VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Ben Barnes Answers Fan Question On ‘Songs For You,’ Part 1

Ben Barnes responded to fan questions from uInterview users about his new EP Songs For You in his new uInterview.

Fan JD asked how Barnes came up with the song “Ordinary Day.”

“‘Ordinary Day’ was probably the song on the EP that I most sort of sat down with an idea of finishing as a song,” Barnes told uInterview Founder Erik Meers. “I think it came very much out of a sort of specific moment in a relationship of mine where the timing was not right and you know I think there’s a sort of running theme through a lot of the songs on the EP that’s about empathy and trying to see things from other people’s perspectives, but also all the songs are very much about hope and hopefulness. And ‘Ordinary Day’ is sort of no different. Even sometimes when you’re not sure how things feel, that sometimes just sort of holding until you are more sure about how you feel or how someone else feels about a situation and it felt like an interesting enough thing to write a song about.”

Barnes said he started writing the song by creating the bridge first. “‘The word “Enough” is full of romance’ was the first line I wrote because I think the word enough is actually an incredibly romantic word,” he said. “‘You’re enough for me,’ what a beautiful thing to say to someone when you have the option of, you know, eight billion people on the planet. So ‘enough’ is basically saying I choose you.”

Shery (@sheryko on Instagram) asked if fans should hope for more music videos for the rest of the songs on his EP.

“You can always hope,” Barnes joked, “but there are only two, and they are both released.”

However, the singer revealed that he’ll be releasing lyric videos and “live acoustic performance videos” for more songs on the album.

Lara (@_thenewyorker_ on Instagram) asked Barnes if he ever got emotional while writing his songs.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I would say ‘Rise Up’ and ‘Ordinary Day’ were both songs that in my first attempt to sort of play them through, they were a bit, you know, sometimes they felt kind of raw to particular memories or things like that.”

CHECK OUT PART 2 OF BEN’s uINTERVIEW HERE!

Erica (@harrietta.http on Instagram) asked Barnes what his favorite lyric on the album is.

“There are you know little snippets of poems that I’ve loved that are kind of borrowed from,” he answered. “There are, you know, there’s a John Lennon quote in ‘Not The End.’ There’s references to some films that I love. And you know, there’s all sorts of things in there. I think ‘Enough is full of romance’ like I said from ‘Ordinary Day’ is a lovely sentiment. I like in ‘Pirate Song’ how every time it gets to the end of the chorus it says, ‘Heave ho, blow me down,’ which is such a like pirate thing to say. And then in the very last time you hear it, it says ‘Heave ho, don’t you let me drown,’ which — I love the switch.”

Stephanie asked if Barnes had a favorite song on the album.

“Well, ‘Rise Up’ is a very precious sort of song to me,” he said, “because it was the first one that I sort of finished for it and it was the one that made me sort of think ‘I have to put this out there,” and it sort of has a bit of a hymnal sort of feel to me, which I love.”

Check back soon for parts two and three of Ben’s uInterview. Songs For You is available for sale or streaming now!