying Biology I was still minoring in music and spent a lot of my time jamming with friends. In the back of my head music was always what I wanted to do. In the middle of college I spent the summer in London at a recording studio. That was the moment that changed everything for me. When I walked into the room and saw those glowing lights, I could feel the silence and hear the echoes of everyone that had recorded there before. It had such a vibe to it and I was just thinking, This is what I want to be a part of. Biology is fascinating and interesting, but [music] is what I'm passionate about.

We all grow as individuals through our experiences (well, hopefully). Are there things in your life that you thought you had all figured out, but ended up being completely clueless about?

Take what happened with my sister for example. I was sitting on top of the world. I had just split up with my record label because there was too much creative difference going on and then a top producer falls in love with my music and is ready to record a whole album. Here I was thinking that I was writing about life and death and then it hits me what life and death really is.

Listen to Ex-Sensitive on BenJelen.com and check out Ben's MySpace page for concert dates.