benjamin franklin freeman
Benjamin Franklin Freeman was born in a military hospital outside of Tacoma, WA on March 20th, 1976. His young parents were poor white trash, with limited choices, from Nowhere, U.S.A. His father was an alcoholic atheist pilot and his mother was an emotional Baptist housewife.
Benjamin grew up constantly on the move, so he made music his home. Emotionally abandoned by his dysfunctional family, he was adopted by MTV and the radio. He was especially drawn to the rebellious sounds of rock and roll and would lock himself away for hours mimicking Prince or David Bowie. One night, as he turned up his music to block out the cursing and fighting of his parents, young Benjamin Franklin made a promise to himself; that one day he would sing in a rock and roll band.
On his sixteenth birthday, Franklin used the money he had saved working at a fast food restaurant to move out of the nest. He found a place with some other dysfunctional teenagers. They would drop acid and perform bizarre music. They dreamed up foolish demands they would make of the record company that signed them and of the backstage drug buffet they would need. They inevitably started a four piece rock band.
With his band, Benjamin Franklin would perform at wild parties and battle of the band contests. He began to draw attention for his bizarre costumes and the melancholy nature of his performances. Of course, success is never forever and his would be no exception.
What should have been a perfect show became a horrible accident. At a late night performance with hundreds in attendance, the unthinkable happened. Benjamin had asked his bassist to check the microphone and when his band mate touched his lips to the mic., he was electrocuted and soon after died of cardiac arrest.
This tragic event sent Benjamin into a decade of deep depression. He broke from music and began searching for answers. His travels took him across the globe and he learned a great deal about human nature, but he never found what he was looking for.
On a chill October evening in 2005, Ben Franklin woke up to find himself at the Greyhound bus station in Portland, Oregon. He was tired and broken and made the choice to stay. He walked out into the rain and heard the muffled sounds of a rock and roll band playing at a nearby club. He sat and listened to them from outside, thinking about the horrible accident. The music was compelling and when the band came out to load up their equipment, he talked with the bassist, Zach Domer and asked him if he would be interested in forming a band. Domer and his long time friends Scott Mcconnell and Kevin Spafford had been performing in one form or another since they were 14 years old. Benjamin was rejuvenated and forgave himself for the untimely death of his old bassist.
With this new band, then called "The Draft", Franklin began playing his gourmet rock up and down the west coast. They soon changed the name of the band after an insignificant, but far more famous band stole it. In 2005 they released their debut album "Killyourselfishness".
“The new classic rock, Benjamin Franklin Freeman has the itchy lyrics of Frank Black and the scratchy flash of Queen on the skin of Guided by Voices.” Scott Lewis, The Oregonian
“...a jewel in the crown of Portland rock and roll. Benjamin Franklin Freeman sounds like Spoon and The Grifters covering lost tracks from XTC.” Alex Steininger, In Music We Trust