Ben Barnes on his new album, Where the Light Gets In, and music as his creative outlet

Ben Barnes discusses his album Where the Light Gets In, before his tour stop in Glasgow’s St. Luke’s

Though it’s impossible to quote the twinkle in someone’s eye, such terminology is the only thing fitting to describe a conversation with Ben Barnes. The actor, 43, most notably known for his roles as Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia, Logan Delos in Westworld, Billy Russo in Punisher, and the Darkling in Shadow and Bone, sat down for a conversation highlighting the extension of his artistry into musicianship. He is currently on tour promoting his newly released album, Where the Light Gets In, an eclectic mix of soulful pop songs that describe the various stages of a progression in relationships from hopefulness to anxieties to nostalgia. 

From the moment he logged on to the zoom meeting, the charisma with which the internet so often praises him for was shining through the pixelized video feed. When asked about the nature of engaging in film focused press junkets, he explained that the journalists typically revolve around the cast with project centric questions, and there is a constant attempt to keep the monotony fresh while recalling something you had worked on in secret a year prior. 

In contrast, with the promotion of an album, he said, “I think music is different in that the gestation period isn’t necessarily all at once. You have some ideas for some songs years earlier, or scratched on a napkin somewhere, or in your phone notes. Some of the songs were written deliberately for the album, and suddenly you’re touring, and you’re singing the songs, and they start to mean something a little bit different to you, or you’re in a different place in your life and things start to feel different. I think talking about music on stage, or in an interview, you’re basically talking about your life. It all feels a little bit more personal whether I’m recording the music, or playing it live, or talking about it with someone like yourself. That kind of makes sense in that when you’re acting it’s someone else’s script, someone else’s costume, someone else’s edit. As much as that’s my career, and always will be my career, and I’m so very passionate about it, this is more of a personal creative outlet.” 

Though music does happen to seep its way into the creative process for his film projects. He explained that he listens to certain music when getting into the mindset of characters. “I think for Shadow and Bone I had a bunch of classical music and some Radiohead. There was this specific Radiohead symphonic thing that I was listening to a lot to get into that headspace. The film that I just did there was a particular song that I listened to all of the time. It was a Nicholas Britell song called Agape. Sometimes I make playlists of stuff to ground me back into what I’m trying to do. I did have a cool moment recently because one of my top songs on Spotify wrapped was by a band called Couch. They’re a great fun band, and I just sang one of my songs in Boston with the lead singer.” 

He explained that unlike other artists who can only commit to one aspect of their careers at a time, he considers himself fortunate enough to never have had to fully transition between one craft or another, but to be able to seamlessly switch between the two during film breaks etc. 

“For me, I’m in it for the adventure. Watching documentaries of bands that I loved growing up. Movies like Almost Famous where bands are touring. I wanted to see what that would feel like. Playing your music for people in different places in the world. The rewards are so immediate. People coming up to you at the venue and telling you about specific songs and why they’re  relevant to them. Having people sing words that you wrote at a specific moment back at you as a community. It feels incredibly connective because you wrote it about something that you care about, and they’re singing it because of something they care about for a certainly almost completely different reason to the one that you wrote it. I just find it so connective.”

While touring an album doesn’t typically permit much time to get to know new places, Ben expressed a fondness for carving out time in specific places that he has looked forward to visiting. Though he hasn’t spent much time in Scotland before, other than stints at the Fringe during his youth, and a brief visit to Glasgow when he was eighteen. 

“I’m mostly just excited to go to places that I’ve never been,” he said. “I’ve never been to Sweden before in my life and I’m excited to be there. I’d never been to Washington D.C. so that was an interesting stop on the American tour. Never seen the Lincoln memorial or any of the historical sites, and it’s an interesting time to stop there but it’s a really beautiful city.”

