Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with Benjamin Liebsch, the multi-instrumentalist from You, Me, And Everyone We Know (YM&EWK). And if that’s not enough of a name to wrap your head around, we have a special interview for you. The best interviews are conversations with the artist and this is a perfect example of just that.
We get a glimpse at the mind behind the music as well as Ben’s beginnings and what drives him and how he takes personal setbacks that life tends to throw our way and turns them into lessons that better not only the music, but the meaning behind the music.
Many records in the indie and alternative scene have taken on topics of existential crisis, asking big and difficult questions of life, but Ben made Something Heavy as a culmination of what’s on the other side of that plight.
Over the past ten years Ben has had a long and illuminating journey with their own mental health, building a strong background in mental and physical wellness that has shifted their music from asking the big questions to advancing the conversation and even discussing ways to move forward. Many assume that an artists best work comes at their lowest moments, however, Ben’s experience with mindfulness, meditation, and sobriety is a testament to the new creative elements that an artist can unlock when they’re on the healing path.
About You, Me, And Everyone We Know
A lot has changed in the six years since we last heard from You, Me, and Everyone We Know, primarily with Ben’s journey with their own mental health. Through therapy, they began to learn how to unpack traumas that informed a lot of the perspective of past material and understand the impact those traumas had on their development as a person. The process of knocking down these walls that Ben forgot they even built informed a good chunk of songwriting for Something Heavy, which references the ideological teachings of Ram Dass and the philosophical musings of comedian Pete Holmes, in such a way that allowed all of the separate world’s that they’ve inhibited to bleed into one another.
Ben has said that You, Me, and Everyone We Know is what has kept them alive through all of the peaks and valleys of human existence. This project has allowed them to explore facets of their own reality in a way that might have otherwise been unavailable to them, and with Something Heavy, Liebsch uses the perspective he’s gained in the decade since the release of Some Things Don’t Wash Out to fold each of the band’s many realities into each other — and the end result rings bloody and triumphant.
Each new incarnation of You, Me, and Everyone We Know has featured a cavalcade of incredible musicians that have helped flesh out entirely new pocket dimensions of sound for figurehead Benjamin Liebsch to call home — even if only temporarily. “draggedacrossconcrete” is only the beginning of what’s to come with this new perspective and Liebsch excitedly welcomes in this new era.
Featured image by Connor Feimster.
LINKS:
https://youmeband.com
https://twitter.com/youmeband
https://www.facebook.com/youmeandeveryoneweknow
https://www.instagram.com/youmeband
