Ben Harper Writes Like There’s No Tomorrow

Perhaps the scariest thing about being an artist is staring at the blank page. It can feel good—wonderous—to create. But to do so, one must have something to get down on paper, literally or proverbially speaking. For writers, that blinking cursor is a foe. For painters, the blank canvas. For musicians, it’s silence or a lyric sheet without words or notes. But for acclaimed songwriter and performer Ben Harper, the only way around this worry is to never stop writing.

Harper, who will release his next LP, Bloodline Maintenance, on July 22, writing constantly is the only way to combat the looming worry of never being able to write again. A river can’t dry up if it’s constantly flowing, right? Similarly, Harper has something to say. It’s not just language he puts down on paper but meaning. So, just as his creativity won’t dry up if he’s constantly at it, so too, his efforts at making statements won’t either. This is evidenced in his new album, a stunning work that elucidates much of the Black American experience, as well as Harper’s own personal journey.