Words by Ali Williams
Ben Kweller is excited to be heading back to Australia in July with his Cover The Mirrors tour. It has been a while between visits. Kweller says he has not toured Australia since before the pandemic, making this run something of a proper return after the world decided to collectively lose the plot for a few years.
“I’m so excited,” he says. “I love Australia. I haven’t been there since the pandemic, so this is my big return since the world shut down.”
That excitement is not the polished, copy-and-paste version artists sometimes pull out when talking about every country on an itinerary. Kweller speaks about Australia with real affection. His fans are keen, he is keen, and the timing feels right. Cover The Mirrors has now had time to live out in the world, and Australia gets to be part of the international stretch of the album cycle.
Released in 2025, Cover The Mirrors is the latest chapter in a career that started ridiculously early. Kweller began writing songs when he was eight and formed his first band around the age of 12 or 13. By his teens, he was fronting Radish, the Texas band that first put him on the map and gave him one of those music memories that still lights him up.
He remembers being 14 when a Radish song, Dear Antarctica, was played on Q102 FM in Dallas by the gloriously named DJ Redbeard. Kweller and his bandmates piled into a car, because only one of them was old enough to drive, and circled the block until the song came on. It is the kind of story that sounds small until you remember how massive it would have felt at the time. Three young musicians, one working car, a local radio station, and proof that something they made had escaped into the world. That is the sort of thing that keeps people writing songs long after common sense has suggested a more stable hobby.
Kweller still feels that buzz now. Hearing his music unexpectedly in a grocery store, Home Depot, or some random shop has not become ordinary to him. Neither has been recognised by fans. He is quick to say he is not famous enough to be mobbed everywhere, which probably helps, but when someone does come up and tell him his music means something to them, he still takes it in.
For Kweller, that connection remains the whole point. The songs matter because they travel. They leave the studio, find people, and become part of someone else’s life. There is no algorithm, marketing plan or soulless content machine that can properly fake that, no matter how aggressively humanity keeps trying to automate itself into a beige corner.
“The robots will not,” he laughs when the conversation turns to music and emotion. “They cannot have our emotions. They can’t take the heart away from us.”
It is an easy statement to believe coming from him. Kweller does not talk about music like a product manager. He talks about it like someone who has been living inside songs since childhood and still has not lost the wonder of it. That probably explains why his catalogue has been able to move between power-pop, indie rock, folk-leaning songwriting and more intimate emotional terrain without feeling like costume changes.
His path has carried him through some significant musical territory. After Radish, he moved to New York City in the early 2000s and found himself among a scene that included The Strokes, The Moldy Peaches, Nada Surf and Mooney Suzuki. It was a defining period for guitar music, and Kweller was right there in the thick of it before eventually returning to Texas.
These days, he lives outside Austin in Dripping Springs, which he describes as being in the country, around 20 minutes from most things. He is on acreage, works from his studio, and happily admits he is a homebody.
“I never leave,” he says. “I stay here and write music, and I only leave when they make me.” Fortunately, Australia has made the cut.
The July run is expected to be a quick one, with Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and an Adelaide festival appearance mentioned during the chat. Kweller also points to the Adelaide Barbecue and Beer Festival with clear approval, mostly because barbecue and beer are not exactly hard sells to a Texas musician visiting Australia. Some cultural bridges require deep explanation. Others arrive smoked, grilled and served cold.
There is also a strong personal thread tying him back to this part of the world. Kweller mentions wanting to catch up with friends while he is here, including Brad from The Vines and Dope Lemon. He also recently produced the solo debut album from Tom Busby of Busby Marou, praising Busby’s songwriting and voice. Touring, for Kweller, is not just about the shows. It is also the meals, friendships and familiar faces that turn a run of dates into something more meaningful.
As for what fans can expect, the set will bring new material from Cover The Mirrors alongside favourites from across his career. At the time of the interview, support acts had not yet been confirmed, and Kweller seemed just as open to making it a longer “evening with” style show as he was to sharing the stage with local or emerging artists.
Either way, the focus is simple: songs, people and the exchange that happens when the two meet in a room. That may sound almost too sincere for an industry that often treats sincerity like something to be quarantined, but Kweller gets away with it because he means it. He has been doing this since he was a kid, has lived through band life, solo life, scene life, home life, pandemic interruption and the strange business of rebuilding momentum after a long pause. Through all of it, he still sounds grateful.
Australia, then, is not just another stop on a calendar. It is part of his return to the world, part of the Cover The Mirrors story, and part of a connection he clearly values. Ben Kweller may call himself a homebody, but this July, he is leaving the studio, crossing the planet, and bringing the songs with him. For fans who have been waiting since before the world shut down, that should be more than enough reason to leave the house, too.
Tickets: https://www.destroyalllines.com/tours/ben-kweller
