Benjamin (Ben) Miller
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Ben Miller is an American rock and avant garde guitarist formerly based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, who has formerly been a member of such Detroit/Ann Arbor bands as Destroy All Monsters, Sproton Layer, M3 and Nonfiction. Destroy All Monsters, in particular, still a cult favorite, was a big part of the Proto-Punk, Punk, and Post-Punk Detroit rock scene, featuring such bands as the MC5, the Stooges, Sonic's Rendezvous Band, and Up.
Ben comes from an interesting family background where all of his family members were either musicians or scientists. He is the younger brother of Roger Miller, a founding and current member of the Boston-based Mission of Burma, the twin brother of Laurence B. (Larry) Miller, also a former member of Destroy All Monsters. Both of Ben's parents were scientists and professors at the University of Michigan. His father was well-known in the field of paleo-ichthyology. He also has a brother who is a well-respected professor and glaciologist, and a sister who was also a scientist and a professor.
Ben has collaborated with his brother Roger Miller from time to time, particularly on the M3 project, named for the three Miller brothers, but he has collaborated with his twin Laurence most consistently over the years, particularly through the 1980s and early 1990s. Since Ben is a right-hander and Laurence is a left-hander, and they collaborated mostly as a power trio by adding a drummer, the team had a rather powerful visual symmetrical stage presence--the guitar and bass each pointing outward, away from the centrally positioned drummer. In the band Nonfiction, for example, Laurence and Ben would typically trade off on bass and guitar, with each preferring to play guitar on his own compositions.
Ben was also instrumental in the founding of Ann Arbor, MI avant-garde label Bulb Records, having recorded the early releases in his basement studio.
Ben grew up in Ann Arbor, attended public schools, and graduated from Pioneer High School. He studied music at the School of Contemporary Music in Boston and more recently obtained a BFA at Columbia College Chicago. Ben is married and has three sons from a former marriage.
