When Breaking Benjamin, the most successful band to ever call Northeastern Pennsylvania home, canceled a string of shows in 2006 and went three years without releasing a new album, the rumors began to swirl: Breaking Benjamin is breaking up. Its next album will be its last. Enigmatic frontman Ben Burnley won’t tour anymore.
When the group announced a few months ago that it had begun recording its fourth album, other stories persisted: Burnley was replacing his bandmates. The album wasn’t going to come out on time.
The truth is, Wilkes-Barre-based Breaking Benjamin — Burnley (vocals, guitar), Aaron Fink (guitar), Mark James (bass) and Chad Szeliga (drums) — have finished the album. It’s called “Dear Agony.” There are 11 songs on it, and it sounds like, well, Breaking Benjamin: heavy, melodic and dynamic. It will be released Sept. 29 on Hollywood Records.
As the band gears up for the album’s release and a tour, Burnley, a man whose private nature has fueled speculation about his health and the band’s future, is indeed struggling. He’s a recovering alcoholic who’s written and recorded sober for the first time. He says he has chronic fatigue syndrome as well as permanent neurological damage caused by years of heavy drinking.
“I want it to be known I’ve been suffering with some debilitating things for years, and it’s become such an (impediment) on my life now that I can’t help but have it come through in the music that I write,” says Burnley, who opened up about his problems last week in an interview with the Weekender. Previously, he had only acknowledged on the band’s Web site that he was ill after the show cancellations.
“It does affect me in some ways on a performance level and on an availability level and things like that, so I’m kind of glad that it’s finally coming to be known and that I can use the album as kind of a platform to let it be known.”
AT THE TOP
While “Phobia,” Breaking Benjamin’s third album, addressed Burnley’s fears, “Dear Agony” addressees his reality. It’s a stark, intimate letter from Burnley to his condition, heavy on metaphors of falling and being left behind. It’s the most personal Breaking Benjamin album yet for Burnley, whose brain scan serves as the cover art.
The band released the single “I Will Not Bow” in August, which debuted at No. 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100 — the highest position a Breaking Benjamin song has reached. The band filmed a video for the song, which will be included in “Surrogates,” an upcoming Bruce Willis movie, in New York City’s 7 World Trade Center, across from the former World Trade Center buildings. Burnley describes the shoot as “a great time,” but it wasn’t without its difficulties. At least for him.
“I have issues with heights and stuff, and when I first got up there I started to have a little bit of a panic attack,” he says. “And I got over it really, really quick because I put it in my mind that the city was fake, because you’re up so high it literally looks like a scale model, so I just kept thinking that, and I got through it. The windows go all the way down to the floor. In the very first shot of the video, where I’m standing looking over, I actually had my eyes shut, because you’re so close, and if you’re that close to the window, for me, then it kind of gets dizzying I guess? Nauseating? So I had to keep my eyes shut, and I opened them up when I turned around and started singing.”
OUTSIDE ASSSITANCE
Fans might feel that Breaking Benjamin has taken a long time to record “Dear Agony,” but the opposite is true. The success of “Phobia” kept the band on the road for two years, then Burnley began the writing process for the new record. In July, the band entered House of Loud, the New Jersey studio run by David Bendeth, who also produced “Phobia” and 2004’s “We Are Not Alone,” and finished the album quickly. The results are anything but rushed, however; the songs are polished to a metallic sheen and feature more effects and studio experimentation than any of the other Breaking Benjamin records.
“We were working with the same guys as the past two albums, so now everyone’s comfortable working together,” Fink explains. “Those guys, David Bendeth and his crew, have their own studio this time. We took a little extra time getting cool sounds, and I think everything sounds great. I think David took a couple of liberties playing around with some effects.”
Besides the band and Bendeth, another key contributor was Jasen Rauch of the band RED, who helped write four “Dear Agony” tracks. Rauch wrote the outro of “I Will Not Bow,” the two collaborated equally on “Without You,” Rauch wrote the riff and some other parts in “Lights Out” and Burnley and Rauch co-wrote “Hopeless” together, Burnley says. Burnley, who collaborated with Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame on several “We Are Not Alone” songs, says he has found his “partner in crime” in Rauch.
