Pendulum

With relaxed confidence and an anti-bling simplicity, Ben Smith adds a refreshing amount of originality, substance, humor and style into the Texas music palette. He's not just another kid trying to turn frat party music into a career. He has got a story. Part of it started at work in his hometown of Gainesville, TX when Ben was sixteen. One day he had a farming accident that should have killed or seriously disabled him. Though flipping a 6,000 pound tractor completely upside down is not usually viewed as a fortunate event, Ben considered it the luckiest day of his life. Tightly pinned underneath the massive tractor with it's wheels spinning and fluids leaking onto the ground, Ben was stuck but alive. However, the tractor landed on a barb wire fence line that had been burned around to rid the brush the day before... and when the spilling fuel reached some smoldering coals, it burst into flames. With the prospect of being burned alive, Ben managed to shove himself out from under the tractor in an adrenaline-fueled burst of strength, walking away with only some scrapes and a fractured tailbone. The next morning, Ben's breakfast tasted like nothing he had ever imagined before. He felt a deep, simple appreciation for things that few people ever experience, and he hoped he could forever hold onto that perspective. Two years later, Ben found a new way to hold onto it when he began writing songs and performing them live. 'I remember my first gig when I was in college at Texas A&M. I had a blast and so did the crowd. I just made $60, but I remember going to the store the next day and loading up on groceries with that $60 and thinking how I had just created these songs, went out with a guitar one night, sang them, and out of thin air, just turned that passion into a week's worth of food. I felt like my music career had really come full circle!' Ben laughs. Since then, Ben has performed on stages around Texas, in California, and Nashville,TN. Ben's laid back humor, interactive showmanship, phat grooves, dope rhymes, and killer chops validate him as a very promising talent on a changing musical horizon... winning him the title of Ben 'Frickin'' Smith by his most loyal fans. His own blend of Alt-Country and Indie Acoustic influences combined with his varying songwriting styles has led Ben Smith to become a unique voice and an exceptional artist by any music scene's standards.