Benjamin Bridwell (born April 25, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. He is best known as the lead singer of the American rock band

Band of Horses Band of Horses is an American rock band formed in 2004 in Seattle, Washington. Led by singer-songwriter Ben Bridwell, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes, the band's current line-up also includ ...

and a former member of the band

Carissa's Wierd Carissa's Wierd was an American indie rock band based in Seattle that formed in 1995 and disbanded in late 2003. Their sound has been described as "chamber rock".Irmo, South Carolina.Tom Scanlo
"Bridwell breaks out with Band of Horses"
''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington (s ...

'' - March 18, 2005 He left home at age 16 and moved to

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

to live with his mother.

Carissa's Wierd

While living in Tucson, Bridwell worked with

Mat Brooke Mathew Etter Brooke is an American musician, best known as the lead singer of American rock band Grand Archives and a former member of the bands Band of Horses and Carissa's Wierd. Early life In the mid 1990s, Brooke worked selling pizza in Tucso ...

and

Jenn Champion Jenn Champion, formerly known as Jenn Ghetto, is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who performs under the name #S, S. She was a member of the now defunct band Carissa's Wierd. Early life Champion grew up in Tucson, Arizona where, in the ...

, selling pizza. In 1997 the three moved to

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

, but soon relocated to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, where all three worked in a bar. Bridwell founded a record label,

Brown Records Benjamin Bridwell (born April 25, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. He is best known as the lead singer of the American rock band Band of Horses and a former member of the band Carissa's Wierd. Early life Bri ...

, while Brooke and Champion formed the band Carissa's Wierd. Bridwell later received some basic drumming tuition from Brooke and subsequently replaced Carissa's Wierd drummer Robin Peringer, who left to play guitar on tour with

Modest Mouse Modest Mouse is an American rock band formed in 1992 in Issaquah, Washington, and currently based in Portland, Oregon. The founding members are lead singer/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. Strongly influenced ...

. Bridwell later moved on to bass guitar. Brown Records released the first two Carissa's Wierd albums, but Bridwell eventually gave up running the label and Carissa's Wierd released their third album on Sad Robot records, before splitting up in 2003.Stephen Seigel
"Better Late Than Never"
''

Tucson Weekly The ''Tucson Weekly'' is an alternative newsweekly that was founded in 1984 by Douglas Biggers and Mark Goehring, and serves the Tucson, Arizona, metropolitan area of about 1,000,000 residents. The paper is a member of the Association of Altern ...

'' - June 22, 2006 The band reformed for a few shows in 2010 and 2011, but Bridwell took no part in that reunion.

Band of Horses

Following the split of Carissa's Wierd, Brooke helped Bridwell learn to play guitar and he also began writing songs. He formed the band 'Horses' which soon had to change its name to ''Band of'' Horses, following the discovery that a long defunct band called Horses (featuring actor Don Johnson) were issuing re-releases. Band of Horses were briefly a trio featuring Bridwell (vocals and guitar), Tim Meinig (drums) and Chris Early (bass), but former Carissa's Wierd leader Mat Brooke (guitar and vocals) was added to the line up and the quartet released their debut album '' Everything All the Time'' in March 2006. In response to Bridwell's success, Brooke said, " I kind of feel bad, maybe Carissa's Wierd was holding him back, all this time...(I am) extremely proud. He took the ball and ran with it. At a time when we were all down he picked himself up, higher than anyone thought he could. It's kind of like seeing your kid brother blossom." Brooke, Early and Meinig quit soon after ''Everything All the Time'' was released, but Bridwell recruited new musicians and the band's popularity continued to grow. Their second album, '' Cease to Begin'' was released in October 2007. It was recorded by the core trio of Bridwell, Creighton Barrett (drums) and Rob Hampton (guitar and bass), with keyboards by Ryan Monroe. Band of Horses third album, '' Infinite Arms'' was released on May 18, 2010 and was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

in the Best Alternative Album category. For ''Infinite Arms'' the band became a five-piece featuring Bridwell, Barrett, Monroe, Tyler Ramsey (guitar) and Bill Reynolds (bass). That line up has also recorded the band's 4th album, ''

Mirage Rock ''Mirage Rock'' is the fourth studio album by Band of Horses and was released on September 18, 2012 on Columbia Records. Produced by Glyn Johns, the album was preceded by the single, "Knock Knock". While the album was initially met with generally ...

