Ben Hambro has been a character before. As the frontman of Lazarus Kane, he played the part of an enigmatic American rock star, all swagger and absurdity. But when that project ended, somewhere between a pandemic, personal collapse and artistic exhaustion, something had to give.

"In my old project, I was playing a character. Then COVID happened, my personal life fell apart, and I let a lot of people down. I wasn't very easy to be around, and I wanted to address those failings," he explains. "I started trying to make myself laugh, to look at my mistakes in a lighter way and to be a bit easier on myself, realising that everyone makes mistakes and it's okay."

What followed was Vegas Water Taxi, a band that began not with a concept, but with a need. As Ben puts it: "Vegas Water Taxi is a tragi-comic diary of my personal failings set to alt-country instrumentals, with some very tasteful guitar work courtesy of Charlie and Fred." The songs became a tragi-comic diary of real emotional wreckage, scored by tastefully twangy alt-country and sung with humour, heartbreak and the occasional jab at the music industry.

"It was somewhere between therapy, writing a diary and a process of trying to make myself feel a bit better by laughing at all the stupid stuff I did," Ben says. "So yeah, I guess the shift really came out of necessity."

Now, with new EP 'long time caller', that approach has crystallised. A follow-up to 2023's 'things are gonna be alright', it's a record full of social spiral-outs, imagined boyfriends and brutally funny breakup fallout. Ben didn't even realise he was writing a breakup record at first, let alone one about multiple breakups, including with his past self.

"I went through a breakup and it was really, really difficult, the hardest thing I've dealt with emotionally. As I wrote more, a theme developed and I realised there was a narrative running through the songs that brought it all together."

It's also about transformation. "These songs are about breaking up with an old life and trying to move forward, while also documenting all the ways I've failed and addressing emotions we rarely talk about, jealousy, anger, all the ugly stuff that doesn't make us look great, but that we all feel."

Lyrically, Ben aimed to sharpen things, making the songs darker, funnier. "I was really trying to write funnier lines, not necessarily jokes, but lines that were funnier, more tragic and darker as well. I was really enjoying writing lyrics and getting better at it, so I wanted to focus on the lyrics this time."

He also focused on vocals for the first time. "The first album was all done live, but this time we recorded more track by track since we couldn't do it live. That allowed me to focus more on singing, softer, more intimate and bring people into the songs and the words."

The EP came together over about a year and a half, with some songs, like 'birkenstocks', written just after the debut was finished. Recorded with Folly Group's Louis Milburn and fleshed out by bandmates Charlie Meyrick, Fred Lawton and Molly Shields, the final result blends wry British lyricism with dusty Americana tones. There's also a bit of accidental gospel.

"We were recording on a Sunday, and all the other units were full of churches of different denominations having their services. The music was amazing, but very loud, and it was bleeding into our studio. If you listen closely, you might hear some gospel music on the tracks."

The recording wasn't without its challenging moments. "The song 'nts' was a bit tricky to record because there's a lot going on. Our producer, Louis Milburn, is such a pro that everything usually goes really smoothly."

Despite the heavy themes - romantic insecurity, social exile, late-night spirals - the songs remain funny. That tension is deliberate. "I think failure is really funny and it's something we all experience, which makes it relatable, like all the best comedy. I love writing about my own failures and those I observe in the world. Life itself is a cosmic joke."

"Heartbreak is obviously painful, but there's often something humorous behind it. I try not to take any of it too seriously. Finding the balance is hard because I'm not a comedian, I'm a writer, and I take the vulnerability seriously. But I think the best way to deal with heartbreak or existential feelings is to laugh at them."

'chateau photo' tackles the pain of seeing your ex's new life unfold online. "This song is about the moment of realisation that you've been replaced or excommunicated from a social group after a breakup. Obviously, it happened when I saw a photo on Instagram. It's a bit of a double-edged sword, it obviously hurts quite a lot, but there's a sense of freedom that comes with it as well."

He wraps it all up with the now-infamous lyric: "She left me for a guy who's working in PR / He's putting out a press release that I'm crying in a bar."

Then there's 'jerry', a track about spiralling into imagining your ex's perfect new boyfriend. "You start spiralling into paranoid thoughts about who might replace you in your ex's life, imagining what they're like and how they live. For a while, it completely breaks you, and in your head, you almost build this AI version of their new partner.

"For me, that imaginary guy was Jerry. He was absurdly put-together, the kind of guy who worked at St John, pretended to casually quote books he'd only half-read, owned a ring light and generally looked like he had life figured out. I could see their first few dates going perfectly."

Ben credits Sabrina Carpenter as a lyrical influence, someone who can be funny, self-aware and sincere at once. That spirit threads through the EP, where jokes are often followed by moments of real emotional gut-punch. "If you suffer for your art, small plates is where you start," he sings on 'birkenstocks'. 'nts' takes aim at music bro pretension and 'jolene' explores overpriced coffee shop existentialism.

Not that Ben is trying to write with a listener in mind. "I think that can get you into tricky territory. I write for myself and try to create songs I would want to hear. If it doesn't make me laugh, or if it doesn't feel a little uncomfortable for me, I probably won't finish it."

He estimates that about 75% of what he writes is true. The rest is embellished, spliced together from stories, or creatively warped into something that still feels emotionally honest. "There's always a bit of truth in it, because you need that for it to feel real. My goal is to write songs that people will want to listen to now, in 50 years, or even 100 years and hold close to them in their lives."

That emotional honesty extends to performing, where Vegas Water Taxi have quietly become a word-of-mouth live favourite. "I've realised that the trick to being in a band is surrounding yourself with people who are much, much better musicians than I am. Charlie and Fred are amazing, singular guitarists and great writers, and Molly's voice adds some actual vocal ability to the tracks. I get to sing my silly little words and chords and they do all the proper work."

He's still tired - who isn't? - but still in love with the process. "I really do enjoy it. I'm a bit more tired than I used to be, but I love those moments when you realise you're making music with your friends."

The idea of "success" has changed since the Lazarus Kane days. "Maybe when I started, I thought I could do this full-time one day, but that's probably never going to happen. We all work full-time, and that's okay because I know I love it and I sacrifice a lot of time to make it happen."

"Success for me is just making an album, getting it out in the world and writing songs I enjoy listening to. Anything else is a bonus."

He's already working on the next thing, though he's not saying much yet. "I've also started writing another album, which is slowly taking shape. My life has gone through a lot of changes recently, so I'm processing that and figuring out what to write about now that things are in a much better place than a year ago. So there are some seeds of ideas."

For now, he just wants people to hear the EP. "'long time caller' is out October 3rd and it's really, really, really good." It is.

Vegas Water Taxi's EP 'long time caller' is out now.