Ben Weinman
Benjamin A. Weinman is an American musician, most notable for being the lead guitarist for the band The Dillinger Escape Plan. He was the founder and sole constant member through the band's career, and is currently playing rhythm guitar with the crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies and the progressive rock supergroup Giraffe Tongue Orchestra.
Weinman was named one of SPIN Magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time and one of the 20 Most Influential Metal Guitarists Of The Modern Era by VH1.
Weinman was named one of Guitar World Magazine's 50 fastest guitar players of all time alongside guitar players such as Eddie Van Halen and Les Paul. He was named one of Guitar World's Top 25 Cult Guitarists in 2009, and one of the top modern Metal Guitar players by MetalSucks. Weinman has also been listed on About.com as an example of today's most important musicians under their definition of "guitarist" and was named one Alternative Press Magazine's "10 Favorite Guitar Slingers".
Early life
Weinman grew up in Morris Plains, New Jersey. He is of Austrian-Jewish and Polish-Jewish/Austrian descent through his grandparents who fled to the United States before The Holocaust. Weinman's family was not actively observant but he grew up "with a real appreciation of the culture of Judaism". He was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder as a child. He later stated that "music saved his life" because it helped him to discover new ways of learning, make friends and it gave him a sense of purpose.Weinman attended Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey where he first received a degree in psychology in 2000 and then in corporate communications, a field in which he worked for some time afterwards at a web company.
Career
The Dillinger Escape Plan
Weinman played in some bands from New Jersey and in 1996 he founded the hardcore punk band Arcane along with Chris Pennie on drums, Dimitri Minakakis on vocals, Bruce Fulton on bass and Brad McMannand on second vocals. He describes the group as a "lost cause" due to their lack of innovation. After a few months, they turned around its style, with Adam Doll replacing McMann and Derek Brantley taking the place of Fulton. Eventually, Arcane evolved into the Dillinger Escape Plan in 1997. Weinman gradually shifted his focus on being a full-time musician and eventually quit his corporate job.Weinman has been involved in all the band's releases since their self-titled debut EP, as well as various other musical works. Weinman has self-managed or has been involved with the management of The Dillinger Escape Plan since the band's inception. Known for his outspoken views on the music industry, he has contributed to various publications and spoken at universities and conferences on the subjects of music production and the music business. Weinman's business techniques and philosophies have been discussed, and featured, in publications such as Forbes, the Huffington Post, and Bloomberg Businessweek.
On February 6, 2012, Weinman appeared on the VH1 series Metal Evolution in the final episode on progressive metal where The Dillinger Escape Plan was quoted as being "the world's most dangerous band".
The band's second full-length album, Miss Machine, was the first album released by record label Relapse Records to make the Billboard charts. Weinman's first full-length studio album with The Dillinger Escape Plan, entitled Calculating Infinity, was listed in the book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time by Martin Popoff. Calculating Infinity was also named one of "100 best rock albums of all time" by Kerrang magazine, who presented Weinman with a spirit of independence award.
Other projects
He is currently the manager for two times Grammy award-winning singer Kimbra who he also collaborated with on her second studio album entitled The Golden Echo.In 2012, Weinman founded the group Giraffe Tongue Orchestra. In 2016, he released the debut album Broken Lines with it.
Weinman collaborated with rapper Wyclef Jean, contributing drums to a song which has not been released yet. Weinman also composed the score for the 2014 film Alien Abduction.
Weinman has performed with acts such as Nine Inch Nails and System of a Down and in 2017, Weinman performed as a live guitarist/bassist for the electronic ensemble The Prodigy. He also joined Suicidal Tendencies as a fill-in guitarist on their summer 2018 tour; Weinman was later confirmed as a full-time member of Suicidal Tendencies, and he is currently working on new material with them.
Influences and guitar technique
Ben Weinman cited John McLaughlin, Robert Fripp, Greg Ginn and Stevie Ray Vaughan as his biggest influences. He also mentioned Marty Friedman of Megadeth as one of the first musicians that led him into investigating more eclectic types of guitar work. Weinman acknowledges Apocalypse by McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra as the album that changed his life, stating that "It was a huge part of what led me to make Dillinger".Equipment
At NAMM 2014 ESP announced the release of Weinman's first signature guitar, the BW-1, which is based on the company's PS-1 "Xtone" model. He is also known for frequently playing the ESP H and MH series. Weinman has been seen using a variety of amps in the studio, ranging from a Bogner Uberschall, a Laney GH50L and a Marshall JCM, but he mainly uses Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifiers and a Mark V for live performances. In addition to playing guitar, Weinman occasionally plays a Fender Precision Bass in live performances with The Prodigy.Personal life
Ben Weinman is married to a surgeon and he has a stepson and a daughter. Following the disbandment of The Dillinger Escape Plan, he established an animal sanctuary on his home in New Jersey.Weinman has supported the You Rock Foundation which seeks to spread awareness about depression and appeared in one of its video campaigns. He has been vocal about his choice not to drink, smoke or use other recreational drugs and described himself as straight edge for many years, but no longer does so as of 2016. Weinman follows a pescetarian lifestyle.
Discography
With The Dillinger Escape Plan
- Calculating Infinity
- Miss Machine
- Ire Works
- Option Paralysis
- One of Us Is the Killer
- Dissociation
With Giraffe Tongue Orchestra
- Broken Lines
Collaborations
Remixes
| Year | Artist or band | Song | Album |
| 2007 | The Secret Handshake | "Too Young " | Summer of '98 |
| 2008 | Thrice | "Digital Sea " | Come All You Weary |
| 2008 | Lil Wayne | "Mr. Carter " | |
| 2009 | Candiria | "Paradigm Shift " | Toying With the Insanities: Volume II |
| 2009 | Bring Me the Horizon | "No Need For Introductions, I've Read About Girls Like You on the Backs of Toilet Doors " | Suicide Season: Cut Up! |
| 2010 | Violent Soho | "Jesus Stole My Girlfriend " | |
| 2010 | Iwrestledabearonce | "Tastes Like Kevin Bacon " | It's All Remixed |
| 2011 | As I Lay Dying | "Wrath Upon Ourselves " | Decas |
| 2011 | Whitechapel | "This Is Exile " | Recorrupted |
| 2012 | Lacuna Coil | "Trip the Darkness " |