Ben Gordelier

HELLO. Thanks for taking a look at my site. My name is Ben and I am a drummer/producer/engineer from South East London now living in South Yorkshire. I started playing when I was 13 and was lucky enough to be brought up in our family's rehearsal studio where I had the chance to practise 24/7 and was surrounded by musicians and producers. I was listening to lots of different genres of music and was learning from my favourite drummers who influenced me with their unique styles and techniques. I would pride myself on the groove and feel of my playing.. So, at the age of 15, I joined a few local bands who were all older and more experienced than me and began playing UK shows with crowds ranging from 0 (not including the other bands and my dad roadie!) to 2000 people. By the age of 17 I was recording albums and touring further parts of Europe. A few years later I built a recording studio and spent most of my twenties recording bands, musicians, rappers, dj's and voice artists. I started by offering my friends free demos and using their bands as guinea pigs I recorded them with just a 24 track 1 inch reel-to-reel tape machine, a mixing desk, some NS-10’s, a limiter/compressor and a reverb unit. I learnt the importance of analogue recording, mic positioning, and equalisation and perfected my engineering and mixing skills by doing it the old fashioned way; punching in ‘drop-ins’ and having the band standing around the desk to help me with manual automation when bouncing down the final mix to DAT. I then added a computer to my studio and this opened up a whole new world of digital recording, editing and mixing. I had to put my studio on hold as touring was taking up all my time, playing shows in Europe, Scandinavia, the USA and performing on many TV and radio shows with Mercury Prize nominee 'MAPS'. Around this time I joined a new UK band called The Moons and we recorded our first album at Paul Wellers studio over christmas 2009. Luckily for me, Pauls keyboard technician couldn’t make it to some of Pauls shows so I was asked to step in temporarily to perform samples for a few gigs at the Roundhouse in Camden and, being a drummer, I played some extra drums and percussion. This led to me spending the last 6 years as a full time band member, touring the world as part of his live band, playing on number 1 albums and singles, and recording drums and percussion on his last three studio albums for which I am very proud and very thankful. I am forever grateful for my up-bringing, for all the amazing influential experiences I have had and for all the brothers and sisters I have met along the way.