Ben was born on Wednesday, October 24th, 1979. He is 20 years old presently. To understand the "wild boy" of silverchair, perhaps you have to understand where he comes from and what he has lived through. Ben has his mother's smile. Annette Gillies (his mum) is pictured to the right. She worked as a cafeteria lady at Newcastle High
School. It's not known if she still works there. Ben's father, David, is
currently a plumber. He even has an older sister named Kristy. Unfortunately,
he doesn't have any pets, but a long time ago, he mentioned that his sister
had two parakeets. An interesting thing to note is that the Gillies family
is part of the Surfrider Foundation, which promotes clean ocean waters.
silverchair covered the Radio Birdman song "Surfin' Bird" for the Surfrider
Foundation's MOM CD back in 1996.
Ben's childhood is full of interesting excitement. His funloving nature is pretty abundant as well as the signs of
what
will be the musical history behind silverchair's drummer! First, a pretty
pointless fact...Ben used to have braces when he was little. Who cares?
He also used to be a fast bowler (a position in cricket) and he played
local cricket with Daniel. On to his musical history...Ben said in an interview,
"I started playing when I was about eight years old and bought my first
drum kit for $75. It wasn't too bad and I went on to sell it for $380,
so I got a pretty good deal. I got lessons for a few years and learnt all
the technical stuff. When we started getting into Led Zeppelin, I used
to try to copy the simpler John Bonham parts on their records." (The drum
kit was acquired from an older teenager across the street). He had drum
lessons for 5 years with two different drum teachers. After Ben started
getting into drums, he was a quad drummer in "The Marching Koalas," a combined
high school marching band in 1993. "It was good fun but those drums were
pretty hard to carry," Ben recalls! Many people also don't know that Ben
also learned how to play guitar and bass. In fact, he taught Chris how
to play bass in 3 months! As Ben reached 11 or 12 years old, he was nicknamed
"Short Elvis" for obvious reasons...he was short and he listened to Elvis!
His other nickname was "Gillies." As for school, he was a quite excelled
student! Although his most hated subject was English ("I hate reading.
It sucks! It's so boring," he said on February 4th, the day Freak Show
was released), he took classes like advanced maths and marine biology.
He dropped out of advanced maths after silverchair started touring.
Ben gained quite an interesting image during the Frogstomp days. He was known as the perverted one and the prankster, short-sheeting silverchair's manager's bed and melting chocolate all over the toilet seat. He was well recognized as the surfer of the band and he STILL surfs quite a lot! He had the long brown hair that would fly as he would pound away on his Pearl drums and Sabian cymbols MORE INFO AT THE EQUIPMENT HUT. His musical influences were bands like Led Zeppelin, Korn, Soundgarden (of which he wore their tee-shirt throughout Frogstomp's tours), and Helmet. Although, as I said above, he hated English, both Ben and Daniel received the award for "Australian Songwriters Of The Year" at the Apra Awards in Sydney.
Once Freak Show came out, Ben's image stayed pretty much the same. He didn't change that much...he still
surfed,
liked the same bands, played practical jokes, snored (according to Chris),
and yet, he had a whole new experience making music. On Freak Show, he
experimented with timpanis and other indian-style drums that he was interested
in trying out. Then, on March 30th, 1997- Ben shaved his head! He had been
disappointed with his performance at the Offshore Festival in Torquay,
Victoria because his hair was getting in the way of his drumming. So, he
told Daniel to shave it all off. There's been quite a few versions of what
happened..."supposedly" Ben was drunk at the time and "supposedly" Daniel
used toenail clippers to shave Ben's head instead of an actual razor. I
was given the opportunity to ask Ben if his drumming had improved any,
but he said, "Not really." As time progressed, Ben's hair grew back and
he became "Mohawk Ben." It was an interesting look for silverchair's drummer.
Ben's personality shined, though, throughout the Freak Show days. On Outtakes
and Misstakes, Ben said of himself, "Hi. My name is Ben Gillies. I am 5
foot something. I weigh 67 kilos. I like water sports, fishing. I like
playing my drum kit at home. I like hanging with my friends..." He also
started driving. I believe he still drives a Holden Commodore. "It's sort
of like a Chevy,"Ben said, but it's in fact a white station wagon with
tinted windows, so I've been told. 18th birthdays for guys in Australia
are very important! Ben had a huge party at a local surf club, where everyone
had to dress up like hippies! That's Gillies for ya!
In 1998, Ben's life was like a clash between the past and the present. He went to the beach with his dad every morning. To keep in shape, he swam laps in a local Newcastle pool. For his 19th birthday, he received a new surfboard. Do you see the trend here? Ben has another talent other than being an excellent drummer, surfer, and prankster. He can cook! Once a week, he makes dinner for his family! He usually makes homemade lasagne or chicken in white wine sauce!
We have now arrived into the present...this is the Neon Ballroom Era. Ben is STILL the same great guy he was
4
years ago when Frogstomp came out. His drumming has deeply improved. He's
known to be the outgoing one of the band, always nice and signing autographs
and glad to pose for a picture! The only thing that's changed a little
is his taste in music. Recently, he's really gotten into dance music like
Crystal Method, Junky XL, and Death In Vegas. Throughout the tour, Ben
has become somewhat of a cinematographer, taking his video camera and taking
videos of the crowd and whatever goes on backstage :) He has also done
quite a bit of drinking. In November of 1999, he "spewed" over Blink 182's
manager...
There's still more facts about Ben that don't fit into any of the places above. His favorite movie is Trainspotting, which is a movie about an Irish drug addict, as far as I remember. Ben also enjoyed movies like Shawshank Redemption, The Game, Austin Powers, Major Payne, and Electric Blue. His favorite food is pizza (he said "Pizza" with a lot of enthusiasm). Ben is also very much on top of statistics and numbers. If you want to know how many people are subscribed to the LAS or how many albums have been sold, ask Ben. He knows :)
So, now you know about Ben's childhood, personality, and musical history! He's gone a long way in only 20 years. Hopefully, the next 20 years will be even more eventful :)