Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine
If you're not familiar with [EBEN](https://www.instagram.com/eben/), prepare to fall in love. One listen of his music, and you’re immediately drawn into a soundscape of vibes, laying somewhere in the midst of pop and R&B, with lyrics inspired directly by real-life experiences we can all relate to. Whatever the case may be, his music is here to uplift, inspire, and remind audiences around the world to never give up on their dreams—as he chases his own.
Hailing from Cincinnati originally, real name Eben Franckewitz exploded onto the scene in 2018 with his independent EPs, _FINALLY_ and _Past Hundred Days,_ followed by his Atlantic Records-debut _Honeydew_ EP in 2020. Now, he returns with his newest single titled “Jenny,” holding fans over until the release of his new EP titled _Dandelions_ arriving on August 12th. The project will also be released with a short film boasting 5 official music videos.
_Flaunt_ caught up with EBEN via Zoom to discuss the new single “Jenny,” why he named his EP _Dandelions_, shooting the short film with his friends over a 3-week period, and more!
Photo Credit: Jimmy Fontaine
**How have you been holding up since the last time we spoke?** [**That was 2018.**](http://www.youngcalifornia.com/2018/10/slidin-thru-eben/)
Music-wise, things have been great. The pandemic was a blessing, it gave me the time to really dive deep into what I really wanted to create and who EBEN was as an artist. Music aside, the pandemic was a beautiful shitshow, as it was for everybody. \[laughs\] It was good though, I got to go home back to Cincinnati a lot, see my family which was really necessary. It was a good time to find grounding again in my life, reprioritize the things that needed to be reprioritized. We came out of it better than ever. We’re winning, we’re focused.
**New single “Jenny” out today! What are you excited for?**
I’m excited to drop music. We haven’t released anything it seems like forever, since the _Honeydew_ EP. It’s just long overdue, so I’m itching to get music out. At the same time, this is the intro into the _Dandelions_ EP. We have a huge project we’ve been working on for the EP, being it’s a short film. “Jenny” is the kick off to this next chapter of everything. I’m super antsy, let’s go! It’s time to go.
**Is Jenny a real person?**
The whole song is a play off of _Forrest Gump._ Jenny really fucked over Forrest, it’s crazy, and that’s how we got the ball rolling on that whole idea. Not all of it is true. Some came from life experience, then other parts of the record we’re trying to tie into the movie and whatnot. It’s funny, we rewrote that song 7 times.
**Why?**
It was one of those songs. We weren’t sure if it was going to get across the way we wanted to. It was trial and error, trial and error. We finally got to a place where we said “yes! This is good. Let’s roll with it.”
**Were you watching _Forrest Gump_? How did that movie come across you?**
We weren’t even watching _Forrest Gump_. We were in the studio talking about what to write about, having conversations. If I’m not mistaken, it was Danny from Some Randoms who said “here’s an idea, nobody ever talked about how fucked up Jenny was to Forrest Gump.” \[laughs\] Once he said that, we had to chase that idea and “Jenny” blossomed from there. It was super random, the most unplanned type of outcome creatively.
**Why did you name the EP, _Dandelions_?**
I knew that’s what I wanted to name the EP after me, my buddy Jacob, and Maya worked on that record together. Once we finished that song, I felt like I got over a creative hump and it encompasses everything the EP’s about. I had all the other records together for the most part and was picking which ones to put out and what story I was going to tell - the song “Dandelions” really brought all that home.
**_Dandelions_ takes you on a psychological trip overcoming your inner demons during a break up. How was the process of recording it?**
This EP was definitely therapy for me. The whole project is going through different levels and stages of heartbreak, what you go through when you separate from someone in your life that meant a fucking lot to you. It’s dope because what we’re able to do visually in the mini-movie is super, super cool, because it really does show those different places that you go in your subconscious in trying to process everything. It ultimately ends with this song “Love Again” which is about being in a better mental place after the trials and turmoil, and continuing to move forward in life in a healthy way.
**What can we expect from the short film? How was it shooting?**
Man, I’m so excited about this. First off, this has been the biggest thing I’ve ever done for myself as an artist. Me and my videographer Evan Hara, we came up with the idea 8 or 9 months ago. We’ve been working on this for a long fucking time. It definitely would’ve gotten done quicker if there wasn’t a global pandemic obviously, but we made it work as well as we could. The process of making it was a beautiful shitshow.
It was 3 weeks of shooting. We were up in Oregon, out in Arizona, all over California. It was crazy, one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life for sure. All my friends, we’re out there fucking around making a movie. Now being able to sit down and watch the whole thing, it’s wild that all the crazy seemingly impossible ideas we had for it are on the screen. I’ve never been more proud of something, I really haven’t.
**How was it acting in it?**
That was fun because I was an actor before I was a singer, I was a musical theater kid wanting to do Broadway before I moved out to LA and was introduced to the music industry. I’ve been wanting to get back into it forever, but music’s been my priority. What better way to hop back into acting than on your own mini-movie. \[laughs\]
The whole goal with this movie was to turn heads. It’s so unexpected and it’s so fire. I’ve never had this confidence in myself. I’m very confident, but this feels different. Once people see it, they’re going to say “damn EBEN, bet. You took your time and figured out who you were and how you wanted to portray yourself.”
**You guys shot guerrilla style down the coast from Portland to all around California. What was the highlight?**
Just the memories that I’ll hold from that 3 week-long crazy time. We were roughing it, eating gas station food. We were doing it guerilla style. When I tell you, we didn’t sleep for 3 weeks... it was crazy, but so worth it. I’d do it over and over and over again.
We had the cops pull up on us a shit ton of times. There’s this one shot we had to do, it’s super simple, literally me driving down a highway. We had to stop on the side of the highway, there’s semi trucks flying past us, it’s 2 in the morning because we’re not trying to cause any trouble. The cops pull up like “what the fuck are you guys doing?” and we just said “ sorry, we’re shooting a thing for a student film!” The memories, there’s so many ridiculous situations like that that I’ll never forget.
**Anything else you want to let us know?**
Stream “Jenny.” Stream it! I’m thankful for all the love and support. I haven’t dropped shit in a while, but now we’re getting the ball rolling again.
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