Ben Kweller is a man of many talents. The twenty-six year old singer-songwriter first broke onto the music scene as a kid from Texas whose high school band, Radish, earned comparisons to Nirvana. Since then, he's put out three brilliant, lo-fi indie rock albums under his own name, played to rabid fans at this year's Lollapalooza, and recorded a fourth, self-titled disc (due September 19th) on which he plays every single instrument. So when he jumps out of his seat in a Brooklyn cafe and demonstrates his ability to levitate, we're not sure which is more impressive: his magical powers or his consistent musical offerings.

Kweller's forthcoming eponymous disc is a goodly departure from his previous album, 2004's On My Way, which he recorded rehearsal style -- no fancy soundproof booth, no retakes or overdubs, just four guys in a room -- in order to achieve an intentionally rough sound. Rather, this effort, produced by Pixies collaborator Gil Norton, finds Kweller singing all the vocals and playing every instrument, meticulously arranging the sound. "Leading up to the album I was listening to a lot of Tom Petty's late eighties stuff like Full Moon Fever and The Great Wide Open. The drums are real tight and perfect but it's Tom Petty singing so it has that human element to it. I wanted to do something like that," says Kweller.

Both lyrically and sonically, the singer drew from influences that span generations. Sifting through his father's old records, he came across a cache of musical inspirations. ""My roots, growing up in Texas, I listened to a lot of my dad's music like the Beatles and [Jimi] Hendrix. Then Nirvana came out and that was the first music of my generation that I connected with," says Kweller. On "I Got to Move," Kweller's boyish vocals and the sunny pop melody conjure up the best of Sixties boy bands the Beach Boys and the Beatles.

The tone of the album is noticeably sentimental, which Kweller says is the result of becoming a father himself -- he and his wife welcomed a son, Dorian Zev Kweller, on May 30th of this year. Lyrics like, "I'll do anything you want me to" on the first single, Sundress and "We stood by the ocean/turned our hearts into one" on "Thirteen" reflect Kweller's softer side as he ruminates on growing up and starting a family of his own. "To know that I will never know anyone as well as [Dorian], because I've been there since day one, is amazing," he says. "I'm just singing about things that are more important than just saying 'sha sha' or 'la la,'" says Kweller. "On this album, I'm really wearing it all on my sleeve. I wasn't scared to say what I wanted to say. I did a lot of looking back over my life," he says. "I'm growing up. That happens to all of us."

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