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: Appleonia (not to be confused with Prince protégé Appolonia) is the moniker of an Australian musician named Jessica Chapnik. We became friends several years ago, and I’ve been helping her with her debut record. It’s funny. I went into it thinking I would have to do a lot of the heavy lifting, as it was her first record, but she has turned out to be an incredible creative force. In fact, her sensibility is so profound and her aesthetics so refined that she became a voice in my head that I would turn to when making my new album. “What would Appleonia do?” became a guiding question.
Video after the jump.
