No More

Kid Stuff

Australian
singer-songwriter
Ben Lee has
grown up.
He'll prove it
as he joins a
stellar lineup
of musical
performers at
Woodstock '99.

DAVID PEISNER
Special to the Jewish. News

A

t first, Ben Lee was little
more than a curiosity.
He was the 13-year-old
lead singer and guitarist for
the remarkably decent Australian pop
trio Noise Addict when he first floated
on to college radio stations and into
the pages of popular music magazines.
An early recording attracted the
attention of the Beastie Boys, who
signed Lee — independent of his
band — to their record label, Grand
Royal, in 1994.
Then, at 15, while most of his
friends back in Australia were starting
10th grade, Lee released his first solo
album, Grandpaw Would. The album
raised his profile considerably, but
with it came a price.
Whether in articles, on the radio or

David Peisner is an Atlanta-based

freelance music writer.

in casual conversation, every time Lee's
"Every Woodstock festival has
helped elevate the careers of young,
name was mentioned, his age fol-
lowed. Unlike most teenagers, who'd
hot artists," says Woodstock producer
happily lap up that sort of attention
John Scher. "In '69, Santana, Crosby
without a second thought, Lee recog-
Stills & Nash, Joe Cocker, and Sly and
nized early on the impending pitfalls
The Family Stone gained exposure by
playing Woodstock. The '94 festival
of being known as a "teenage song-
writer." Because whether he liked it or
helped boost the careers of artists like
not, he was going to get older.
Sheryl Crow, Green Day and Nine
"I never rested on my age or any
Inch Nails. Now, the Emerging Artist
kind of gimmick," says Lee, now 20,
Stage will allow Woodstock '99 to
carry that tradition in the future."
calling from the loft in New York City
he currently calls home. "I didn't look
Lee's future began in Sydney,
at myself that way. I never looked at
where he spent the first 13 years of
his life the way most
what I was doing with
Australian kids do —
anything but the utmost
Above: Ben L ee: "I've had
"surfing, skateboarding
of importance. I never
faith in what I do and
and jumping off big
belittled the crowd, which people have fe d off that."
rocks into the ocean —
is what novelty people do.
all the usual things," he recalls.
I've had faith in what I do and people
Even his childhood obsessions —
have fed off that.
reading, writing and music — hardly
His steadily growing number of
marked him as out of the ordinary.
fans will be able to catch a landmark
But with two sisters, both several
Lee performance today, when he per-
years older than he, Lee was forced to
forms on the Emerging Artist Stage at
grow up pretty quickly at home, a
Woodstock '99 in Rome, N.Y.

"

fact that may help explain his early
development as a songwriter.
"They were at university when I
was at preschool, so the dinner
table conversations were always
intellectually challenging," he says.
"My family are all kind of cerebral
people. They're not really creative
types, but they're good people."
Lee's family is part of a large
Jewish community in Sydney, and
although he points out that they
weren't particularly observant, he
grew up quite aware of his heritage.
"We do certain things, but it was-
n't a religious family," Lee says in ref-
erence to his family's Jewish tradi-
tions. "That's always a hard question
to answer because it's all relative."
Lee's family life, while fairly stable
and seemingly normal, would have a
profound effect on him as he began
writing songs though. "I find a lot of
the themes that were important to
my family creeping through, in the
No MORE KID STUFF on page 87

7/23
1999

Detroit Jewish News

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