Ben Jelen 'Ex-Sensitive' album

Ben Jelen will kick off his new CD and tour with a record release party headlining the Bowery Ballroom in NYC on July 16th and in-store performance to follow on July 17th at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. Jelen will then set out on tour with Pete Yorn on his East Coast tour starting in St. Louis on July 21st. Ben Jelen’s sophomore CD ex-sensitive will be available in stores on July 17th through Linda Perry’s Custard label.

Jelen is the first artist release for 2007 from Custard, home to multi-platinum selling “You’re Beautiful” singer James Blunt. Jelen recorded the tracks for the album with producer/label head Linda Perry whom also mixed the majority of the songs in addition to two mixes from famed producer Bill Bottrell (Shelby Lynne, Tom Petty, Rosanne Cash, Elton John).

Jelen, whose first album was released in 2004 (Give It All Away, Maverick Records), sought Perry’s éclat as an artistic luminary to produce his second album. When first meeting with Ben at her studio, Linda found him as that ever-rarer gem in today’s music landscape: a unique artist who is best served when serving only to his art. “Lyrically and melodically, Ben’s perspective is creative, visual and beautifully stated,” says Perry. Production soon began to capture Ben’s vision with an organic, classic approach. Upon recognizing their achievement during the production, Perry made the decision to release the CD through her own Custard label.

Jelen’s latest CD speaks of his growth as an artist, songwriter and human being. “I feel like I have lived a bit more, I know who I am right now and I feel we captured that on the album,” he says. Jelen has long dedicated a significant portion of his time to working with organizations and charities (United Nations, Natural Resources Defense Council, Live For Darfur, Amnesty International, Rock The Vote, among others) that he feels are affecting change in a positive and meaningful way, a common theme throughout ex-sensitive. Jelen’s career has given him the opportunity to work closely with such organizations and as a result, Jelen has developed a strong ethos for using his voice not only to express himself, but also to speak out on behalf of others.

Coming from her own perspective as an artist, it was a natural progression for Perry to develop Custard as an artist driven label, thus enabling Perry to lend a direct hand in nurturing Jelen’s album from the very inception and on through every stage of the creative, production and release process.

biography
Ex-Sensitive the new album from singer-songwriter Ben Jelen, is all about love. But listeners familiar with Jelen’s debut LP (Give It All Away/Maverick Records) – a lush and romantic tribute to a girl named Isabel – may be surprised to learn that the object of Jelen’s affection in Ex-Sensitive isn’t a girl at all. It’s the Planet Earth and everyone on it.

Like most great love stories, Jelen’s work on the album began with (meta)physical attraction - in this case a fascination with the physics of sound and its roots in good old-fashioned nature. Unraveling this mystery gradually laid waste to just about everything he thought he knew about himself and his music.

Jelen’s drive to re-discover himself took him to India, the UK, and even the American South, where he holed up in the isolated home of Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools. He pulled his disappearing act - after months of touring - in hopes of catching up with all the changes in his life since his first album release.

“The first week, I found myself in a daze,” says Jelen, who was born in Scotland of Czech descent, and raised in London and Texas before settling in New York City. “I hadn’t had much time to myself and now I was alone in the woods. I listened to Sigur Ros in the evenings, Jet in the mornings, Pink Floyd during the day. I delved deeper than I ever had into the Beatles catalogue. Abbey Road on vinyl never sounded so amazing to me.”

Months later, Jelen emerged with 30 songs that explored a central theme: the state of the world is in flux and every choice we make as individuals matters.

On a gut instinct, he took this raw feed to producer and Custard label head Linda Perry, who quickly recognized something rare and unique in the soft-spoken 27-year old. With Perry’s support, Jelen found the haven he needed to wheedle his material down to the 11 tracks he ultimately recorded for Ex-Sensitive.

“Working with Linda confirmed that my sound was a more vintage one,” he says. “Not a single sample or pre-recorded sound was used, everything was organic. I found myself drawing more from the 60s and 70s than anything else.”

The album begins with the call of an Indian sitar, a nod to the month he spent jamming with Eastern classical musicians in Mumbai. This meditation abruptly gives way to the sound of a sitar grinding to a miserable halt. The pause is brief, soon revived by Jelen’s pulsing electric violin and subdued vocals in the title track, singing “feel the rhythm pulsing through the science/one by one connecting who we are.”

With this sweeping start, Jelen dives headfirst into a deceptively jaunty call to arms in “Mr. Philosopher”, followed by “Where Do We Go”, a Beatles-esque love romp that asks how far we’re willing to go for love - of the world.

The questions get trickier as Jelen skids into a face-to-face with his own demons in “Vulnerable,” a song he acknowledges is mostly about his own struggle with addiction. Jelen voices his fear that the pressures mounting around him will find him “with a life overrun”. It’s an important admission for the usually private artist. That he chose to include such a revealing song on the album is just a sign of how deeply committed he is to his purpose. After all, Jelen seems to ask, if he can’t even get his own life together, what chance does he have of convincing the Mother of all spurned lovers to forgive and start anew?

He pushes the boundaries of this newfound determination in “Wreckage” – the most unabashedly romantic song on the album. A strong contender for the “please-take-me-back-I-love-yooooou” anthem of 2007, the song was actually penned as a heroic appeal to a planet burned – literally - by global warming. Not the most obvious subject matter for a serenade, but with lines like “I can see the sunrise/Barely breaking though the trees/I don’t want to miss you/I don’t want you missing me”, Jelen’s knack for the perfect swoon song is deployed to aching effect.

The time Jelen spent working on humanitarian causes profoundly influenced Ex-Sensitive. “I am incapable of ignoring what’s going on around me,” he admits. “World events often affect me as much as personal ones.” In recent years, he found time to work with the Natural Resources Defense Council, tour extensively for Rock the Vote and Live for Darfur, donate charity tracks to WasteNotMusic.com, Amnesty International, and Tori Amos’ RAINN, march against global warming, share the stage with Wyclef Jean, Marc Anthony, Moby, Maroon 5, and Rufus Wainwright at benefit concerts across the US, establish the Ben Jelen Foundation for the Environment, protest the war, and do work with the United Nations.

He also found the time to craft a big and timely album. But Ex-Sensitive is the beginning not the end of the journey for Jelen. Recording the album has only increased his fascination with music’s potential to move and affect people – physically and emotionally. The possibilities, he believes, are endless.

Perry, who will release the album on her Custard label on July 17th, agrees. “Lyrically and melodically Ben’s perspective is creative, visual and beautifully stated. He's the type of artist that will continue to grow because nothing will ever be good enough and in my book, that's what makes a true, genuine artist.”

Written by Bridgit Evans

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Ben Jelen - Ex-Sensitive