Ben Harper : "I didn't have any formal musical education in the sense that I never learnt how to read music. I learnt to play by watching others and by listening to many records. If I had taken the time to read the notes, I wouldn't have had the time to learn to play. But now, I'd like to take lessons to have a theoretical base."

"I write simple songs, words that everyone can understand. Beautiful songs aren't complicated; others can easily understand them."

"Songs such as 'Roses from my friends', 'Ashes', 'I shall not walk alone'come out a lot easier than more syncopated songs which I have a lot of trouble sorting out in the studio even though they are clearly orchestrated in my head! My more peaceful and contemplative side probably pushes me more easily towards this type of calm and serene music. I think that instinctively and maybe unconsciously I don't like noise that much (laughs)."

"The lightness of the guitar complements the words and more particularly the voice. Through its words, the song often gains a stronger, more pertinent, sometimes social and often, soothing dimension. Certain types of music are made only to dance to. However, I think that the words are a part of the lyrical tradition and are necessary to its spirit. They form part of its soul. They allow us to perpetuate and transmit a thought to future generations."

"Such and such a phrase can be profoundly musical. For me, words are music. The fusion between lyrics and music is the never-ending quest. I don't want my music to be undermined by my lyrics or my lyrics to be undermined by my music. If I find a melody and I feel that it is good and if it comes to my mind without words, I won't do anything to change it. If it has to stay without lyrics, it will stay that way. I am a composer and not a poet, not a musician, but a simple songwriter. Reading a poem and reading lyrics are two different things. Mine are quite well written, even without music, but they were made to be accompanied by a melody, a rhythm, etc."

"Writing is a complex process. One suffers in order to be the first, the best, the most cultivated, that's normal. This suffering has been present since the very beginning, but at the same time, only music can heal it. It's that paradox which allows me to go on, to never give up. I suffer when I compose, but its result helps me live and distances me therefore from suffering. Making music gives me a sort of equilibrium without which I'd be a pretty deranged person. As I've been composing since my adolescence, I've been able to spare myself of the worst type of suffering: that of those who are unable to transmit the desire to do something on this earth."

"The question of lack of inspiration is unsolvable. First of all because I'd be incapable of defining what inspiration is. I don't know where it comes from or whether it will be within me for much longer. For all of these reasons, if a song crosses one's mind, one must write it down immediately and think about it so as not to lose it. My guitar is always ready and I murmur my ideas into a dictaphone. The only thing I know about inspiration is how to shape it."

"I don't have a specific way of writing songs. It's maybe a word which makes me think about a specific image, a spiritual thing which transcends me... There is no such thing as a miracle recipe. Either music or words can come first, or both at the same time. Melodies can appear as I improvise on the guitar or can be born alone in my head.. I don't only write on slide, I compose a lot on round-necks. Even with a major tuning, I can come up with minor chords on a round neck. I can invert major and minor chords. Writing on round-necks allows me to attain different parts of the fret-board and different chord structures."

"I get the impression that the best is yet to come, but that's difficult to say, as it's something so intangible, almost impossible to control. I find creativity everywhere. Even when my creativity lowers, there are always interesting things to sing, even with a lower energy level. Even with a lesser amount of creativity, one can compose unique things. Sometimes when you start writing, nothing comes and then if you hold on to it for long enough, that in itself becomes an inspiration, it forces you to dig deeper and to search in your very depths for something which you wouldn't have found if you had put the pen down. And then..."

"I never stop playing ­ it's a physical need. Playing daily, I try to compose a new song every day. Sometimes songs get written in the time it takes to play them. Sometimes they take a year. I don't force anything, I let it come out by itself. The key to composing is not to rush things. If you ever have an idea which catches your attention, but you lack the necessary inspiration to develop it, it's better to stop and let your mind rest. After, you can start again, but without forcing things. You've got to let yourself be guided by the exterior elements which caused you to be inspired in the first place. To write lyrics, the most important thing is to know how to listen. For me, each discussion is a potential source of inspiration for my lyrics. That's why I spend a lot of time listening to what's around me."

"The fact that I have toured for so long has considerably improved my capacity as a songwriter and as a musician. I can dare to do more things nowadays because my experience is starting to bear fruit. People think that I write my songs whilst meditating in the desert. Sorry to disappoint you, but I write them on the bus whilst touring. I don't really have time to go to the desert. Which doesn't mean that I didn't do it when I was younger, around 18, but I'm sufficiently detached to be able to take the time to withdraw in order to search within myself for my own personal desert and to write spiritual songs whilst travelling with twelve other people squashed together. Like everyone, I am a social animal."

