Former member of the band Radish, Ben Kweller began his solo music career at the age of 19. He had released multiple albums before his friend Anton Yelchin passed away in 2016 at the age of 27. It was the passing of his close friend that inspired Ben to begin writing “Here Today, Gone Tonight”. In February of 2023, however, Kweller’s 16 year old son, Dorian, was killed in a car crash, and suddenly the song became about him, too.
Ben Kweller’s experience with losing his son while working on his latest album is strikingly similar to the experiences described by Nick Cave in Faith, Hope, and Carnage. Cave experienced the passing of his 15 year old son, Arthur, as he was writing the album Ghosteen. The two men found that the best way for them to cope with their unthinkable grief and loss was through their music.
After the death of his son, Ben Kweller took a song that he had already begun writing about the death of a friend and adjusted it to portray his feelings about his son. “Here Today, Gone Tonight” became an avenue for Kweller to express his grief and cope with the sudden loss of his son, Dorian. Cave used this idea of altering perception as well. After his son Arthur died, Ghosteen, an already in progress album of Cave’s, was viewed through a new lens. Suddenly, the album, already about grief and deep emotions, became reflective of Cave’s own feelings and experience. Altering their perceptions of products of their creativity that were already in progress, opened up new avenues for Ben Kweller and Nick Cave to channel their feelings of loss and grief, and cope with the deaths of their sons.
An extremely sad story. It is positive that within their respective processes of grief that both artists found a way to add to their work while also furthering their healing in regard to the devastating loss of a loved one. A coincidence for the author of your book to have such a similar experience to this artist, and I wonder if there are other widely loved songs that were created from a similar real-life narrative.
ReplyDeleteI also read Cave's book and found his process of using his grief as a tool for creativity extremely interesting. Did Kweller also have a spiritual process when processing his grief? I feel like the most captivating part was how cave redefined his relationship with religion and spirituality as he went through the stages of grief of losing his son.
ReplyDelete