Ben Lee

Ben Lee's innate talents as an introspective singer-songwriter earned him global attention in the early '90s while he was still a teenager, and he would continue to hone his musical abilities in a variety of genres, from acoustic material to pop-rock, over the course of a lengthy career. Born Benjamin Michael Lee in Sydney, Australia, he began performing in his early teens as a member of the group Noise Addict. A self-produced four-track demo recorded in Lee's bedroom made its way to promoter and executive Steve Pavlovic, who signed Noise Addict to his Fellaheen Records. Pavlovic's connections within the music industry helped to bring the demo to a wider audience, which included Mike D of the Beastie Boys and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, who both issued Noise Addict EPs in the early '90s. The band scored a college radio hit with the low-fi acoustic single "I Wish I Was Him," a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando, before releasing their first full-length LP, Meet the Real You, in 1995. By this time, Lee had already begun recording solo material, which was released in 1996 as Grandpaw Would; when Noise Addict fell apart in the wake of their first American tour, Lee poured his energies into his own recording career. He issued a second LP, Something To Remember Me By (1997), followed the acoustic guitar blueprint of its predecessor, but his third album, Breathing Tornados (1998), introduced a wider palette of instruments and production. Its lead single, "Cigarettes Will Kill You," was a Top 50 hit in Australia, and launched Lee as a chart success in his native country. By 2005, he was earning double platinum sales in Australia with the upbeat Awake is the New Sleep on his own label, Ten Fingers. Lee also retained a presence in the United States, enjoying widespread mainstream exposure in 2005 and 2006 when his single "Catch My Disease" was featured in numerous film and television soundtracks, as well as a commercial for Dell Computers. He then entered into a remarkably productive period, issuing four albums between 2007 and 2013, including the pop-driven Top 20 album Ripe (2007), featuring contributions by American Top 40 acts like Mandy Moore and Benji Madden of Good Charlotte, and the concept album Deeper Into Dream (2011). In 2015, Lee released his tenth album, Love is the Great Rebellion, which reached No. 71 on the Australian charts.