Ben Barnes saw his music inspire people to sing blankets, hug their loved ones and even pole dance.
“Lots of pole dance. I don’t know where it comes from, but it was so great to see people in a way tell me, “said Barnes, 43 years old US Weekly In an exclusive interview. “If I can make pop music as a man in his forties, then people can do what they want to do.”
The actor, known for his roles The Chronicles of Narnia,, Westworld,, Shadow and bone And more, released his full album, Where the light betweenEarlier this month. The disc presents breathtaking voices, words full of hope and many heavy pieces of piano – which would not have gathered if Barnes had not returned to the Keys decades after leaving lessons.
“I had a lesson when I was about 8 years old and the professor was a horrible old witch, and she made me ashamed at the end of the lesson,” he said. “I remember it very well and I said to myself:” Well, I do not start piano again. The piano is stupid. I know that it is really important not to have any regrets in life and to be really grateful for everything that happened to you that led you here. But if I had just returned next week… ”
It was his mother, Tricia, who inspired him to take the instrument more than 25 years later in the midst of his own battle against ovarian cancer.
“In the middle of the thirties, I had a conversation with my mother on the priorities and she was not very well at the time and I said:” Well, my priorities are to do this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this this. “And one of them was to play more music,” recalls Barnes. “She is very wise and she said to me:” They are not your priorities. These are ways to see you or these are Dreams you have, but it is not your priorities.
His mother’s advice was the push barnes to devote time to the manufacture of music. “It was really a conversation,” he said. “It was not even a long conversation, but it just struck me on the ground and I thought:” Okay, those things I want, that I think I want to give priority, I must do An effort to put the list at the top. I had a few lessons and just started spending time there. And now it has really become a place of real comfort and peace for me. After a day of shooting or something else, sit on the piano, play agreements. It was a very precious advice. »»
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Although he learned the keyboard later in life, Barnes realized that he had trained to become a songwriter for years.
“I would meet still quite established musicians who would speak to me thanks to the musical structure or to chording stuff or key changes and other things that I did not really understand,” he said. “They would then say:” I also wrote this song, but I am struggling with the second verse. Do you think you could take a look at the words? I said to myself: “Finally this degree of literature that I made became useful!” And so discovering things in which you could be naturally good in life later in life is also a really rewarding thing. »»
His words are positive and hopeful, a lively contrast of his actor roles in recent years. His single “beloved” portrays to love someone when he finds it difficult to accept love (“you are so loved so be loved”, he sings) while “slowing down” looks like a proposition (“Share your baby names with me / Family falls with me”).
The actor does not have the impression that his dark roles when the bad guys affect his music, but he conceded: “It was pleasant to go home for long days of wickedness in various television and television shows Sits on the piano and write these more sentimental songs. There is certainly a comfort in there.
These optimistic words are not a character but a real representation of Barnes. “I think that the hopeful aspect of things is just a very intrinsic part of who I am and who I want to be as a man,” said Barnes We. “I think that sharing this message – this life is short and precious, and we have to approach life in a loving and loving way – this message manages to spawn write them. I think that is part of who I am.
Barnes will conclude the American leg of his tour on Saturday, February 1 in New York before going to the United Kingdom and Europe before returning to play in Los Angeles on March 5. Tickets are available here.
