Ben Crea (BPC)

Brisbane, Australia

Ben Crea aka BPC is originally from Melbourne Australia but now resides in Brisbane. Ben says he was brought up in a very "musical family" , in oppose to most families in Austrialia that could be described as the "sporty"," outdoorsy","always going camping", and" going to the beach" type. It is Ben's dad that really is responsible for Ben's interest in music making. Usually on weekends after all the house work was done Ben's dad would settle into his studio which originally started out with just a guitar and a reel to reel tape recorder. After time went by this expanded into a 4 track reel to reel and mixer, a Casio keyboard (this is 1982) and guitar fx , plus more gizmos that his dad had made which were tremoloes and other fx.  Ben's Dad soon grew out of the the sonic range of the Casio and stepped up to the DX7 and RX5 (1986).  Ben found himself at the age of 9 knowing how to program the RX5.  His dad had already given him a Mattel drum machine with pads to play with and practice on.  It was natural for Ben to pick up on sequencing and programming and the RX5 became one of his favorite toys. It had become apparent to Ben what he wanted to do. Sometimes, Ben would go over to a friend of the family (Russel) who also had a studio and spend hours laying guide tracks.  Ben had even helped record jingles and some pitches for Jobs that russel was trying to get.  Ben got paid, but at that time not knowing better, wasted his money on toys like Transformers and other action figures. After all he wasn't even in high school yet.

Throughout primary school and high school Ben's music teachers had noticed his talent and suggested that he go to school for it.  Many schools that specialized in music and some programs that did musicals offered him scholarships. Ben chose a very popular school for music  and had allot of success early on.  However , where he lived, he was getting picked on and had allot of peer pressure.  He was getting called names like "sissy" and "faggot," because he was more into music than sports like the other males that surrounded him.  He started to give up all together on music.  His grades had dropped and he even failed music which pulverized his father.  Teachers told him he was wasting his talent.  In 1989, something big happen though, he heard a rap group named Public Enemy.  He couldn't believe what he was hearing.  It was "drum machine" music.  Most people who he knew were more into bands.  He spreaded the word of "PE" and got his friends hooked and by 1992 the coordinators asked him to leave the school because of his grades.  

He worked full time at Mcdonalds after leaving school and spent money on hip hop tapes and CD's scrounging through tracks to find kicks, snares, and hi hats, to sample into the Amiga 500 running Octamed Pro (soundtrack er/early computer sequencer like FL Studio) to make beats and adding loops from old funk soul and later disco records.

Amazing training to have on the amigas although the sound was 8bit so Ben got an Akai so1 which was a mono gutted s1000 really.   Now running atari running Cubase he was getting somewhere and he also got a Roland JX8P.  At the age of 17 Ben started working for his father in his dad's restaurant in the city where he met his very famous cousin Tony for the very first time.  That would be Tony Crea folks for those of you who couldn't guess.  (This is because there had been a family fued for years between both threir parents). Tony is a DJ and spins House music in clubs and raves.  Ben was making hip hop and this is when Tony put  Ben up on House music.  Tony taught Ben all he knew and they started making tracks together.  since then they have had super success with tracks like "Disco Sluts"-a track featuring camp canadian disco samples and a bouncing analog synth disco bass line which has been licensed by Roger Sanchez for his "Release Yourself 2003 mix CD feat. plus a few more successful releases on Defected and Azuli Records.   Ben has been in the game for a long time and look for him to push house to another level.  This guy has got the goods!!!

Contact: bencrea1@dodo.com.au (No Spam)