Big Love From Ben Lee

Love Is the Great Rebellion is due out June 2 in the U.S. Lee once again joined forces with producer Brad Wood, who the musician has worked with on releases throughout his career, including his 1995 debut, Grandpaw Would and 2005’s Awake Is The New Sleep, which went double-platinum in Australia.

The singer/songwriter introduced fans to the album by releasing the first single, “Big Love,” on vinyl on Record Store Day.

Lee said he wrote the tune – his “ukulele techno song – after attending his niece’s 10^th birthday party and seeing kids dancing to “upbeat club bangers.” Check out the track by clicking here.

“I thought it’d be great to take some of that energy, the sensual rush of electronic music, which is something I’d always been interested in, and meld it with something more philosophical and emotional,” Lee says. “The song was inspired by the fact that, for so much of my life, I’d looked outside of myself for answers, and the key experience for me before making this album was beginning to have some semblance of understanding that whatever truth there was could be found inside. So ‘Big Love’ is just a fun tribute to the inspiration that can be found within each of our human hearts.”

Lee also reflected on the overall message behind the self-reflective LP.   

“It is an album about mistakes, about looking at our past errors clearly and soberly,” he says. “But is also an album about rectification, about the correction of those mistakes, and the undeniable spring of hope that is available to each of us in the form of fresh starts and new beginnings.”

Earlier this year Lee self-released A Mix Tape From Ben Lee, featuring songs he wrote with specific vocalists in mind. He started working on the project with his friend Sam Spiegel (aka producer Squeak E Clean) in 1998 and recorded it over the next six or seven years. Guests on the album include Zooey Deschanel, Ben Folds, Azure Ray and Nina Persson.  

The collection of tunes is available via Bandcamp on a “donate what you want” basis, starting at $1. All proceeds will go to The Q’ero Project, which supports the basic needs and development of the Q’ero people of Peru.

The summer excursion follows two appearances in Toronto in May as part of Canadian Music Week. You can catch Lee playing The Great Hall, as part of “An Acoustic Evening with Evan Dando,” May 7. The next night he headlines The Garrison.

Here’s the itinerary for the tour:

June 27 – Philadelphia, Pa., World Cafe Live           
June 28 – Washington, D.C., The Hamilton Live      
June 29 – Annapolis, Md., Rams Head On Stage     
June 30 – Cambridge, Mass., The Sinclair     
July 1 – New York, N.Y., City Winery NYC           
July 3 – Ann Arbor, Mich., The Ark  
July 5 – Evanston, Ill., SPACE
July 6 – Minneapolis, Minn., Cedar Cultural Center
July 8 – Vancouver, British Columbia, Rio Theatre  
July 9 – Portland, Ore., Alberta Rose Theatre           
July 10 – Seattle, Wash., The Triple Door     
July 13 – San Francisco, Calif., The Chapel  
July 17 – West Hollywood, Calif., Troubadour

Tickets go on sale May 1. Visit Ben-Lee.com for more information.