Ben Lee
wake up. wake up. wake up. this is an album about waking up.
you go to bed one night feeling that you’ve come to a dead end, that everything has been said and done, that there is no magic in the world…but the next morning you wake up - and everything’s changed. i’ve been making records for twelve years. i started recording on a boom box in my teenage bedroom and haven’t looked back since. i’ve had a few moments of glory, some moments of apparent hopelessness, and lots of time to realize that for some strange reason i just cant stop doing this thing called writing songs. but my relationship to music is changing too. i used to be fighting the world — trying to prove something to someone (though i can’t for the life of me remember what i had to prove, and to whom). but all of that has faded. music is joy now, and i’m looking for a different experience. connection. flow. faith.
music. i love music. music is my path to waking up. what am i waking up from?
was i really asleep? for how long? and what am i meant to do now? these are the
questions that brought the songs on this album to life. i think i’m waking up
into consciousness. from numbness to feeling. from dark to light. from the known
into the unknown. i feel something big approaching. it’s on the horizon. there’s
so little time. i’m not gonna waste it on whining and fighting ghosts. i wanna
feel connected and alive. i want the music i make to be a celebration, a prayer,
an invitation.
these songs came quickly. i just tried to get out of their way. they are still
teaching me lots of things, months after they were written and recorded. i’m
glad to have been a part of this experience. the music is inviting me on strange
adventures. it’s asking me to dance. it wants to tell me all about how lucky i
am to be at the feet of this awesome mystery called life.
maybe some of you want to come along. i hope so. maybe there are others out
there who can feel their hearts being opened wider and wider by some invisible
force that is as seductive as it is terrifying. maybe i’m not the only one who
wants to wake up. if so, here is the only path i know. music.
- ben lee (Jan 2005)
Awake Is The New Sleep is Ben Lee’s definitive album to date. It reunites him
with producer Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins) and was recorded in
Brad’s home studio in Los Angeles. Along with Ben, the primary players were long
time partner-in-crime Lara Meyerratken and guitar whiz McGowan Southworth.
Special guests included Jason Schwartzman, Har Mar Superstar, Rilo Kiley’s Jenny
Lewis and Jason Faulkner.
Ben Lee was born 26 years ago in Sydney, Australia. His mum remembers him
spending most of his childhood sitting on the floor with a turntable, playing
Rumours (Fleetwood Mac), Avalon (Roxy Music) and the Jack And The Beanstalk
soundtrack over and over and over. Ben’s musical coming out was at the age of 14
with a poppy, punk rock band called Noise Addict, circa 1993. "Discovered" by
heavy hipsters Sonic Youth and The Beastie Boys the group’s profile rose
quickly. As Ben describes it, "It was the perfect teenage rock thing." But
clearly more ambitious than his band-mates, it wasn’t long before Ben began
concentrating on a solo career.
His first album, Grandpaw Would was produced by Brad Wood and released in 1994
on the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal label, except in Ben’s native Australia where
it was released on Fellaheen. Much touring ensued (and continues to this day)
with an illustrious and varied number of staunch supporters - Ben Harper, Jack
Johnson, Rufus Wainwright and Fugazi among many others. A second album,
Something To Remember Me By (’97), was a mostly acoustic affair that accentuated
Ben’s salient writing ability. With ’99’s Breathing Tornados, Ben was first
heard in full-flower: potent songs with electronic riffs and catchy choruses
(and a platinum album in Australia). The adventurous, beats-heavy hey you. yes
you was produced by Dan The Automator and was released in 2003. Never one to sit
still, Ben’s many tangents include duets with Kylie Minogue; writing key songs
for Evan Dando’s 2003 album, Baby I’m Bored; a collaboration with Ben Kweller
and Ben Folds under the name ‘The Bens’ which begat both live shows and a
stunning 4-song E.P.; establishing his own label imprint, Ten Fingers, for not
only his own projects but work by others such as Montreal’s beloved pop combo
Pony Up!; and, in 2003, Ben made his feature film debut in the title role of
Placid Lake in the Australian comedy, The Rage In Placid Lake, alongside Rose
Byrne and Miranda Richardson.
Ben Lee has been a mainstay on alternative rock airwaves; it’s hard to believe
the Australian singer/songwriter is still only 26. For album number six he comes
full circle on a decade of recordings, working with producer Brad Wood (Liz
Phair, Smashing Pumpkins) who spearheaded the sound of Lee’s debut record
Grandpaw Would in 1995. Awake… follows a comparable blueprint of 2002’s Hey You
Yes You: uncomplicated, unassuming, no-gloss pop songs. But there is evidence of
a newfangled wisdom in Lee and his sketches of songwriting dexterity, which
include the distinctive pop-rocker ("Catch My Disease"), the persuasive ballad
("Get Gotten"), the adoring folk number ("The Debt Collectors") and an
indulgently experimental nine-and-a-half minute opus ("Light"). Code one could
be the riff-fully sanguine opener ("Whatever It Is") in which the author
proposes we chase our instincts, then verifies on the ensuing 13 songs that he
does just that. "They might tell you that you shouldn’t," sings Lee, "But do it.
Whatever it is." –Scott Holter
