Los Angeles-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ben Varian has been creating his own unique brand of pop music for a number of years. His music “skips across the surfaces of soft rock, fake jazz, synth funk and musique concrete,” explains his bio, “before plunging into the depths of DIY pop.” But for his new album, One Hundred Breakfasts with the Book, Varian intended to pursue a simpler style. Piano, bass, drums, “some nice major and minor chords that he knew the names of.” An idealised pop sound, honed down and perfected in the conventions of history.
The result however, is very different. Seduced by the endlessly inventive ideas in his head, Ben Varian throws away this elegant notion in favour of something more complex and elusive. One Hundred Breakfasts with the Book chases dream pop, not as a genre, but a literal goal. Of course, nothing can survive the mental/material gap intact, and what emerges is a nebulous, playful collection of songs. Part Herbie Hancock, part Steely Dan, with a touch of David Berman for good measure. An album that tears up the rule book and genre expectations to become, essentially, the antithesis of its original intention.
“Goal setting in late capitalism eerily reflects the very things that are unattainable in a capitalistic structure,” the press release describes. “Solidity and assuredness are for those who can afford it. Impermanence and instability for the rest.” It is futile to strive for perfection, yet the entire culture runs on such a chase. In both recognising this trap and falling for it, Ben Varian is an artist very much of this moment—where even your dreams work against you and self-awareness makes little difference. A songwriter able to weave zany, sardonic stories of being alive at this time, tales told not from some bird’s-eye vantage but right down in the trenches next to you, and as susceptible to the conditions as anyone else.
Ben Varian unveiled the title track as the first taste of the album a little while back—a slice of laidback pop that evokes dried-out paint brushes, peeling sunburn and episodes of Frasier, capping things off with a languid guitar solo. Today, we’re thrilled to share a brand new single, ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’, a track which continues this mood with a light jazz style, complete with tongue-in-cheek spoken word segments (and French translation) that blur the line between profundity and absurdity. “I hear a door close,” explains the voice in the first, “or maybe just a big sneeze down the hall / I’ll read it in tomorrow’s paper / He packed up his crockpot and skipped town.” And therein lies the spirit of Ben Varian. Fun, weird, sometimes sad, and always imperfect. Because that’s how things work, and these are the times in which we live.
I don’t want to touch the thermostat
I don’t think I can sweat like that
I don’t want to learn to live with less
I don’t want to take off the dressI know what is right,
and I know that I might
be wrong
One Hundred Breakfasts with the Book is out on the 29th January via Lobby Art and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.
Photo and album design by Allyson Pierce