Biography

Bentley has forged a music career to be jealous of and his reign as independent pioneer continues with the release of his most personal album to date “Unravelling”. Described as “one of those ‘watch and learn’ artists” he has single-handedly amassed over 24 million combined YouTube hits, and 6.2 million artist sales.

Born to an automotive executive and one of the UK’s first female rally drivers in the sleepy suburbs of central England, Ben immediately broke family convention by pursuing a career in music. Breaking out as a remixer at the tender age of 17 he topped multiple club charts with his productions for the likes of Madonna, Britney Spears, will.i.am, Sia, Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalea, Calvin Harris and Lady Gaga who now follows him on Twitter.

Expanding his skills into song-writing, arranging and composing Bentley began contributing scores to some of the world’s best known franchises like “The X-Files”, “Tekken”, “Sonic the Hedgehog”, “Gradius” and “QQ Dance”. With a taste of international success as a producer Ben looked further afield to make his debut as a recording artist before planting his roots – unintentionally – as far away from home as possible.

Inspired by the soaring melodies and spiritual influences to their mainstream music, Bentley introduced himself to the Japanese industry in 2009 and after getting to grips with the language soon found himself with 3 different offers of a record deal. Deciding to sign with EMI / Universal Music, he tested the waters with the debut single “Sunaoninaretara FINAL NIGHT”. Without any promotion or radio play Bentley shocked the label by immediately selling over 30,000 copies placing the song in the top 5 of Japan’s International Chart. The single was quickly followed by the album “TRANS//LATION” which saw Bentley become the first ever British artist to release a Japanese album on a major label.

Bentley continued his success in Japan with various projects including the 2012 album “UPGRADE 1.0” which saw him collaborate with native artists for the first time including May J. After working together on “UPGRADE” May J. was enamoured by Ben’s sounds and called on him to write and produce for her next album. Ben’s work also caught the attention of May J.’s record label AVEX who signed him to their management arm as he became the first ever foreign writer and first ever foreign producer to join Japan’s biggest music company. Ironic that it was also the same management label of Ayumi Hamasaki who offered her personal approval of Bentley’s debut at the start of his Japanese career.

Not content with conquering one country, Bentley began feeding his music to the rest of the world. His first English EP “So Much More…” included the title track which was featured in the number 1 selling video-game “SEGA All-stars Racing”. It also featured 1 of 3 songs that received a staggering 1.1million streams in just 5 days after a promotion with the US social network Gaia Online. The sequel album “TRANS//LATION 2” made Bentley the 19th most viewed musician on YouTube the week of its release and his adaptation of the theme from “Devil May Cry 4” has accumulated 1.5 million streams.

2015/16’s “The Rebellion” was a defiant statement of independence and resistance to conform. Embracing all of his artistic influences, Ben managed to create a rich, dark, mature, velvety rabbit hole for his st4lk3rz to tumble down. Not only did “The Rebellion” sell over 132,000 streams and downloads, it was also critically acclaimed: “Articulate, brilliant and haunting.” (BuzzJack) “The must-listen-to album of 2015.” (Muzikman) “Let this album be an inspiration to us all.” (25 Best Indie Albums of 2015). Its visuals have received praise too: the title track’s video, produced and directed by Bentley himself, was described as “cinematically beautiful” by GT Magazine. After taking a break for the remainder of 2016 – mostly due to the death of his father – Ben thanked his st4lk3rz for their patience and support with the release of the holiday album “My December”.

Bouncing back with a bang in early 2017 European dance masters Marq Aurel and Rayman Rave released “Have a Nice Day” written by and featuring Bentley which reached #2 in the Taiwanese Chart as well as breaking the German Dance Top 30 and iTunes Singapore Chart. But that was simply a warm-up to the main event; the release of Bentley’s most personal, painful and poignant album to date – “Unravelling”

Written during a time of deep depression whilst recovering from major surgery for a dance injury in 2016, “Unravelling” soon became Bentley’s highest earning independent album. The dark and delicious slice of sentimental electro-pop gained critical press acclaim and earned itself the spin-off album “B.Mix.D Volume 1: Unravelling” as well as a deluxe edition release. The end of 2017 proved equally busy as 3 of Bentley’s songs featured in the smash-hit rhythm game “Superbeat XONiC” and were later released on its soundtrack album. Meanwhile Bentley’s beautiful and haunting rendition of “いのちの名前” from the movie “Spirited Away” was released with a video filmed on location in Japan in association with Studio Ghibli.