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{{Infobox musical artist | Name = Breaking Benjamin| Img = Artist-99101986-1650433.jpg| Img_capt = Breaking Benjamin promo photo| Img_size = | Background = group_or_band| Alias =| Origin = Pennsylvania, United States| Genre = Alternative metal
Alternative rock
Post-grunge ]| Associated_acts =| URL = Official Site| Current_members =
Benjamin Burnley - Vocals, Guitar
Aaron Fink -
Guitar Mark Klepaski - Bass Guitar
Chad Szeliga - Drums - Drums
Jonathan Price - Bass
[BC Vaught - Drums
Kevin Soffera - Drums-->
Breaking Benjamin is an alternative metal band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Band History
Early years
Formed in 1998 by vocalist
Benjamin Burnley and drummer
Jeremy Hummel, Breaking Benjamin quickly garnered a strong local following. The name "Breaking Benjamin" comes from Benjamin Burnley's early solo experience. Burnley was covering a Nirvana song during an open-mic night at a club when he dropped the microphone to the ground, breaking it. The person who owned the microphone came on stage and said, 'Thanks to Benjamin for breaking my fucking mic.' In 1999, the band briefly renamed themselves "Plan 9." In late 2000, after various line-up changes, the band changed its name back to "Breaking Benjamin" and two friends of Burnley,
Aaron Fink and
Mark Klepaski, left their previous band, Lifer, and joined the ranks of Breaking Benjamin as guitarist and bassist, respectively. Lifer was a band that gained brief mainstream attention because of their part in an
MTV cover band contest that resulted in a record deal with Universal Records.
Saturate
The band signed to Hollywood Records in 2001 after the success of an independently-released,
Breaking Benjamin EP, which sold all 2,000 copies that were manufactured. Hollywood Records released their full-length, major-label debut,
Saturate (album), on August 27, 2002. The album's first single, "Polyamorous", received a fair amount of radio play, although it failed to reach mainstream audiences. A video was released in two different versions for Polyamorous: one that had all live-action footage, and one that had footage of the video game
Run Like Hell. The following single "Skin" was also released from
Saturate, although it fared worse than "Polyamorous" and received even less airplay."Skin" was also performed live on the
Jimmy Kimmel Live show. "Medicate" was also released as a single, to little commercial success and airplay. Saturate has gone on to sell over 300,000 copies.
We Are Not Alone
Breaking Benjamin released their second album,
We Are Not Alone (album), on June 29,
2004. The album featured the lead off single "So Cold", which reached number two on the
Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The band had two music videos made for the song, one of which was a promotional video made for the movie
Hellboy. The commercial success of "So Cold" led to
We Are Not Alone achieving platinum status in late 2005. Also released as singles from the album were "Sooner or Later" and a re- recorded version of "Rain", which was featured on later pressings of the album. While the former again got the band as high as number two on the Mainstream Rock chart and featured a music video, the latter garnered little radio play and had no video created for it. Another song off of "We Are Not Alone", "Sooner or Later", had a video created for it and got a fair amount of radio play. Later in 2004, the band released the
So Cold EP. The EP contained live recordings of
We Are Not Alone (album) "So Cold" (an acoustic recording), "Breakdown", and "Away", as well as studio recordings of "Blow Me Away", a song that was featured in Bungie Studios's video game Halo 2, and "Lady Bug", an early fan favorite of the band's.
In September of 2004, drummer, and founding member of Breaking Benjamin,
Jeremy Hummel was relieved of his duties in the band. Subsequently, on September 28,
2005, Hummel filed a federal lawsuit against the remaining members of Breaking Benjamin, as well as its management, claiming he was not paid for songs he helped write. Hummel's lawsuit asked for more than $8 million in damages. A message was released
October 25, 2006 on the band's official website stating that the band and Hummel had come to agreement on the lawsuit.
Phobia
In the fall of 2006 the band began a tour opening for Godsmack for the IV tour, hitting up mostly eastern and Ohio Valley venues, and soon moving out west, still in support of the Phobia album. Several of the shows had been canceled, or turned into Breaking Benjamin headliners due to scheduling conflicts. Many of Breaking Benjamin's tour dates from December 3rd have been rescheduled due to illness in the band's ranks. All dates were rescheduled as the band announced another headlining leg before going on a nationwide tour with
Three Days Grace and Nickelback.
On March 4, 2007, HDNet premiered a one-hour show of the Breaking Benjamin concert in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at
Stabler Arena. This is also the concert that was included on the Phobia re-release DVD in April of 2007, advertised as "The Homecoming". Footage of the band's live Stabler Arena performance of "Breath" comprises the song's music video.
On April 17, 2007, Breaking Benjamin re-released the album
Phobia (album). The album featured a DVD with about an hour of their Stabler Arena concert footage.
The band recently obtained their first number 1 billboard single with "Breath".
They are currently touring in the United States with
Three Days Grace,
Seether,
Skillet (band), Red (band) and Puddle of Mudd.
On June 29, 2007, the band appeared on
The Tonight Show and they performed "Breath". On July 6, 2007, the band performed "Breath" again on
The Late Late Show.
The band did not perform as scheduled on July 9, 2007 at the Tabernacle in
Atlanta due to an illness that Ben had. Angry fans reportedly threw refreshments at the road crew, hitting one in the head with a full water bottle. No injuries, however, were reported.
Two other concerts wrapping up their tour (in Myrtle Beach, SC on July 10 and Greensboro, NC on July 11) were canceled as well. On their website, they announced that Burnley was ill and unable to perform in Atlanta and at the two remaining shows. Rumors that the band was breaking up turned out to be false, as the band announced a 36-date fall 2007 tour with Three Days Grace,
Seether,
Skillet (band) (first half) and
Red (band) (second half).
