Ben Lee had barely cracked the puberty code when he fronted renowned Aussie alt-rock combo Noise Addict, and as a well-weathered 16-year-old, he began his debut solo album, the mature yet still naive Grandpaw Would. Lee’s third album, Breathing Tornados, garnered best male artist and album of the year nominations in Australia. After 2002’s big-selling hey you. yes you., Lee started his own label and released the most upbeat album in his increasingly dark catalog, 2005’s Awake Is The New Sleep, requiring him to compose acceptance speeches for best male artist, best independent release and single of the year wins at home. Lee’s impressive string of successes continued with 2007’s Ripe, but the streak stopped with 2009’s The Rebirth Of Venus. The quasi-concept album of Lee’s ruminations on women was almost universally derided as half-baked philosophical twaddle set to a weirdly diverse pop soundtrack. Simultaneously, he was also examining the inherent power of dreams with Dr. Jan Lloyd, whose death last year inspired Lee to again brave the concept-album waters with Deeper Into Dream (Dangerbird), a loosely threaded set about the mind movies our brains script, direct and discard every single night. Lee will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Lee: Barry Sobel is a great comedian who I’ve known for a long time. Last year he gave me a call and said, “Tom Hanks is producing my 3 Minute Talk Show! I want you to be my Paul Shaffer!” I didn’t really have any idea of what I was getting myself into it, however I said yes. We ended up shooting 15 episodes in three days and had a blast. My job was to come up with five-second ditties to introduce the celeb guests and segments. Oh, and he wanted me to play piano like Paul Shaffer, and it is not an instrument I am a natural at, to say the least. Anyway, it came together in some ramshackle beauty. I have a few proud moments in this series. “Tom Hanks: a nice guy who doesn’t take drugs” and “Cedric The Entertainer: His name kinda makes him sound like a wizard” are two lyrics that I’m not sure I’ll ever top. It’s a pretty fun watch.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Af07r0eqI
