American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Ben Kweller rose to prominence in the early 2000s with his music that straddles power pop and alternative country.
Ben Kweller was born in San Francisco, California, on June 16, 1981. At the age of seven, living in Greenville, Texas, he began playing drums while his father sang and played guitar. The duo performed songs by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Hollies, and others. Kweller began writing his own songs early on.
In 1993, he formed the band Radish with Bryan Blur (bass) and John Kent (drums). The trio released two albums independently — Dizzy (1994) and Hello (1995). The band then signed with Mercury Records, where they released the album Restraining Bolt in 1997, when Ben Kweller was 16 years old. Radish disbanded two years later and Kweller began his solo career, releasing a series of EPs.
In 2001, he signed with ATO Records and the following year, his first full-length album, Sha Sha, arrived. The artist subsequently released On My Way (2004), Ben Kweller (2006) and Changing Horses (2009).
The fifth studio album, Go Fly a Kite, was released in 2012 on Kweller's own label, The Noise Company. A new album, Circuit Boredom, was released in 2021.
In 2023, his sixteen-year-old son Dorian died in a car accident. The album Cover the Mirrors was released on May 19, 2025, when Dorian would have turned 19. This album features collaborations with the Flaming Lips, Waxahatchee, MJ Lenderman, among others.
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