Coolest welcome mat in Laurel Canyon!
My new web series! “DEEP TALK IN THE SHALLOW END: POP CULTURE FROM A CONSCIOUSNESS PERSPECTIVE”. Episode 1 is about the Grammys. Enjoy and share!
PRESS RELEASE: BEN LEE RETURNS TO AUSTRALIA TO LAUNCH HIS NEW ALBUM: “AYAHUASCA: WELCOME TO THE WORK”
Sydney-born, LA-based singer/songwriter and recording artist Ben Lee is no stranger to the art of music-making.
From his first band at 13, Noise Addict, to the multi-ARIA award winning record “Awake is the New Sleep”, Ben Lee
changed the face of contemporary music history in Australia.
As much as he has been drawn to music all his life, Ben has been equally passionate about esoteric science–the
workings of the human mind and spirit. His forthcoming release “Ayahuasca: Welcome to the Work” may be Lee’s
most willful, creative and honest work yet.
Things shifted in the way Ben approached writing in 2003 when he met with an Indian avatar – a spiritually
enlightened master. He’d been living in NYC since ‘99 and went to India, along with the serious possibility of giving
up music. “While there, I met Sakthi Narayani Amma… My spiritual quest really began, and so did my adult music
career,” says Lee. Ben’s next album, “Awake Is the New Sleep” (2005) went Top 10 in Spain, The Netherlands, and
Australia. And Ben’s career has focused in this spiritual direction ever since.
Ayahuasca is a South American vine, known there as the “death vine, or “vine of souls.” In their spiritual practice,
the indigenous people brew the plant into a tea, which they drink ceremoniously as a ritual that has existed for
thousands of years. What ensues is a journey into the depth of the one who’s drunk the tea, illuminating the soul’s
contents, often facilitating a soaring journey of the spirit.
The subtitle of Lee’s album, “Welcome to the Work,” refers to the process of discovering what’s inside, and the
active transformation of turning our darkness into light. That ongoing process of discovery is called “the work.” Co-
created by Lee and Jessica Chapnik Kahn, an Argentinean-Australian actress and musician, Jessica also features as
the female vocals on the record under the guise of Appleonia and will be joining Ben on his Australian tour this April.
While Ben is aware of how volatile the subject matter is, he still maintains a responsibility to be intimately vulnerable
in his art. “I wanted to make music as a gift to the medicine,” Lee underscores,“ in love and gratitude. It’s more
devotional music than anything else, but not easy listening. It’s demanding, experimental music, just as ‘the work’
itself is demanding.”
Check out Ben as he talks about the crowd-funded project here: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/benlee.
Ben felt that donating 100% of the album’s artist royalties to charity was a way of keeping all aspects of the
album’s release in alignment with the healing nature of the medicine itself. An organisation that Ben feels a deep
affinity with around the issue of consciousness-based research is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit research and educational organisation where Lee is donating half of his royalty income
from “Ayahuasca”. The other half will go towards the Amazon conservation team.
Ben will perform in Sydney and Byron Bay this April in celebration of the album release. Tickets on-sale 19
February.
changed the face of contemporary music history in Australia.
As much as he has been drawn to music all his life, Ben has been equally passionate about esoteric science–the
workings of the human mind and spirit. His forthcoming release “Ayahuasca: Welcome to the Work” may be Lee’s
most willful, creative and honest work yet.
Things shifted in the way Ben approached writing in 2003 when he met with an Indian avatar – a spiritually
enlightened master. He’d been living in NYC since ‘99 and went to India, along with the serious possibility of giving
up music. “While there, I met Sakthi Narayani Amma… My spiritual quest really began, and so did my adult music
career,” says Lee. Ben’s next album, “Awake Is the New Sleep” (2005) went Top 10 in Spain, The Netherlands, and
Australia. And Ben’s career has focused in this spiritual direction ever since.
Ayahuasca is a South American vine, known there as the “death vine, or “vine of souls.” In their spiritual practice,
the indigenous people brew the plant into a tea, which they drink ceremoniously as a ritual that has existed for
thousands of years. What ensues is a journey into the depth of the one who’s drunk the tea, illuminating the soul’s
contents, often facilitating a soaring journey of the spirit.
The subtitle of Lee’s album, “Welcome to the Work,” refers to the process of discovering what’s inside, and the
active transformation of turning our darkness into light. That ongoing process of discovery is called “the work.” Co-
created by Lee and Jessica Chapnik Kahn, an Argentinean-Australian actress and musician, Jessica also features as
the female vocals on the record under the guise of Appleonia and will be joining Ben on his Australian tour this April.
While Ben is aware of how volatile the subject matter is, he still maintains a responsibility to be intimately vulnerable
in his art. “I wanted to make music as a gift to the medicine,” Lee underscores,“ in love and gratitude. It’s more
devotional music than anything else, but not easy listening. It’s demanding, experimental music, just as ‘the work’
itself is demanding.”
Check out Ben as he talks about the crowd-funded project here: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/benlee.
Ben felt that donating 100% of the album’s artist royalties to charity was a way of keeping all aspects of the
album’s release in alignment with the healing nature of the medicine itself. An organisation that Ben feels a deep
affinity with around the issue of consciousness-based research is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit research and educational organisation where Lee is donating half of his royalty income
from “Ayahuasca”. The other half will go towards the Amazon conservation team.
Ben will perform in Sydney and Byron Bay this April in celebration of the album release. Tickets on-sale 19
February.
Fri, 5 April - BYRON BAY
Byron Bay Community Centre
w/Darpan and Friends, Appleonia,
Avasa & MattyLove, Nadav
Tickets $35 + bf
on-‐sale 19 February
Buy here:
http://www.spiritfestival.com.au/benlee
Sat, 6 April - BYRON BAY
Byron Bay Community Centre
w/Darpan and Friends, Appleonia,
Avasa & Matty Love, Nadav
Tickets $35 + bf
on-‐sale 19 February
Buy here:
http://www.spiritfestival.com.au/benlee
Thurs, 11 April - SYDNEY
Paddington United Church
w/Darpan and Friends, Appleonia,
Avasa & Matty Love, Nadav
and a talk by Juan Ruiz Naupari
Tickets $35 + bf
on-‐sale 19 February
Buy here:
http://www.myheartspace.com.au/
Ten Ways Feminism Benefits Men!
Editor’s Note: This is reprinted from something Gloria Steinem wrote. Men who declare themselves “feminist” (which only means that they believe in the social, political and economical equality of women) actually can benefit from the inclusion as well….
Here’s a clip of BEN LEE and I listening to a young child covering “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on the recorder and a grown man covering “Big Pimpin’” on the recorder. From the latest episode of THE FOGELNEST FILES which is out now on iTunes, Earwolf and Stitcher!
