Three decades of indie pop ahead of Northern Rivers shows

BEN Lee was just 14 when he entered the 1990s indie scene, and three decades later the singer-songwriter still finds himself fascinated by its contradictions.

Surrounded by the 90s indie movement from a young age through Noise Addict, Lee said he was immersed in a culture obsessed with authenticity and detachment yet still marked by vulnerability.

“There was another theme at the time,” Lee said, with a nod to the 90s indie movement.

“If you look at like Elliott Smith and Kurt Cobain and Fugazi, there was quite a lot of passion also and vulnerability.”

Lee said that at the time, alternative music culture was dominated by suspicion toward mainstream success.

“Overall, you were sort of not meant to trust success and especially any corporations… that’s for sure,” Lee said.

Looking back, Lee said many of these attitudes were “idealistic”.

“All of these theories of life and culture were all concocted by people in their twenties who had no idea what was going on,” he said.

“It was very idealistic…and then you sort of realise like nothing’s black and white.”

But Lee said he was at a different stage of his life to many of his peers during that period because of his age.

“All the bands were in their 20s, but I was 14,” he said.

“So, I was still figuring out how I felt about a lot of stuff.”

Lee said the mix of aggression, passion and vulnerability in the 90s alternative scene fascinated him.

“I loved the idea that sometimes the heaviest bands, you thought they were gonna be tough guys, but then you met them and they were the biggest nerds,” he said.

“And sometimes, actually the people that played more tender music, they were actually bigger bad asses.”

“So, I found that contradiction really interesting.”

For Lee, vulnerability itself became a kind of punk attitude.

“I always thought Jonathan Richman was one of my heroes,” he said.

“And I always thought he was kind of a tough guy, sort of weirdly.”

“It was very punk to have the courage to just stand there with not much to hide behind.”

That philosophy helped shape the intimate, melodic style that would define Lee’s solo career.

“I always wanted to be an artist that you could engage with naturally,” Lee said.

Lee described an important part of songwriting as maintaining a connection with listeners.

“The key is like it’s almost like you’re like a schoolteacher,” he said.

“Like you gotta keep the kids interested.”

That instinct for accessibility helped produce Catch My Disease, widely considered one of Australian music’s defining pop songs of the 2000s.

“It was just a song I wrote backstage at a gig,” Lee said.

“It felt good, like that’s the thing, I always find that songs that take on the biggest life are ones that just feel good when you write them, and then make the audience feel good.”

 

Lee described the song as an “archetypal pop song”, pointing to The Beatles’ earlier works as examples of this style.

“I think the way The Beatles wrote in the beginning, all their songs were almost like written to their female fans,” he said.

“It’s more that type of song…it’s an archetypal pop song of like, “Please love me”.”

Touring extensively across regional Australia, Lee said part of the appeal remained the unpredictability of live performance.

“Being on tour in this way, it’s like an obstacle course, like you never know what’s going to come up at each gig and that’s part of the fun of it,” he said.

After more than three decades on the road, he has amassed a catalogue of surreal touring memories, including a performance at Woodstock ’99 before the event descended into chaos.

“We came in on the first day before it had really all gone south,” he said.

“My tour manager just turns around to us in the van and goes, “This place smells like death”.”

“As a tour manager, that’s why you’re hired, to use your instincts, and I think he had an instinct.”

Lee said he played his show and left before the chaos unfolded.

“I was thrilled to get out of there,” he said.

Lee said his “relatable” public image has also increased fan interactions over the years.

“My drummer recently told me I have more people that sneak backstage than any other artist he’s worked with,” Lee said.

“I think some of it’s just because I seem very relatable.”

“Between the music and my social media and podcasts and all of that, people really do feel like they know me.”

Still, he said he has become more protective of his privacy over time.

“I don’t mind meeting people in the street or in a restaurant, but I’m not going to stand there as the merch desk, because I just kind of feel like I’ve literally given you the best I can give you, and that’s what happens on stage and everything else is a disappointment, so I don’t really feel like it’s in anyone’s best interest,” he said with a laugh.

Ben Lee will play at The Murwillumbah Citadel on May 28 and 29, with both shows now sold out.

He will also play at Brunswick Picture House on May 30 from 7pm to 9pm, with tickets available via Eventfinda.