Ben Babylon-A Rising Star

Ben at the House of Blues Photo courtesy of Kathy Babylon

Ben Babylon is not the typical 16-year old living in Agoura Hills. He’s a star on the rise and has been in love with music for as long as he can remember.

From the age of three Babylon was tagging along with his famous musician father, Guy Babylon, who was keyboardist for the Elton John band for 21 years before his sudden death of a heart attack in 2009.

During that time Ben was absorbing it all in, listening to Elton John’s Benny and the Jets and developing a love for the piano and keyboards. “I used to write stupid songs, like four chords,” Ben said of his first attempts at writing.

“He always was playing music with his dad,” reminisces Ben’s mother Kathy, who is also in the business. “I mean I could tell he had a love for music that’s for sure.”

And this love for music has transformed a little boy creating childish four chord songs and sharing them with his father into a young man who has developed a maturity in his music beyond his years. Now set to release his first album with his band I reminisced
with Ben about how it all began. 

At the age of eleven Ben wrote, “Goodbye Superman.” It was a song, the first real song, written by a boy mourning the father who was his everything. The tribute was written in the days before Guy’s funeral; a young Ben determined to play it there to honor his father.

In the song Ben expresses the loss he and his family were facing.

So Goodbye Superman and

Goodbye Our King

Goodbye Our Hero That Put Us Under His Wing

Goodbye Our Answer

Goodbye Our Sum

Goodbye our World

and Goodbye The Kingdom

Babylon has no plans to record the song for an album.

“That song has become more personal and I’m not gonna play it much anymore,” said Babylon.  

As personal as it is, Goodbye Superman inspired Ben’s love of writing music.  “After that I wrote a bunch more songs and that’s sorta what started it,” said Babylon

L-R Brian Schwartz, Jagger Krusen, Ben Babylon, Alex Arnout

Ben is about to release his new album Dreams for Sale with The Ben Babylon Band, which includes Alex Arnaout on bass, Jagger Krusen on drums, and Brian Schwartz on guitar, all of whom Ben met through a program at Rock Nation, which brings young musicians together to help them make connections with other young musicians.

“I’m really happy with the band,” Ben said. “We have just such a good, a great connection.”

Babylon explains that their first single Burning Man is a song “about somebody in particular, but it's about mainly like being in pain and coping with it.”

The band plans on having about eleven songs on their album, with the guys still deciding on the last few songs to include.

“So far we recorded ,mixed and mastered six songs,” Babylon said. “We have a lot of songs that we're having trouble picking which ones to do. We don’t want to make the album too long. So it will probably be around 11 or 12 songs.”

When asked about who he is listening to now Ben doesn’t hesitate.

“It changes all the time,” Ben said. “About three years ago I became like the biggest fan of the Bens Fold Five.” Listening to Ben’s music one can see the influences that Bens Fold Five has had on his music.

“But lately I’ve been listening to Bright Eyes, portugal.demand.” He also goes on to include “People like the Black Keys. Those are the people that I have been listening to a lot recently.”

So what is Ben’s biggest dream?

“It would be nice to be a successful band and be well recognized and that would be cool,” Ben says. “But anything in music.” Going on he says, “Personally I would like to do movie scores sometime, I don’t know, but that's way in the future.”

For the time being Ben is happy to be playing music with his band as his fan base grows. Miquel Sala is just one loyal fan of Babylon.

“Ben is really amazing! He understands keyboards as no one does, a truly keyboard wizard. He's one of a kind!” said Sala.

Whatever Ben decides to do with his future, it will certainly be bright. “I’m really excited about it and everything that is going on with the band.”

Check out Ben Babylon Band’s latest EP Further Interpretation of Real Life by visiting www.babylonmusic.biz. You can also download Burning Man now on iTunes and check out Ben and the guys on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/benbabylonmusic.