BenBen is the first solo project of leprechaun-esque producer, singer, animator, museum exhibition designer and filmmaker Ben Wigler. A 21st century magical art rock gnome, BenBen has laid down vocals, production, and songwriting both in the studio and live for artists as diverse as Samantha Crain, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, and Gustav Ejstes, the legendary leader of Swedish psychedelic dream band Dungen. 

 

BenBen is best known for an unforgettably sweet, androgynous and hyper-expressive counter tenor voice. On recording, this voice forms clouds of harmonies that sound like the genetic fusion of Thom Yorke, Freddy Mercury and Dangerous-era Michael Jackson. Live, BenBen’s voice takes on a distinctly more ferocious and focused quality that seems to answer the challenge of a famous grunge lyric: “no one sings like you anymore.”

 

BenBen’s songs are anchored by infectious, deeply striking melodic hooks, grounded by angular riffs that brings the music over the line firmly into the camp of rock, but played with Celtic-tinged finesse that underlines a feeling of folk magic. Upon a foundation of genuine rock, BenBen’s gossamer production style is somewhat ridiculously over-decorated out of love for tiny sonic and melodic details that transmit to the listener a deep feeling of musical animism. 

 

Aesthetically and spiritually, BenBen’s musical projects are more inspired by Studio Ghibli and classic JRPGs than they are by any musical contemporaries. While hyper-inspired, BenBen’s music has long been unconnected in any way shape or form to a local or international music scene, and so exists as a rarified example of exquisitely crafted outsider art. 

 

In 2022, BenBen returned from a long musical hiatus spent getting an MFA and learning the craft of museum administration in service of legendary Brooklyn DIY history museum The City Reliquary. A singular voice in the field of art rock with a huge back catalog to explore, BenBen is excited to ride a huge tide of new music on the horizon.

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