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Really, what’s the point of bringing up the past? Yes, Ben Lee is Australian. Yes, he started making records when he was 13 in a band called Noise Addict, whose palpable rock goodness was aptly recognized by 3 high-profile hip-hop artists from New York with an LA-based record label, etcetera…

But fast-forward 20 years or so, and Ben Lee is still making records. In fact, clearly a creative departure and perhaps Ben’s most ambitious work to date, his latest, eighth full-length album under his own name, Deeper Into Dream, will be released in October by Lojinx in Europe, Dangerbird in the US and Dew Process in Australia.

Harnessing the theme of dream work, the heady is still somehow handled with particular grace - Ben encapsulates by saying, “This album is about dreams, and like a dream, it bubbled up mysteriously from my unconscious. I’m listening to it wondering what it is, and why it came, what it has to tell me.”

What comes across the transom is far from a cold study, but rather a new wisdom shared by an old friend - Ben’s own personal journey set to music. So, it makes sense that the album is interspersed with recorded accounts of dreams from a number of house visitors over a 3-month period, which make up the 3 “dream collages” you’ll hear on Deeper Into Dream, along with 10 brilliant and diverse new songs.

"I feel I spent the bulk of my 20s chasing "alternative hits," an elusive and frustrating endeavor, so I decided to dump all of those goals and make a totally personal record at my home studio in Laurel Canyon."

In many ways, the new album is the product of 3 years Ben spent in dream analysis with respected therapist Jan Lloyd, who suffered a sudden stroke and died last August. Ben says of Lloyd, "He opened me up to the idea that the most profound journey is the one inside your own mind."

The new record is Ben’s first self-produced album, along with long term collaborators Lara Meyerratken, Nic Johns and Petra Haden, Ben wrote and recorded with the main goal being a sense of atmosphere, well reinforced by his choice of Noah Georgeson, (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, The Strokes) to mix Deeper Into Dream.

But, even with all this talk about dreams, Ben has miles to go before he sleeps. A prolific music-maker, he is currently the band leader for the Tom Hanks-produced, 3 Minute Talk Show with Barry Sobel, producer and co-writer for Tim Myers, Mozella, Appleonia and The Silver Lake Chorus, an LA-based singing collective for whom Bon Iver, Beck, Sia, Kevin from Of Montreal and others have written original songs, and he co-produced comedian Margaret Cho’s Grammy nominated album, Cho Dependent (2010).

What’s more, a documentary about Ben, Catch My Disease, premiered at the Melbourne Film Festival on August 5th. Shot over the past 8 years, the film is directed by Amiel Courtin-Wilson and it features interviews with Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Mike D, Claire Danes, Winona Ryder, Michelle Williams and more.

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