Interview: Ben Jones of I THINK WE SHOULD SEE OTHER PEOPLE

It has been an amazing four years watching Ben Jones storm the gates of the castle of cabaret.  This writer has been front and center, watching Ben go from NYC newcomer to Broadway World Cabaret Award winner to cabaret artist playing out in clubs around this country to member of the community making his way to the Cabaret Convention in an unprecedented amount of time.  Speaking as a reporter who saw the spark of the special in Ben from that first performance, it has been extremely validating watching the industry and the aficionados embrace the singing actor with such fervor.  Now, after a year of touring with his companion shows I THINK I’M IN LOVE and I THINK WE SHOULD SEE OTHER PEOPLE, Ben Jones has just released his first album, a sort of scast recording to the second of these shows.  The album, released independently by Jones on his eponymous label, dropped a few days ago online and immediately scored a rave review from Broadway World’s resident album reviewer (read it HERE), which sent this writer and, let’s face it, Fan Of Ben down a three-day rabbit hole of playing I THINK WE SHOULD SEE OTHER PEOPLE whenever not otherwise engaged.  Had I been the reviewer to cover the album release, chances are that Ben Jones would have had eight out of five rainbows.

In the days leading up to the release of the album, Ben took some time out to chat with me by telephone about his whirlwind introduction to the art of cabaret, about the process of making a record out of fourteen shows around the country, and about the duality of being an introverted entertainer.

This interview has been edited for space and content.

Photos by Stephen Mosher and Bobby Patrick.

Ben Jones, welcome back to Broadway World.

Thank you.

You've become quite the cabaret artist, haven't you?

Well, we're all doing our best, but, yeah, I really enjoyed my time in the last few years, sort of growing as a cabaret artist, I suppose you might call it.

Did you know that this was gonna happen?

No, I had no idea. I think, when we spoke before, I told you most of the work that I lost because of the pandemic was in a totally different world, the opera world and sort of large theaters.  So pivoting into small clubs in New York has been completely different, unknowable, but really enjoyable.

Are you still pursuing work on the operatic stage and the musical theater stage?

I certainly take gigs as they come along in opera and more classical singing, but theater is sort of where my heart's always been and where my efforts lie these days.

Well, how's the auditioning going?

I've gotten really good at self-tapes. 

Recently, on the subject of your cabaret career, you and I had an email exchange because one of our writers called you a cabaret veteran 10 months after I called you the future of Cabaret

That's right.

He did that because you seem to be working all the time. Where do you get that stamina? You're constantly booking concert gigs around the country.

I can't do anything halfway. I can't sit still. So as soon as this Cabaret (work) started hitting for me, I started calling all the venues. I have to admit, one of the strategies that I took, early on, was to sort of spy on other successful cabaret singers and scope out their schedules, (then) call the venues where they were performing. So, whether that was Melissa Errico or Nicalos King or anybody - if they had a busy tour schedule, or anything being added to their schedule, I would immediately call those venues. And I've had a little bit of luck, so I've been really, really fortunate glad to be able to tour quite a bit.

I believe that there's an old saying that the Lord helps those who help themselves. 

Right.  It seems to be going that way for me

Now. You're not just working in clubs, you are about to release an album.

Yeah. I'm really excited. When we started touring, it was one of the sound people in a small venue, I think on the West Coast, who sort of mentioned to me how easy it would be to multi-track everything.  Sso we started doing that and ended up with, I think, 14 shows in total that I had  tracks to select from. And it ended up being a little bit more than 80 minutes of music that we're gonna release right at the end of this month.

The album, which is a live album, is not a live album of one show. It is cobbled together from several different shows.

Yeah. If you go back, there are a lot of comedians and nightclub performers who did these style of albums in the fifties and sixties; you can find albums like this, even some of the rat pack guys, where they bounce around from club to club. I've always loved those albums, the sound of every track, and every story, every song is slightly different. You hear different audiences, you hear different rooms, different players. We hired different bands in every town that we've toured in over the last couple of years. So the whole album is not just the travel log of different rooms, but different musicians and different styles of playing, and I love that.  It's been such a joy to put this together, and I can't wait to release it.

I've seen both of your shows. You've been playing out with two different shows. The first one, initially, was called Love Songs.

That's right. We changed the title to I Think I'm In Love, so that it mirrored the other show.

And part two is I tThink We Should See Other People.

Right.

So you play these two shows in rep - they're musical storytelling shows. Will you be able to get that sort of vibe across with your live album that's pieced together from different shows in different cities?

I think so. I did my best to include some of the spoken material but it's really difficult to take the time on an album to release all of the spoken material, so we wanted to tow that line between, you know, it should be mostly music, but include some of that story. And you do get a good sense of the narrative of the Breakup songs show, I think We Should See Other People - that's the name of the album, too. And we've included a little bit of bonus material from the Love Song Show, I Think I'm In Love, at the end of the album.

In certain ways, in various aspects, you talk about your family in your show.  Did it concern you, sharing so much about your personal life in your shows?