On July 11, 2007 Ben made this announcement on the band's website:
{{cquote|What’s up guys? Just wanted to fill you in on what’s going on. I regrettably had to postpone some shows, because I’m not feeling well and haven’t felt 100% since November when I left the Godsmack tour four days early. I’m a private person, and I would like to keep my personal health to myself but I wanted to go on the record and tell everyone that this is nothing drug or alcohol related. As a matter a fact I have been completely clean and sober for 7 months. I’m working on seeing the best doctors and exploring every avenue possible to fixing this. In the meantime I’d like to say, that I appreciate the support and understanding of all Breaking Benjamin fans. You all mean the world to me. It kills me inside to have to let my fans down. But please understand that I did not choose to get sick. I’m working tirelessly to getting to the bottom of this so I can do what God put me on this earth to do.
P.S. As of yet plans have not changed for future tours nor am I aware of any plans of Breaking Benjamin breaking up.
Thank you for your understanding. I hope that we can make it up to those that we missed on this recent tour.
Much love,Ben-->
Opposed to returning to the towns where the band postponed shows, no dates in any of the states of the canceled shows have been posted.
On July 10, 2007 the band posted their newest single "Until the End (song)" on their Myspace page.
Albums
- Saturate (album) (2002)
- We Are Not Alone (album) (2004)
- Phobia (album) (2006)
EPs
- Breaking Benjamin EP (2001)
- Breaking Benjamin Live EP (2004)
- So Cold (2004)
Singles
{| class="wikitable"|rowspan="2"|
Year|rowspan="2"|
Title|colspan="5"|
Chart positions|rowspan="2"|
Album|-|US Billboard Hot 100|US
Mainstream Rock Tracks chart|US
Modern Rock Tracks chart|US Pop 100|-| 2002| "Polyamorous"| -| #19| #31| -| -|
[Saturate (album)|-| 2003| "Skin"| -| #24| #37| -| -|
Saturate|-|2003| "Medicate"| -| #28| #44| -| -|
Saturate|-| 2004| "
So Cold"]|-| 2005| "Sooner or Later"| #99| #2| #7| -| -|
We Are Not Alone|-| 2005|"Rain" (2005)| -| #23| #39| -| -|
We Are Not Alone|-| 2006| "The Diary of Jane"]
|-| 2007| "Breath (Breaking Benjamin song)"| #84|
#1| #3| -| -|
Phobia|-| 2007| "Until the End (song)"| -| #35| -| -| -|
Phobia|}
Trivia
- According to the band, the Breaking Benjamin logo, a Celtic knot, was found in a tattoo book.
- During live shows, the band has been known to frequently cover Godsmack, Nirvana (band), Tool (band), and on more recent tours Deftones, and Nine Inch Nails songs.
- The first single from the band's second release We Are Not Alone, "So Cold", spent 37 weeks in the top 20 of the Billboard magazine charts (as of February 3, 2005).
- Breaking Benjamin had written 2 other songs before they were finally combined to become So Cold. The first was Inertia, then Always. Both were never released, but have been played live.
- Aaron Fink pointed out that his father joined the band on tour, and that his fathers music collection is what originally sparked his interest in music. Gary Fincke is a professor at Susquehanna University and wrote Amp'd: A Father's Backstage Pass about his travels with the band.
- The band created an original cut for the immensely popular video game Halo 2 entitled "Blow Me Away", which can be heard on the So Cold EP & the Halo 2 Original Soundtrack: Volume One. The band frequently plays "Blow me Away" at their live shows.
- Breaking Benjamin contributed a cover version of Queen (band) "Who Wants to Live Forever" to Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen.
- The band never travels outside of the U.S. and Canada due to Ben Burnley's fear of flying (though he said he would love to play outside the States and will go as far as a boat will take him). This is referenced in the song "Break My Fall" off of 2004's, "We Are Not Alone".
- At live performances, Breaking Benjamin often plays a brief sound clip of the Wicked Witch of the West prior to playing Home, which has its lyrics largely influenced by The Wizard of Oz (1939 film).
- Singer Ben Burnley says he taught himself to play guitar by listening to Nirvana (band)'s Nevermind.
- The band was planning on releasing a studio version of their cover of "Enjoy the Silence" along with "Ladybug" on the European version of Saturate (album). However, the European version was never released.
External links
- The Shallow Bay - Official Site
Breaking Benjamin
Breaking Benjamin. In late 2000, guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark James Klepaski made a surprising and unexpected decision: they left Lifer, an alternative metal band Breaking ...
Hollywood Records - Breaking Benjamin
Official site. Offers audio, video, tour information, newsletter, and message board.
Breaking Benjamin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Breaking Benjamin is an alternative metal band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
MySpace.com - BREAKING BENJAMIN - WILKES-BARRE - Rock / Alternative ...
MySpace music profile for BREAKING BENJAMIN with tour dates, songs, videos, pictures, blogs, band information, downloads and more
Hollywood Records: Breaking Benjamin - So Cold
Hollywood Records: Breaking Benjamin - So Cold - 5 min - Jun 29, 2004 Hollywood Records, Raw Entertainment - www.breakingbenjamin.com () Rate: A condemned man is led through a ...
Hollywood Records - Breaking Benjamin
shallowbay.com
Official Breaking Benjamin Website ... What up, Benheads?! You gotta hear this: Patrick Droney is a young guitar virtuoso.
Breaking Benjamin
As I burn another page, As I look the other way, I still try to find my place in the Diary of Jane"
BB
Breaking Benjamin on purevolume™
PureVolume is the place for rising artists to host their mp3s and get exposure. We showcase unsigned artists, independent labels, and major label artists. Visitors can download ...