'', which was released on September 18, 2012.

Other projects

Bridwell contributed the track "Your Love Is Forever" a

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

cover, to the album ''Sweetheart'' a compilation album released by Starbucks Entertainment on January 30, 2010. He duetted with

Courtney Jaye Courtney Jaye (born February 15, 1978) is an American singer and songwriter. Biography Courtney Jaye Goldberg was born on February 15, 1978, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and moved to Alpharetta, Georgia, when she was a freshman in high school. I ...

on a cover version of The Jesus and Mary Chain track "

Sometimes Always "Sometimes Always" is a song by the Scottish alternative rock group the Jesus and Mary Chain and the first single from the group's album ''Stoned & Dethroned''. Written by William Reid (musician), William Reid, the song is a duet between Jim Rei ...

" on her 2010 album, ''The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye''. Bridwell also appears on "Starting Over", a track on the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' album '' The Heist'' and on the tracks "Opposite" and "Accident Without Emergency" on the Biffy Clyro album ''

Opposites Opposite or Opposites may refer to: * Opposite (semantics), a word that means the reverse of a word * Opposite (leaf), an arrangement of leaves on a stem * Opposite (mathematics), the negative of a number; numbers that, when added, yield zero *" ...

''. He also collaborated with

Iron & Wine Samuel "Sam" Ervin Beam (born July 26, 1974), better known by his stage name Iron & Wine, is an American singer-songwriter. He has released six studio albums, several EPs and singles, as well as a few download-only releases, which include a ...

on a cover album called '' Sing into My Mouth'', which was released on July 17, 2015. In 2017 Bridwell contributed two tracks ("Unlikely Force" and "Tara") to the super-group project BNQT's first album, ''

Volume 1 Volume One, Volume 1, Volume I or Vol. 1 may refer to: Albums * ''Volume One'' (The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band album), 1966 * ''Volume One'' (Sleep album) * ''Volume One'' (Fluff album) * ''Volume One'' (She & Him album), 2008 * ''Volum ...

'' released April 28.

Brown Records

Band of Horses third album, '' Infinite Arms'', was released on Bridwell's previously defunct Brown Records label (along with Columbia and

Fat Possum In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple e ...

). Bridwell explained his original intentions for his label, "I really started it with the idea of it being a stepping stone. I would press a thousand CDs, we'd get 'em in stores...get in a local independent radio station and the band would have something to sell at shows and then hopefully a real label would pick it up. It got a lot busier than I ever imagined...in the end it just went out of control...I never expected it to be a real label. I'm re-pressing thousands and... 'Shit, I'm...gonna have to do this correctly, people's livelihoods (are) resting in my hands.'...I ended up cracking under the pressure, especially just getting those bands on a real label...That's always been my calling, spreading the bands I liked that people hadn't heard." With reference to the label's relaunch he added, "Now I've just heard that call again...a lot of artists are unheard that I think I can try to help with."

Personal life

Bridwell married Elizabeth Rae McCann on April 4, 2009. They have four daughters, Annabelle, who was born in 2008"Our new +1"
''

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

blog'' - June 12, 2008 Ivy, who was born in November 2010, Birdie who was born in September 2014 and Georgia who was born in 2015.

References

External links

Band of Horses official siteBrown Records
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bridwell, Ben American rock singers 1978 births Singers from South Carolina Singers from Washington (state) Living people Band of Horses members People from Irmo, South Carolina Carissa's Wierd members 21st-century American singers 21st-century American male singers BNQT members