Rogue Element to tour Australia in August
Author: events@tranzfusion
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Born in Portsmouth in 1979, Ben found himself drawn to music very early on, although this manifested itself only in an interest sufficient enough to maintain lessons in various instruments through his childhood until he eventually decided on the drums. His mid teens saw him becoming inspired by a wide spectrum of artists including Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, Rage Against the Machine, Deftones and Incubus as well as forming a healthy appreciation for disposable pop music.
Against this backdrop he formed the rock band 'Blindside' along with childhood friend Martin Dawson, who would eventually become the widely respected electro house DJ and producer King Roc. Also within the same local group of friends was another future successful electro artist, Tom Neville, and hard dance kingpin Nick Sentience.
After completing a degree at the University of Kent, a period mostly spent playing live drums at local drum and bass parties, Ben moved to London into a house with Tom Neville and future Rogue Element collaborator Tom Real. This coincided with a year spent trying to break into the world of session drumming, during which Ben (through the kind loan of Tom Neville's studio when not in use!) learnt the basics of sound engineering.
Three years in a day job ensued, the evenings spent writing music and honing his skills, culminating in the first few releases in the Rogue Element's career on Beautiful Records, including the tech-funk stomper 'Funky Dirt'. This pattern continued until in 2003 the decision was made to attempt the jump to making a career of music with a master's degree in audio production. Also around this time collaborations with close friend Tom Real started up, released on the West Country breaks imprint Functional Breaks through Tom's old Exeter university connections.
In February 2006 The Rogue Element was awarded the coveted Best Breakthrough Producer award at the International Breakbeat Awards at Fabric, beating off stiff competition from Dopamine, Control-Z, NAPT, and Metric. His album 'Rogue Rock' on Exceptional Records was nominated for Best Album, losing out to Atomic Hooligan's 'You Are Here'.
2006 has already started well with remixes for heavyweights such as Santos, Soul of Man, and Stanton Warriors. In addition to producing, DJing and remixing, Ben writes musical scores for TV and film.
His Australian tour dates are:
Wed 2nd Aug - Zen Sound Lounge, Jindabyne
Fri 4th Aug - Break Inn @ Chinese Laundry, Sydney
Sat 5th Aug - Major Break @ Ambar, Perth
Fri 11th Aug - Baja, Coolangatta
Sat 12th Aug - Empire Hotel, Brisbane
Then he heads to NZ:
Thurs 17th Aug - Sandwiches, Wellington
Fri 18th Aug - Fubar, Auckland
Sat 19th Aug - Base, Christchurch Tags