Ben Lee live and acoustic at SS&A Albury

Ben Lee began his career as a young teenager in the early 90’s, in the Australian lo-fi punk band Noise Addict, who were discovered by taste-making artists Sonic Youth and the Beastie Boys.

From his first acoustic-driven solo album “Grandpaw Would” in 1995 (featuring Liz Phair), Ben’s songs have always attempted to take his most complex and existential romantic yearnings, and compress them into sublimely catchy and melodic pop songs. 

This seemingly paradoxical quest has yielded some wonderful results over the years: “Cigarettes Will Kill You” from 1999’s ‘Breathing Tornados has become a modern Australian classic, while “Hard Drive” and “All My Life” (songs Ben wrote for Evan Dando’s existential comeback album “Baby I’m Bored”) were hailed by Bruce Springsteen as favorites of that year, and Q Magazine who called them "tender reflections on life, love and drug-induced folly set in soulful, country-tinged guitar pop.” But it was 2005’s “Awake is the New Sleep” that saw Ben get the worldwide recognition his songs deserved spawning the alterna-hit “Catch My Disease” that went Top 10 in Spain and the Netherlands and was awarded the “Song of the Year” ARIA award as well as going Double Platinum in Australia. 

This album saw Ben tour all over the world with artists like Aimee Mann, Nickel Creek, Sara Barreilles and Dashboard Confessional. But it was the song “We’re All in this Together” that surely is Ben’s greatest legacy so far as a songwriter, a song that has become an anthem of sorts for a troubled world over the past year, quoted from everyone from politicians, to newspapers, to school children.