Monarch Artist Feature: Ben Sollee

By Kelsey Knott • Photos By Matt Johnson 

If you didn’t already know how cool the cello is, Ben Sollee is here to show you! 

Ben Sollee was born into a musical family–his mother a singer, his father a R&B guitarist, and his grandfather, Elvis, an old-time musician in Eastern Kentucky. “I picked up cello in public schools when I was nine, and I liked the fact that it was a Swiss army knife type instrument. I could make all sorts of crazy noises with it. It has served me in that way throughout my career.” While his degree from UofL is in orchestral performance, the orchestra is only one of the many places you’ll find Sollee. On top of releasing his own albums, he’s featured in the docuseries “Distilled in Kentucky” and has scored several films, such as Maggie Moore(s) with Tina Fey and John Hamm, Ruth, and Maidentrip. 

On his latest record, Long Haul, Sollee explores his healing journey after being sick from COVID for a year and a half. This prompted him to make many lifestyle changes, and performing again reconnected him with music’s health benefits: “I find the act of making music to be a very healthy thing for me. There are health benefits of singing–deep breathing and paced breathing. It keeps me in the game.” While as an entrepreneur he is no stranger to burnout, he approaches life knowing the value of balance and taking the time to take care of your body today, as well as the healing properties art can provide along the way. 

Beyond personal health, Sollee sees his work as a public health initiative for communities. Experiencing culture through a suggested algorithm, as we do currently, creates disconnect within communities, but this solitude and loneliness isn’t the only way. “Music and performances help build community and raise awareness of various social and environmental issues. There’s a real health benefit and opportunity to create experiences that grow greater sense of togetherness. What artists contribute have real, tangible implications in a community. They hold a lot of space for grief, they help generate new culture, and they do meaningful work we won’t see in the mainstream media. If you’re not continually making new culture for your community specifically from your community, and not just renting it from some other place, there is a natural attrition to the identity of that, and then slowly, it will fade.” Communities that invest in cultural coherence and processing what’s happening locally through art can thrive and feel a sense of belonging. 

To Sollee, songwriting is about self-discovery: “The things that resonate with you, whether it be the words or the musical influences in a song, you don’t really know why. Be curious about what your tastes are. Songwriting is emergent, and once the song comes out, it’s like an object that you can kind of spin around and look at in different ways and say, ‘oh, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that about myself.’ That keeps me writing, and when I do that as a group with other creatives, that’s really exciting because no one’s really in control. We’re all dedicated to the thing that we can make in this moment with this group of people. I find that the most invigorating.” Sollee hopes that through his music, people can reconnect with their bodies, and thus, the rest of the world. “One of the biggest foundational challenges we face is the disconnection from our bodies. If you don’t have a relationship with something, it’s very easy to abuse it and have an extractive relationship to it, like some sort of resource, as if your health or strength or whatever is something to be used as opposed to being in a relationship with it.”

As Sollee tours, he networks with trusted community members who invite friends to shows as he understands the power of connection wherever he goes: “Louisville is infused with cross-pollinating, creativity, and sharing. There’s a lot of work to do to make that equitable and representative of the people that live here now, but creativity just naturally happens here. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve settled and stayed in Louisville. I find it to be much easier to get a ‘yes’ on an idea here.” In uncertain times where we’re drawn to nostalgia and the comfortable, going to a venue with strangers to watch a new artist sing songs you don’t know, sometimes on tough topics, may sound difficult to appreciate and enjoy from the outside looking in. But Sollee recognizes the important niche The Monarch serves in the creative community as a safe place where performers can hone their craft and continue to write and learn in a model that helps involve fans in the process of artist development. 

Catch Ben Sollee live at Waterfront Wednesday this July as well as with the Lexington Philharmonic for their 200th anniversary celebration!