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What most interests me is human connection, whether it’s on the street, in community, through music, storytelling, and shared experience. People tell me to be a rock cellist, make money, and give up on the activism so I can make more money.

Ben Sollee

I’m interested in questions my son asks me, like, “Why do animals fight? Why do you have to leave us to go on the road?” Everything he asks gets me thinking.
BEN SOLLEE

Animal Fighting Son
Art is consumed in so many different ways. You could say people don’t stop to appreciate art. On the other hand, people can consume art more quickly.
BEN SOLLEE

Art Hands People
Hopefully, the venues where we play will lobby city council and say, we need bike paths, sidewalk repair. That stuff affects so many people’s lives.
BEN SOLLEE

Council Hopefully Live Lobby People Repair
The reason I make art is because I get to make a choice about who I am, what I do, and what I put out into the world, the footsteps I leave behind.
BEN SOLLEE

Art Choices Footstep Reason
New York is the culture capital of the world because people are running into each other on the street all the time. They are forced to engage in creativity and problem-solving.
BEN SOLLEE

Country Creativity Culture Force Street Time
I’m in a position I never imagined I’d be in as a musician. Bob Dylan built an audience through recording and live shows. The opportunities for an artist today are totally different.
BEN SOLLEE

Artist Musician Opportunity
I felt like I was cheating myself of those communities and cheating the audience because I wasn’t able to know them. That’s what the bikes did, without me having to put any arbitrary philosophy on what it was supposed to be. It enabled human connection.
BEN SOLLEE

Cheating Community Philosophy
I’m a husband and a dad. Two thirds of my day is spent being that character. It’s a huge part of my identity and why I pursue things I do.
BEN SOLLEE

Character Dad Husband
There are not a lot of paths through the woods for someone who sings, plays the cello, and wants to tour on a human scale and create change in the world. I’m on my own path. It’s pretty awesome.
BEN SOLLEE

Change Own Path Scale Tour World
For every show that we do, anyone that rides public transit, bikes, or walk, we offer them a $5 voucher at the merch table. It gets people using the infrastructure in the area.
BEN SOLLEE

Cities People Play
You pull into the venue, check into the cheap hotel you can afford, eat whatever is there, sleep, wake up, and repeat. You’re not really participating in the community.
BEN SOLLEE

Cheap Participating Sleep Wake
When we cut off access to certain parts of our cities to people on bikes or in wheelchairs, we’re not only doing economic damage, we’re also doing culture damage.
BEN SOLLEE

Country Creativity Running
What most interests me is human connection, whether it’s on the street, in community, through music, storytelling, and shared experience. People tell me to be a rock cellist, make money, and give up on the activism so I can make more money.
BEN SOLLEE

Divergent Giving People Rocks Storytelling Up
I have a lot of intention behind what I put out there. The reason all this stuff I do works together, the environmental and social, collaborating with ballet companies to score a show, the bike tour – all of that stuff comes together through community building with music.
BEN SOLLEE

Ballet Bike Community Together Tour Working
I’m a husband and a dad. Two thirds of my day is spent being that character. It’s a huge part of my identity and why I pursue things I do. I’m interested in questions my son asks me, like, “Why do animals fight? Why do you have to leave us to go on the road?”
BEN SOLLEE

Character Dad Husband Pursue
The idea of “making art for art’s sake” makes no sense for me. Each area of my life, all the roles I play, influences the others.
BEN SOLLEE

Art Ideas Influence Play

What most interests me is human connection, whether it’s on the street, in community, through music, storytelling, and shared experience. People tell me to be a rock cellist, make money, and give up on the activism so I can make more money.

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What most interests me is human connection, whether it’s on the street, in community, through music, storytelling, and shared experience. People tell me to be a rock cellist, make money, and give up on the activism so I can make more money.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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