The singer-songwriter lived for a while in Echo Park, but spent a lot of his time downtown.
There was a Kerry James Marshall retrospective at theMuseum of Contemporary Artin 2017 that he found eye-opening and life-changing.
Everything is done with purpose, Booker recalls thinking.
Benjamin Booker in New Orleans, where he now lives.DAYMON GARDNER for Rolling Stone
I just wanted to move more like that.
Meeting skateboarders, he marveled at how much physical harm they had to endure to master their art form.
Comedians, too, opened themselves up to failure and refinement in fascinating ways.
Music is just so easy, he began to think.
If you cant be open to failure, what are you doing?
There are other people literally breaking bones.
Booker, for his part, was a success story in search of a new beginning.
he just had to figure out how to make it.
He made it entirely with Kenny Segal, the producer best known for his work with rapperBilly Woods.
It was very exciting immediately, Booker says.
I remember showing it to people and them being like, I havent heard anything like this before.
And I was like, Great.
At the end of 2019, Booker and his partner left L.A. for Australia, where shes from.
They settled with their new daughter on the western coast in Perth.
Like youre separated from everything else.
It was nice to have that.
The pandemic and parenting forced Booker to adapt his creative practice, but for the better.
So they started sending tracks and stems back-and-forth, building songs that way.
The goal was clear.
Both trusted the others contribution would only benefit the song.
He signed to indie heavyweight ATO in 2014 for his debut album.
Hed succeeded by doing exactly what he wanted, but success, it turned out, came with conditions.
If I wanted that, I would just get a job.
Success also brought expectation.
While makingWitness, Booker recalls one person telling him he needed to go back to playing guitar.
At another point, he says ATO went into the studio and added guitars on songs behind my back.
We took [them] out.
But it was that kind of vibe.
(ATO maintains that this is not true.
Salter says they presented the demo to Booker, he rejected it, and it was scrapped.
Benjamin enjoyed full creative control over his music while on ATO across both albums, Salter writes.
Ben approved every note, song, mix, master, sequence, artwork, photograph, video.)
I dont look at it and fault them, he says.
But I was starting to branch outside of that.
He was more hurt by some of the personal relationships, he says.
But independent labels that doesnt mean anything.
They are huge companies run by businessmen.
WORKING WITH SEGAL was easy, but that didnt mean makingLowerwas.
In his frustration, he picked up painting, just so hed have something else to do.
Bookers explorations, like Schraders, are not without danger, brutality, or fear.
The audio, he says, is sampled from a video of a school shooting.
Its followed closely by the sound of his daughter laughing.
Its an extremely bold choice, and one Booker pulls off.
The shock never fades, even on repeated listens, when you know what to expect.
A search for some kind of peace of mind in the chaos, he says.
To feel like the singer on the album.
I found this album to be kind of soothing to listen to.
The album feels chaotic, but theres also me not giving off that energy at the same time.
Theres a feeling of safety in an unsafe situation.
To me, I guess, a good life is what I have now, he says.
