Breaking Benjamin: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

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• Lifer

Formed:

Jan 1, 2000 in Wilkes-Barre, PA

Genres:

Rock Music, Alternative Rock Music

Decades Active:

2000's

Popularity

Low

Ratings Guide

In late 2000, guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark James Klepaski made a surprising and unexpected decision: they left Lifer, an alternative metal band that was signed to Universal and was gaining commercial acceptance. Fink and Klepaski departed Lifer (which was originally called Strangers With Candy) so that they could join forces with singer Ben Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel and form Breaking Benjamin. Why would Fink and Klepaski leave a band that had a contract with Universal to form a new alternative rock band that, at the time, was unsigned? According to Breaking Benjamin's press releases, the exmembers of Lifer had so much faith in Burnley's songwriting talents that they were willing to take a gamble and uproot themselves. So in late 2000, Breaking Benjamin got started with a fourman lineup that consisted of Burnley on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Fink on lead guitar, Klepaski on bass and Hummel on drums. Breaking Benjamin wasn't the first time that Fink had worked with Burnley; he had known the singer since high school. All four members of the band are from WilkesBarre, a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania. (Philadelphia and its suburbs are considered southeastern Pennsylvania.)

When Breaking Benjamin started playing around WilkesBarre, they were far from a carbon copy of Liferinstead, they favored a radiofriendly postgrunge approach that was aggressive and forceful yet melodic. The band's various influences include, among others, Live, Bush, Pearl Jam, the Stone Temple Pilots and Nirvana. Burnley has been quoted as saying that at age 14, he taught himself to play guitar by listening to Nirvana's seminal 1991 release Nevermind over and over. Korn and Tool have also been cited as influences, but unlike Korn, Breaking Benjamin doesn't have strong hiphop leanings and isn't quite alternative metalhard alternative rock, certainly, but not quite alternative metal. However, that isn't to say that Breaking Benjamin hasn't been influenced by certain aspects of Korn's sound. The Pennsylvanians do incorporate the sort of choppy, downtuned guitars that are quite prevalent in alternametal, and even though Breaking Benjamin has a lot in common with postgrunge bands like Creed, Default, Cinema8 and Third Eye Blind, they tend to be a bit heavier.

In 2001, Breaking Benjamin's WilkesBarre gigs caught the attention of a local radio DJ named Freddie Fabbri, who was an onair personality at alternarock station WBSXFM. Fabbri put their song "Polyamorous" in rotation, and he also financed the recording of their selftitled debut EPwhich, in 2001, ended up selling about 2000 copies in and around WilkesBarre. It was also in 2001 that Breaking Benjamin signed with Hollywood Records, which united the band with Ulrich Wild (a busy producer/engineer who has worked with Powerman 5000, Stabbing Westward, White Zombie, StaticX, Pantera, Slipknot and quite a few others). Wild serves as both producer and engineer on Breaking Benjamin's first fulllength album, Saturate, which Hollywood released in August 2002. We Are Not Alone followed two years later, complete with a few collaborations with Billy Corgan; the band landed a primo spot on the Evanescence tour in support of the effort.

- Alex Henderson, All Music Guide