Benjamin Shaw (musician)


Benjamin Shaw is an English-Canadian musician and artist based in Melbourne, Australia. He has recorded for a number of different labels but is a mainstay of Audio Antihero records. He also uses the monickers of Guppy and Megadead.

Biography

Benjamin Shaw released his debut EP "I Got the Pox, the Pox is What I Got" in October 2009 on Audio Antihero which saw airplay from BBC 6 Music on the Tom Ravenscroft, Gideon Coe, Steve Lamacq, Jon Holmes and Tom Robinson shows and positive reviews from publications such as The Skinny, The 405, The Music Fix, This Is Fake DIY, Clash Music and The Line of Best Fit who remarked "If you think you've heard the like of Benjamin Shaw before, think again. TLOBF recommended.".
In October 2011 it was announced on sites like Drowned in Sound, Bearded and This Is Fake DIY that he would be releasing first full-length album, "There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet". He would begin promoting the album with a series of sessions for the likes of The Fly, The 405, This Is Fake DIY, Triple R, The Line Of Best Fit, Dandelion Radio and Resonance FM.
The debut LP "There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet" was released on 21 November to positive reviews. Drowned in Sound called it "superb," Clash Music remarked that Shaw was "an outcast, a loner, a maverick and a freak. All of these are compliments," The Line of Best Fit claimed "you wouldn't want everyone to sound to like Benjamin Shaw but I'm delighted someone does," Is This Music? awarded it 4/5 and called it "one of the better records of the year" and MusicOMH gave it 4/5 and hailed it as a "truly special album." Album tracks "The Birds Chirp & The Sun Shines" and "Interview" were given multiple plays on the Tom Ravenscroft and Gideon Coe BBC 6 Music shows, as were the album's first single "Somewhere Over the M6" and its B-side "Pig".
Shaw has played around the UK, Europe and Australia with artists such as Darren Hayman, Tom Paley, Jack Hayter, Neil Pennycook, Extradition Order, Paul Hawkins & The Awkward Silences, Runaround Kids, Little Red and The Owl Service. Shaw has also seen endorsements from Nic Dalton of The Lemonheads.
During a radio interview on 12 August 2012, Audio Antihero founder Jamie Halliday revealed that Benjamin Shaw was working on new material for a future release with the label. The first piece of new material to surface would be the "T'ra F'now" instrumental on the Audio Antihero produced "Hüsker Doo-wop" Charity EP to raise money to repair damages to independent music organisations in New York following Hurricane Sandy. Shaw followed up his contribution to this charity EP with "This Christmas," a collaborative Christmas single with Fighting Kites to raise money for Shelter, Shaw also directed the music video. The single benefited from critical praise from online press and radio and saw support from Tom Robinson, Bush Radio, Jon Solomon's WPRB show and Rolling Stone.
On 14 January it was announced that Benjamin Shaw would releasing a new instrumental record entitled "Summer in the Box Room" on the Glass Reservoir label in February 2013. Two tracks from the record were premiered by Robert Rotifer on 4FM and GoldFlakePaint praised it as a "special kind of dour musical genius." Tom Ravenscroft would also air tracks from the release on his BBC 6 Music show.
Benjamin Shaw sometimes performs live with Neil Debnam and Kay Ishikawa as Benjamin Shaw Band.

Discography

Albums, EPs and Compilations