Singer/songwriter and recording artist Ben Lee has been obsessed with music and performing since he was a child. No wonder; he comes from a musical family. His great uncle was the official violinist in the Russian court of Czar Nicholas.

As obsessed as he’s been with music all his life, he’s been equally drawn toward esoteric science – the workings of the human mind and spirit. Together, these have informed the core of all his work.

Each of Ben’s records has been an expression of a moment in his life — his current “turning point,” a musical “journal entry.” * This intimate revelation of his experience, growing and evolving as a human being, has garnered Lee a dedicated fan base around the world.

A native of Sydney, Australia, Lee recognized the music bug that was part of his deepest nature at age 12 when he was captivated by hard rock and metal. At 13, he saw Nirvana perform … and the rest is contemporary music history. He formed his first band, Noise Addict, the next day.

Willful, ambitious and creatively driven, Lee sent music to everyone in Australia, quickly connecting with Steven Pavlovic, Australian music promoter,
who became an early and vocal supporter of Ben, turning Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth, and Mike D of the Beastie Boys into Ben’s first fans.

“We were just producing cheap tapes,” Lee recalls. “It was pure novelty … a freak show peopled by 14-year olds just screaming into a boombox.”

In 1995/96, Lee’s first solo album, “Grandpaw Would,” was released and he toured the U.S. for the first time. “I’ve always been interested in what happens when I stand in front of people and want to take them somewhere,” Lee reveals. I’ve always wanted to give the audience an experience.”

He’s done that by cutting through the artifice of performance, taking it down to the essential human experience beneath the surface. His records, each documenting a milestone in his life have been the basis for his performances. “Each of those moments was a turning point for me,” he notes.

Perhaps the most significant turning point in his recent career – and one that brings us to his new album, “Ayahuasca” – was his meeting an Indian avatar – a spiritually enlightened master – in 2003.
He’d been living in New York City since around 1999, and had begun studying chi gong, an Eastern energy practice. “I’d always experienced the particular energy of my performances in front of audiences. The chi gong study and practice taught me about the essence of that phenomenon.

“By the time I was 23 or 24, I felt kind of empty,” Lee recalls. “I’d been playing music since I was 14 and found myself in a creative rut. I went to India, along with the serious possibility of giving up music. While there, I met Sakthi Narayani Amma – we call him Amma (not to be confused with Ammachi, the hugging saint). My spiritual quest really began, and so did my adult music career.”

Amma told Lee, “To be born into this world is good karma. And the way we repay it is to do service.”
Lee finally broke down emotionally. His father had just died and he was on the precipice of a new understanding.

Amma asked Ben, “Have you ever been Top 10?”
“No.”
“Amma will bless you to be Top 10 if you will put Amma’s message into the music.”
“What is your message, Amma?” asked Ben.
“Joy!”

For Ben, this required no thought. In the past, the joy and laughter of Ben’s music had been ridiculed by more cynical critics. Amma opened the door for Ben to make his expression of joy not just acceptable, but laudable. 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.
“Each album has a theme or a storyline,” Ben notes. “Today, most recording artists are just releasing singles. But I prefer to create an entire album. It lets me take the listener on a journey. It’s a much subtler place, an ongoing experience of consciousness.”

In the process, Lee’s fundamental relationship with music making has changed “from what I could get out of the music to creating and offering the music as service. Now, I’m trying to bring my music and my performances closer to my spiritual experience and practice,” he points out. In no Ben Lee album has this been clearer, or deeper, than in his new release, “Ayahuasca: Welcome to the Work.”

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. What ensues is a journey into the depth of the one who’s drunk the tea, illuminating the soul’s contents, and often facilitating a soaring journey of the spirit. This ritual has existed among the people for thousands of years.

“Throughout my life,” reflects Lee, “after every new experience, I’ve always wondered, ‘what do I do next?’ It’s the adventuresome, exploratory seeker in me. This time, my spiritual curiosity led me to the sacred vine.” 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.”*
“I know this is volatile subject matter,” Lee reflects, “but my commitment as an artist is to present who I am, as well as my experience, as authentically as possible. All my work is becoming more consciousness-based.”

Blessed with always having appreciated wherever he was in his career and in his life, Ben says, “The beauty in any art is in representing the transient moment.” Each of the tracks in “Ayahuasca” is one such moment in his ayahuasca experience. “One has to be intimately vulnerable to make art,” Lee muses. The depth and breadth of Lee’s vulnerability in these moments is apparent on the album.

Lee says of ayahuasca, “It’s an upsetter. It upset the status quo. It gives you a whole new reflection on your life. The general society does not want to be awakened; the degree of anesthesia we live with is profound. The vine asks you to examine the ways we’re asleep. It’s a very organic process. The journey requires discernment, eventually breaking through the ego to touch the divine. It’s the brutally slow, heavy lifting of awakening, not the quick fix. Welcome to the Work!”

Ben’s learned that some of his fans are ayahuasca enthusiasts. Others have never heard of it but resonate with the energy of the music. “Ayahuasca” was co-created by Lee and Jessica Chapnik-Kahn, an Argentinean-Australian actress and musician. She is also the female voice on the album, performing as the artist, Appleonia.

“I wanted to make music as a gift to the medicine,” Lee underscores, “ in love and gratitude. I wanted to stay true to the atmospheric essence of these moments.” The album needed to be “tailor-made,” according to Lee, as there were no models in the marketplace that really fit. “It’s more devotional music than anything else, but not easy listening. It’s demanding music, experimental music, just like ‘the work’ itself is demanding.”

Ben chose to crowd-fund the production of the album through pledgemusic.com (http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/benlee). Each pledger receives an exclusive experience of the album process. They receive special blog entries and other “insider” perks. “This relationship I have with these pledgers is more meaningful to me than 40,000 more traditional album sales,” Lee enthuses. “This process turns the album into a profoundly shared experience. I’m really moved by the resonance and interest of this audience.” Currently, there are around 500 pledgers for the album.

Lee’s subtler goal with “Ayahuasca” is to help break the taboo that exists around these non-ordinary states of consciousness. Tools such as ayahuasca are usually pushed underground. He asks, “What do these amplified states have to offer us that’s uniquely beneficial to our personal development, and society’s development? How are they to be integrated into society?”

Among the organizations addressing these questions is the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit research and educational organization founded in 1986 by Rick Doblin, Ph.D. (www.maps.org). Lee is donating half of his royalty income from “Ayahuasca” to MAPS.
The other half is going towards the Amazon conservation team. 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. Ben Lee’s story is ever unfolding, ever evolving, always providing new experiences for his next recordings and performances. He and his wife, Ione, reside in Los Angeles with Ione’s daughter, Kate, and their daughter, Goldie.

Ione’s father is the Sixties music legend, Donovan. In addition to her role as mom, Ione acts, directs, paints, and has a children’s book coming out in 2014. Narayani Amma is her spiritual teacher, as well as Ben’s. They were married by him in India with thirty to forty family and friends in attendance.
Lee, who was on a track to be a rock star until his late-20s, says, “I want to be home with my family now. We do service out of our home. We prepare food for the homeless with our community, conduct full-moon meditations and other activities. I’ve been moderately successful and now I want to put that back into the community.”

Ben’s working on a new project called “B is for Beer.” It’s a musical theater piece based on a Tom Robbins book. “It’s about the search for spiritual transcendence via alcohol … beer!” he says. He’s also producing a choral album with the Silverlake Chorus (http://thesilverlakechorus.com/).

Always captivated by the latest experience, always moving on to what’s next, Ben muses, “This universe is radical! … Against all odds, it’s helping me become a person I can respect,” he says laughing.
Radical, indeed.