Ben Kweller biography
Ben Kweller (born June 16, 1981, San Francisco, California) is an American singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Biography
Early life
Ben Kweller was born in San Francisco, CA in 1981. In 1982 his family relocated to Emory, TX where his father Howard Kweller became the town's first doctor. In 1986, The Kwellers moved to a much larger city, Greenville, TX,. Ben was exposed to music at a very early age. Howard taught Ben how to play the drums when he was 7 years old. For the next year, the father and son would jam together almost every night after Howard got home from work. With Howard singing and playing guitar and Ben keeping the beat, the duo would play songs by The Beatles, The Hollies, Jimi Hendrix, and other artists of the 1960s. Howard is also a long-time friend of Nils Lofgren, who he went to high school with and who lived up the road from the Kwellers . Ben has mentioned in interviews that this acquaintance greatly helped his exposure to music at that early age. When Ben turned 8, someone showed him how to play "Heart And Soul" on the piano. The youngster immediately began to create his own songs using the same chords. He still uses the same techniques to write his songs today. By the time he was 9 he had a dozen original compositions under his belt and entered a songwriting contest sponsored by Billboard magazine. Kweller won honorable mention.
Radish (1993-1999)
In 1993 Kweller became friends with another young local musician, drummer John Kent, and the two formed the band Radish with bassist Ryan Green. The trio played locally in and around Greenville and recorded two independent releases,
Hello (1994) and
Dizzy (1995), with Martin Baird at Verge Music Works recording studio in Dallas, Texas. Around the time of
Dizzy's release, Ryan Green decided to leave the band and focus his attention on school. Lorin Hamilton filled in for a few months until Bryan Bradford AKA Bryan Blur joined on for most of the band's career.
Ben sent a copy of
Dizzy to Guitarist Nils Lofgren who grew up with Ben's dad in Maryland. Nils was impressed with Radish and recommended them to Roger Greenawalt who was producing Lofgren's album at the time,
Damaged Goods. Greenawalt took Radish into a studio where they recorded a demo tape which was subsequently shopped around to record labels nationwide, After an unexpected bidding war, Radish eventually signed to Mercury Records to release the album Restraining Bolt.
Radish made appearances on
The Weird Al Show,
Late Night with Conan O'Brien and
Late Show with David Letterman, but despite the much-hyped signing, the band failed to strike big success.
Radish earned a large cult following in the United Kingdom with their top 40 hit "Little Pink Stars". The band toured several times in Europe including opening slots for Faith No More and Main Stage at Reading Festival '97. Radish released two singles.
In 1998 Radish became a quartet featuring Joe Butcher (Polyphonic Spree, UFOFU) on lead guitar and Debbie Williams on bass. Radish went to Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama to record the follow-up to
Restraining Bolt, provisionally titled
Discount Fireworks. The band recorded with producer Bryce Goggin (Pavement, The Lemonheads). While mixing
Discount Fireworks in NYC Kweller and Kent met bassist Josh Lattanzi who would become Radish's 5th and final bass player. As a result of Polygram's merger with Universal Music Group, the 18-song album was never released and Radish soon secured a release from their contract with Mercury Records.
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