“It’s really, really relieving, because I never worked with anybody like that. I’ve never had the opportunity or the means to do that, because you’re in a band with guys that might not like the same things, but you work together well because they’re all great performers and things like that. It just took a little while until I met Jasen, as far as the writing aspect goes.”
BREAKING INTO THE BIG TIME
The decisions the band has made since forming in 1998 have more than worked out. Like when Fink and James left Lifer, a local band signed to major label Universal Records, to work with Burnley’s then-unsigned band.
In 2001, Breaking Benjamin released a self-titled EP, and thanks to large, enthusiastic crowds at its shows and then-97.9 X DJ Freddie Fabbri playing the song “Polyamorous,” Hollywood, a Disney-owned major, was interested.
Hollywood signed the band later that year and released Breaking Benjamin’s debut album “Saturate” in 2002. “We Are Not Alone” followed and sold 2.3 million copies and yielded the No. 1 radio hits “So Cold” and “Sooner or Later.” In 2006, “Phobia,”debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart, sold 2.8 million units and landed three radio hits: “Breath,” “The Diary of Jane” and “Until the End.”
Fink laughs as he considers why the band has managed to stay together so long and achieve such success.
“Well, it hasn’t been perfect,” says Fink. “There’s ups and downs. I would say it’s a four-way marriage. It’s been good — it hasn’t been perfect. We’ve all made a good living playing music. Why has it lasted? I can’t speak for everyone, but I think the quality of the band keeps it together, especially when we play live. There’s nights where it feels amazing, and so much of that has to do with our chemistry within the band. And when you get four great players together, and obviously Ben’s a great singer, it has a lot to do with chemistry, whether it be good or bad, which kind of makes it all work.
“We all kind of know what our duties are and what’s expected of us, which in any type of relationship in life takes a couple of years to figure out.”
Fink and Burnley both noted that the band took off when several local rock clubs — like The Voodoo Lounge, Jimmy’s and The Staircase — were still open. Now, with those clubs closed and live music creating less of a buzz in NEPA, another Breaking Benjamin-like success story here might seem unlikely, but neither musician thinks it’s impossible.
“That just depends on the determination, the quality, the luck,” Burnley says. “We were lucky. When we were doing our thing, that was the thing to do: People would go out and see concerts every weekend, that’s what they would do, and we were very lucky and fortunate to be there at the right time.”
ROOTS RUN DEEP
Breaking Benjamin has grown beyond the club level to arena tours — either headlining or opening for groups like Nickelback — and performing on late-night TV. (The band says it will tour to support “Dear Agony,” but dates aren’t confirmed. Asked about a local show, Burnley says, “I’ll just say we won’t forget about our diehard fans.”)
It has also meant being based in and around Wilkes-Barre, where Burnley and Fink have lived since moving from the Selinsgrove area.
“The pros of it is definitely being like the big fish in the small pond,” Fink says of Breaking Benjamin’s low-key NEPA base. “I wouldn’t use the word ‘helps,’ but it’s fun. … As far as personally living here, the cost of living is low and stuff. That doesn’t hurt. I’ve lived here for 10 years now; I’m almost a native. A couple months ago I drank my first Stegmaier.”
The band has had the rare opportunity to headline its hometown’s largest venues, Wachovia Arena and Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain. But when those shows are brought up, Burnley instead reminisces about the band’s beginnings.
“Those things are great, obviously,” says Burnley. “But there’s a soft spot in my heart for the early days. Like the Voodoo Lounge, they used to cut the room in half and I’d play in the middle of the whole place. Like the Staircase, all the clubs around. I just have such fond memories, and it was just a simpler time and it was more fun-motivated. There really was no business side to it, per se, and that will ruin an experience completely, when things get business oriented.
“Comparing this to that, I can’t say one was better, because I have so many great memories tied to the old clubs and those people. It’s cool that those people are coming to see us, but the intimacy is kind of gone because you have to play to such a larger scale. Even doing this interview with you guys, I remember how excited I was when I had my band like even inside the Weekender, not even a page, just a little box on the left-hand corner of the page or something. I was ecstatic. I still have it. And looking back on it, it’s awesome to be able to go so far in an area that’s supported us so much. We’re forever grateful.”
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