I don't know if it should.  I think about it from time to time, but I think the most important thing that I want is I want my kids to grow up seeing their parents doing what they love. I don't say anything unsafe, that's not true, you know, that's not true to me - and I want my kids to see that too. I think, so far, I'm able to achieve those things. I'm not very concerned that I'm giving away too much, if that's what you mean.

I’ve seen all of your shows and I always love them. I just wondered if there was ever a staff meeting between you and your wife about what you can and can't and won't say and stuff like that.

Absolutely.   I actually talk a little bit about that in my new show. I got feedback from really close friends that the second show was less personal, at least less explicitly personal.  What I was aiming for was not to share as much about myself, but to share a universal truth that allows the space for everyone in the room to think about their own lives and how they relate to the material that I'm bringing up.  I try to create a space where people can t maybe have a conversation on the car ride home that they wouldn't otherwise, if that makes sense. That, to me, feels like a successful show -  a successful piece of theater is that people have confronted something that  they're gonna talk about that they wouldn't have, otherwise.

One of the things that I love about your shows is that you have a very definite storytelling style, a very defined sense of humor that is all your own. And I wonder if you knew that you had that when you sat down to start writing your first show, if that's the way that you tell stories, say, if you were at a party, or if that's something you developed for the character in the play that you're presenting.

I know this is gonna sound strange, but I'm more introverted than I think people realize. You see me, like you said, sort of playing a character on stage. I did some comedy in college, so this writing style is not unlike that work that I did when I was younger but this isn't the way that I am at a party. In fact, if I'm at a party with my wife, it's hard to get a word in edgewise. She sort of the life of the party.  What I do on stage is an outlet for me, more than it is an extension of my natural state, if that makes sense. It allows me to come out of my shell, being on stage, (telling) stories in a way that I can't in my everyday life. Does that make sense? 

Oh, yes. You have already released two singles from the album, right?

That's right. 

So what is the thinking behind releasing a single every couple of weeks to lead up to an album release? What's the conversation that you have with your team about something like that?

It's just the way that it's done these days. I essentially wanted to start releasing some of this music as soon as it was ready. Mixing and mastering, let alone selecting, 80 plus minutes of music for an album is a long process, but as soon as we had one or two songs done, I was already saying, “Okay, why don't we get something out there just so that people can hear it?” But it is just the way that the industry works, especially in streaming right now; you know, people don't really listen to albums anymore, which is another reason why we think less about the story of the show, although it is such an important part of the writing when you're releasing this live album. For a lot of younger folks today, the concept of an album doesn't even really exist. They're gonna take individual tracks from this project and put them on their playlist and listen to them individually or separate from the album, so releasing singles is not just to get momentum going and get people excited about the album, but it's also to get music out there as soon as it's ready. That's what we started to do a few months back.

With all the touring that you've been doing around the country, you’re playing cities and clubs where you don't have a built-in audience, like you do here in New York City. There are people that come to see you every single time. What has been your experience, playing the provinces?

We've had a lot of luck. A couple folks on my team helped me out with social media strategy, one friend in particular who actually happens to work at Meta who has done quite a bit of work to help me break into those new markets where I don't have an audience. We've entered new markets where I don't necessarily have a fan base, like Indianapolis or St. Louis or Los Angeles - we're going to Portland this year. We'll be in Palm Springs for the second time this year. We've had amazing luck selling out those shows with really sophisticated social media marketing and advertising campaigns.

How excited were you to get to play the Cabaret Convention last year?

It's amazing. Walking out onto the Rose Theater stage at Jazz Lincoln Center is a dream. I don't think there's another stage in the country that I've sung on  that sounds as good or feels as good to sing on. It's an amazing experience for a singer, let alone, once you fill the room with all of the cabaret and theater fans - it's amazing. I'm excited to return this year. I'll be there again on October 19th.

I'm really excited to hear the album.  I've been a big fan and a big supporter from the word go, four years ago.

Thanks Stephen. I guess it was four years ago. It's shocking to hear that the time has flown, but I guess it would've been December of 2019. That's probably right. Yeah.

I started at Broadway World in August of ‘19, and I think I saw you in a Scott Siegel show in December.

That would've been one of the first times that I ever sang on one of Scott's shows. 

And you're still working with Scott a lot. You are in almost every one of his shows.

I'm with Scott at least a couple times a month - I have to plug a huge thank you to Scott and Barbara Siegel because nobody has put me on stage in New York City more than they have.

They are very loyal.

Yeah, they are. They've created an amazing family of performers that I look forward to seeing a couple times a month, if not every weekend, some months. 

That's a nice family to be a part of.

I've been really fortunate.

Well, kiddo, I'm glad that you had time to chat with me today and I'm really looking forward to the album.

I'll see you later, Stephen. Thank you so much for making time.

See the Ben Jones website HERE for all his tour dates and for information on his new album.

Find Ben Jones on Spotify HERE.

 

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