In terms of the content of his latest album, and what to expect from the songs being played on this tour, Barnes explained how most of his music is written from seeds of personal experience. From moments of melancholy to celebratory conversation he seems to cover it all. “Emotional moments for people are dichotomous, they always have tension in them because you’re never just feeling one emotion completely at a time. Some are born out of conversations with people about something. I’ve tried writing songs that are a little more metaphorical. I wrote a song about pirates on my first EP because I was bored with the song that I was writing. The song is still about the same thing it was about before it was about pirates, but you use whatever tools are available to you. As this album crafted itself into being about the different stages of relationships on one level, I realized that I wanted to have a song that was a bit more pure and one dimensional in terms of a love song. I tried to write that until I found scraps of other lyrical things that I scratched down from personal experience. You can’t help but invest yourself in all the songs.”

The genre of his music followed suit with its lyrical messages, as it imitated Barnes’ excitement by artists like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Elton John, Whitney Houston, and Donny Hathaway, passing through the lense of his personal interpretations. “I Can’t Make You Love Me, by Bonnie Raitt but it was done by George Micheal, and covered by a bunch of people. I just think it’s the most beautifully written song ever, the melody is perfect, the chords are perfect, the lyrics are perfect. It is so impactful and specific and deliberate…I definitely didn’t set out to do pop music, but I feel like it’s soul inspired pop music. It’s like when you’re doing a painting and you don’t quite know what it’s going to be until you put colors on the canvas.” 

The music video for Slow It Down, the sixth track on the album, mimics the sentiments of a classic 80’s romantic comedy, being a great comfort genre of films for Barnes; some of his favourite romantic comedies including: When Harry Met Sally, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and basically anything with Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, or Julia Roberts. A simple romantic at heart, he said that he drew the most inspiration from the full dating sequence in the original Karate Kid. “I was so in love with Elisabeth Shue when I watched that movie. They went on a date where they played mini golf,  drove bumper cars, and drank fizzy drinks. It looked like the best date ever when I watched that film in my teens, and it bred that aesthetic.” 

11:11 from his last EP seemed to catch on the most, championing ideas of positivity, generosity, and hopefulness. “I didn’t know if people would think that it was kind of kitsch but apparently not which makes me very very happy…part of the entire ideology of this newest album is that it’s never too late. I think by virtue of the fact that I’m doing connective pop music in my forties is something that people have latched onto. If I’m doing that then they can go and do this class, this hobby, write this fanfiction, whatever it is that people want to do.” 

Despite his status as a heartthrob by internet standards, Barnes expressed that he isn’t much into consuming media that involves himself, and his fraternization with Tiktok is largely posting and exiting. “I don’t think the algorithm has quite figured out what to show me yet. I do love it when people do edits and they put shit in slow motion. They have crazy transitions and the coolest music as well. I’ve seen a few here and there. I’m definitely flattered when I see people put effort into making anything out of my music, or cut together from things I’ve done, or even in the case of things I haven’t done [Harry Potter].  To be honest, I like when people make edits of their own lives to my songs, and then when they make edits of me to other music that I’m not that familiar with. I think ‘Damn this is cool’ and I go look for it and save it. Sometimes I wish I had the skill set to reframe stuff that I’ve done, but that’s for younger and savy-er minds than mine.”

In terms of what to expect from his upcoming filming projects he was asked if he has heard any whispers about the upcoming Chronicles of Narnia reboot directed by Greta Gerwig. “It’s definitely a Greta Gerwig question. I had my equivalent with a tv show of it made on the BBC in the 80’s. I remember when The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe came out and I was thinking ‘Why are they bothering making this, the tv show is perfect,’ and if you go back and look at it it’s so old fashioned, retro and janky. It’s beautiful in its own way but she makes such fresh, exciting feeling films that whatever she does with it will be amazing. If they wanted me to voice a badger or something I’d be happy.”

Barnes brings his tour to Glasgow’s St. Luke’s on 12 February, 2025, and should you be unable to attend this particular show, the effort should be made to make it to any one of his numerous upcoming European tour dates. It would be a crime to miss out on partaking in such an experience.