Ben_Lee

Ben Lee

Benjamin Michael Lee (born September 11, 1978 in Sydney, Australia) is an ARIA Award winning Jewish Australian musician and actor. Lee began his career as a musician at the age of 14 with the Sydney band Noise Addict, but focused on his solo career when the band broke up. He appeared as the protagonist in the Australian film The Rage in Placid Lake (2003). Lee dated Claire Danes for several years, but their relationship ended in 2003. He is currently dating the actress Ione Skye. The couple got engaged on January 11, 2008. Lee was nominated as PETA's World's Sexiest Vegetarian.

Ben Lee recently released Ripe with producer John Alagia (Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Mandy Moore). Guests appearing on the album include Benji Madden of Good Charlotte, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, Mandy Moore, the members of the band Rooney and many more. Ben Lee kept a detailed journal of the recording process at his official website

History

Noise Addict

Ben Lee's musical career began in 1993 with the band Noise Addict, who were signed to Steve Pavlovic's independent label Fellaheen Records, on the strength of a self-produced and distributed four-track demo recorded in Lee's bedroom. Pavlovic's connections brought the band to the attention of Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Beastie Boys' Mike D, both of whom released the band's material in the US. The group put out several releases on the Beasties' Grand Royal Records. These including the acoustic Young and Jaded EP in 1994, which contained Lee's Evan Dando tribute, "I Wish I Was Him." In 1995 Grand Royal released the band's only full length, the Brad Wood produced Meet the Reel You. Noise Addict made a music video for the song '16', toured with Sebadoh, but then broke up. Lee was also briefly a member of the alternative act Gerling.

Schooling

Lee was educated at Moriah College in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Solo career

Lee's solo career started at the age of 16, while he was still in Noise Addict. He began recording his first solo album, Grandpaw Would, in both Sydney and Chicago with producer Brad Wood. This was followed by the 1997 album, Something to Remember Me By, also produced by Wood. 1999's Breathing Tornados marked a new direction for Lee as he introduced synthesizers and increased instrumentation into his sound. The album was a success in Australia, with the first single, "Cigarettes Will Kill You", finishing second in that year's Triple J Hottest 100. Lee also enjoyed success with the single "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" from the album hey you. yes you.. It reached #22 on the 2002's Triple J Hottest 100.

In late 2004, Lee left Steve Pavlovic's Modular Recordings and started up his own record label, Ten Fingers. The first release on the label was the single, "Gamble Everything for Love", followed by the album, Awake Is the New Sleep in February 2005, which went double platinum in Australia. A defining release in his career, the album showcased a much brighter, positive side of Lee's personality, in contrast to his previous darker musings. Awake Is the New Sleep received several nominations for the 2005 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) awards, and Lee won Best Male Artist, Best Independent Release, and Single Of The Year for "Catch My Disease", which Lee wrote with Mcgowan Southworth. Catch My Disease also went to #2 on the 2005 Triple J Hottest 100. In addition, the song was featured on the soundtrack to the 2005 film, "Just Friends," as well as the soundtrack to the television series, "Grey's Anatomy". In 2006 it was used in a television commercial for Dell Computers. On Sunday, March 26, 2006 Lee performed We're All in This Together from his latest album Awake Is the New Sleep at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The single for "We're All in This Together" was released on the 8th of April, 2006. The CD includes b-side cover versions of the song by Pony Up, Holidays On Ice and Gelbison.

Ben Lee has currently been writing material for his new album "Ripe" due for a release with Benji Madden and Mandy Moore making appearances. Mandy Moore sings a light-hearted, 50's style duet with Lee called 'Birds and Bees'. "Mandy was very sweet and did her best Olivia Newton-John for me. I'm really psyched about this recording," Lee says. Madden helped out with some backing vocals, along with US band Rooney and Sara Watkins from the band Nickel Creek. Benmont Tench, keyboardist from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers also contributed. "We are in the process of working through the top 25 of the 80 songs I've written, in order to choose the 18 that we will record," Lee said on his website recently. "From there we will need to pick the 11 or 12 that will make the album. I've never had this big a pool of material to choose from."

Other projects

In 2001, he joined forces with Evan Dando, Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick and Jason Schwartzman of Phantom Planet and acting fame. Calling themselves Dando Lee Petersson Schwartzman, they recorded a single, "Dead or Anything", at Globe Studios, New York City. During 2003, Lee teamed up with Ben Kweller and Ben Folds for a side project entitled The Bens. They recorded four songs together in Nashville, resulting in a self-titled EP. Lee also duetted with Kylie Minogue in 1999 on a cover of The Reflex for an Australian Duran Duran tribute album. In late 2006, he teamed with California band Rooney for a U.S. tour.

Ben Lee co-wrote some songs on Angie Hart's solo album, Grounded Bird.

In popular culture

The Ataris criticize Ben Lee in a song of the same name, citing his music being "pretentious noise" and that he was only able to date famous women (such as Claire Danes) because of his connection to the Beastie Boys. Some of this criticism stems from the Bob Dylan-esque songs Lee plays and writes. Australian band Klinger also had a track titled Ben Lee with similar sentiments.

Powderfinger lead singer Bernard Fanning infamously called Lee a "precocious little cunt", but during a live broadcast on Triple J radio of the 2005 Hottest 100 at the Sydney Big Day Out, he was heard to retract the comment. Lee came second in the countdown to Fanning with the track "Catch My Disease."

His song "We're All in This Together" is being used in commercials for Kohl's (2008), Coca Cola (Remixed Australian Summer Series Ads in 2007), The South Australian Government (2006), The Salvation Army Red Shield Appeal (2007) and Telus Mobility's "My Faves" (2007). His song "Catch My Disease" was featured on the TV shows Hidden Palms and Scrubs. His song "American Television" was used in a VH1 advertisement for Flavor of Love 3.

Ben Lee did a cover of Crosby, Stills & Nash's Our House for Landmarks on The DL