Ben is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and mixing engineer with a career spanning over two decades. Throughout his musical journey, he has penned thousands of songs, produced numerous albums, and collaborated with musicians from all over the world. From 2009 to 2015, Ben devoted most of his creative energy to leading the rock band, Benhur, which gained critical acclaim for their 2013 album, "Between Flower and Hive." The album earned them several accolades, including the "Best new Toronto Indie band" award, widespread radio play (particularly for their track "Lay Me Down"), and extensive tours across multiple regions.
In 2016, Ben started to shift his focus away from live performance and towards studio work. He began producing music for other bands, music libraries, and film ("Superman 4: Pride of Lions") and other projects, including commercials for the Toronto Exhibition ("Let's Go to the Ex" campaign). From 2019 to 2022, Ben released three full-length albums that he recorded entirely in his home studio. This experience helped him refine his skills and develop an even deeper passion for the process of crafting a song from a mere idea to a fully-realized masterpiece within the comfort of his own personal space.
Choose
You can browse my musical works in two different ways:
ALBUMS
You might think that albums usually contain songs that centre around a single theme or a cluster of related themes. That would make sense, right? But it’s not how it works. Not for me, anyway. In my experience, albums usually contain songs that happen to have been written and/or produced around the same period of time, are in the same genre, and were produced in a similar manner (e.g. by focusing on guitars or piano, usually recorded in the same studio, etc.)
This means that it’s possible for one song in an album to be about a breakup while another song could be about something else entirely. My albums capture snapshots of periods in my life and if that’s the case then it would make sense that in a span of several months or years of writing, recording, and releasing an album songs would be written about a variety of topics. These albums, therefore, are a type of diary.
THEMES
Why group songs by theme? There’s a few reasons for this. First, some tracks don’t belong in an album because they’re singles or demos.
Second, this sort of grouping may be particularly useful to scouts that license music for film and television. They don’t always care about when a song was written or about an entire album per se. They are usually seeking a single song with a particular sound and theme.
Finally, it’s interesting this way. At least to me. I am learning a lot from comparing songs I’ve written on the same topic at different times in my life. Maybe that would be interesting to you too.
