Ben Lee news

Singer/songwriter Ben Lee will release his debut album for Warner Bros. Records, Love Is the Great Rebellion, on June 2 in the U.S. It is available for pre-order here: http://smarturl.it/BenLeeLGB. In addition, the first single, "Big Love," is now available from all digital retailers as well as on vinyl on April 18 for Record Store Day.

Love Is The Great Rebellion finds the Sydney, Australia, native making a sonic return to the heyday of his 2005 fan favorite album Awake Is The New Sleep, which went double-platinum in Australia and spawned the hit "Catch My Disease." For the new album, Lee reteamed with Awake's producer Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Veruca Salt), who also produced several of Lee's nine solo albums.

Ben Lee first gained prominence in the US at 14, when his self-recorded single "I Wish I Was Him" with band Noise Addict caught the attention of Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and the Beastie Boys' Mike D. Moore's label issued Noise Addict's 10" vinyl EP, Def in 1993. In 1995, the Beasties' Grand Royal followed with the release of their Young & Jaded EP.

Lee says that the first lines of the album track "Victory" sum up the spirit of the self-reflective Love Is The Great Rebellion. "It is an album about mistakes, about looking at our past errors clearly and soberly," he says. "But is also an album about rectification, about the correction of those mistakes, and the undeniable spring of hope that is available to each of us in the form of fresh starts and new beginnings."

The musician describes the single "Big Love" as his "ukulele techno song." "I went my 10-year-old niece's birthday party and saw all these kid dancing to these upbeat club bangers," he recalls.

 

"I thought it'd be great to take some of that energy, the sensual rush of electronic music, which is something I'd always been interested in, and meld it with something more philosophical and emotional. The song was inspired by the fact that, for so much of my life, I'd looked outside of myself for answers, and the key experience for me before making this album was beginning to have some semblance of understanding that whatever truth there was could be found inside. So 'Big Love' is just a fun tribute to the inspiration that can be found within each of our human hearts."

 

Listen to more of Lee's track-by-track commentary about the songs on Love Is The Great Rebellion here.

In addition to gearing up for the release of the album, Lee has also just self-released A Mix Tape From Ben Lee, which is available for download HERE. Fourteen years in the making, the Mixtape features vocal contributions from Zooey Deschanel, Ben Folds, Azure Ray, Sean Lennon, Neil Finn, and others.

 

The Mixtape recordings are available on a "donate what you want" basis, beginning at $1, with all proceeds going to the Q'Ero Project, which supports the basic needs and development of the Q'ero people of Peru.

Track listing: 

 

Giving Up On Miracles
Goodbye To Yesterday
Forgiveness
Big Love
Happiness
I'm Changing My Mind
The Body Of Love
Everybody Dies
Everything Is OK
Victory
The Universe Inside
Don't Let The Fire Die
God Is A Fire