"JP Plunier and I don't try to represent everything on one album, contrary to what many people think. We don't try to make some sort of musical potpourri or encyclopaedia. Each new album is at once a challenge, a self examination, and a prolongation of the preceding ones. Each album is an uninterrupted construction site until the next. I write more than necessary. I keep only the songs that are a challenge for me. When I have to decide which would be best, I have a very good intuition. I look for compositions which defy my competence and which push each record in its own direction. They are different from one another, but possess sufficient links to claim coherence."

"I don't consider that my new songs are better than my old songs, but I'm more confident in my capacity to communicate through them. I'm not trying to say that it's easy, but rather that my command is increasing. My understanding of writing is maturing. The unknown is healthy. I've always wanted to learn and to listen to original things. Confronting the unknown is definitely an advantage."

"It's at the same time a permanent struggle against myself, a personal battle which pushes me forward and yet, these are my songs, this is my music and it belongs to my soul, to my heart and I live and breathe through this music. I am constantly struggling against my demons, demons from the exterior, but mostly the demons within me. Every day, we live in good and evil, love and hate and this constant struggle becomes a part of us. For me, it gets expressed through music. If you listen closely to my records, you can hear me struggling against myself, someone or something else. In reality, I just try to find a certain internal peace in this world of madness, between the police sirens and the helicopters."

"I have always asked myself whether I wrote songs or whether they wrote me. Now, they are like friends. I feel complicity with the talent and the inspiration necessary for writing. I don't want my records to be easily accessible. When the 'Will to live' came out, it freed me. With 'Burn to Shine', I understood that as long as the songs are good, I can go in whatever direction I please."

"Right now, I no longer hide my wish to attain the level of someone like Neil Young, Johnny Cash or Bob Dylan; these artists knew how to mix simplicity with intelligence. There's nothing more enviable than being between two poles and being able to navigate freely between the two through the straightforward power of writing. That's the type of fantasy, of dream that is able to stimulate songwriting within me. It's almost science fiction."

Ben Harper : "I wanted to make a really creative record. I had written more than thirty songs in very different styles and I had to call in JP Plunier. He perfectly understands my music and is, in a certain sense, my George Martin. For each of the twelve songs of the album, we had to discard two. From then on, it was the groove of the moment which directed us."

"I had come out of 'The will to live' tour with a huge amount of ideas. Before recording, I stayed in bed for weeks, unable to sleep, with these visions of songs coming out me into the room, making me dizzy. One day, I told myself 'that's enough, I'm going to hit the road, alone with my acoustic guitar, to tour in friendly countries such as France or Italy'. My songs were paralysing me. Each time I took up a guitar, it was impossible to play anything else but these new songs."

"I did a lot of vocal work on the songs of Burn to shine; I knew exactly what I had to sing and how to do it. I pushed my voice further than in any other of my albums."

"In 'Show me a little shame', which is RnB, I was inspired by Al Green and Otis Reading. In 'The woman in you', I used my voice to imitate a conversation between a man and a woman, an old technique used by Robert Johnson. In 'Two hand of a prayer' the vocals come straight from the gospel tradition, and 'Steal my kisses' is a Nashville-style melody sung as reggae."

In the same way as his music, his voice adopts a more varied register.

"I realised that a voice is a true living being. Either you decide to make it grow, or you lose it because you let it shrivel and dry up. Today, I realise that I can go from one universe to the next, and still be myself. I discovered a new vocal world, with both beautiful and more startling things (he roars and then grunts). I knew that there was a more savage, more animal side to my voice. The revelation took a long time coming, but it was well worth the wait in the end."

"There are also a certain amount of special effects of the record, which are far from the spirit of my old Weissenborn. But don't think that I have a sound laboratory at home where I spend my time experimenting. The lab in my mind, but I can't say that I'm a purely instinctive person. For example, these ideas can only come out if you master your instrument. Otherwise, they stay at an unformulated stage. And learning to play well takes a lot of work and a lot of discipline. Discipline is very important in music to be able say everything you want. And I believe that at the moment, a lot of young people don't try to learn because of the discipline involved. And that's a pity, because it's not a prison. I feel totally free and happy when I play."

Ben Harper : "At each new album, I try to convey a message, an atmosphere, feelings which are my own. It's therefore delicate to try and stick something which doesn't come from me in the middle of that road. Furthermore, I don't have the place to put all of my songs on my albums, so I don't consider that adding other people's songs isn't of much interest."

On the other hand, covers have a role to play in 'Live from Mars' double album. There's Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta love', the Verve's 'The drugs don't work' and Marvin Gaye's 'Sexual Healing'.

Page translated in English by Alisdair Menzies