Ben Shepherd

Ben Shepherd
Shepherd performing with Soundgarden in February 2012.
Background information
Birth name	Hunter Benedict Shepherd
Also known as	HBS
Born	(1968-09-20) September 20, 1968 Okinawa, Japan
Origin	Seattle, Washington, United States
Genres	Alternative metal, grunge, alternative rock, heavy metal
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Bass, guitar, vocals, drums
Years active	1980–present
Labels	Sub Pop, A&M, Burn Burn Burn
Associated acts	Soundgarden, Hater, Wellwater Conspiracy, The Desert Sessions, Mark Lanegan

Hunter Benedict "Ben" Shepherd (born September 20, 1968) is an American musician best known for playing bass in the rock band Soundgarden from 1990 until the band's 1997 break-up. A Soundgarden reunion was announced on January 1, 2010, with Shepherd rejoining the band.^[1]

Early life

Shepherd was born on an American military base in Okinawa, Japan. His family moved to Texas, then settled on Bainbridge Island, Washington, where Shepherd grew up, playing in numerous punk-rock bands with friends before he was a teenager. After graduating from high school, he worked as a carpenter and a laborer. He became involved in the grunge scene when he worked as a roadie for Nirvana and played in Tic Dolly Row with Chad Channing. He was being considered for the open guitarist slot (after Jason Everman was fired) in Nirvana when he joined Soundgarden.

He first auditioned for the role of bassist in Soundgarden in 1989, immediately after Hiro Yamamoto left, but was turned down because he could not play the songs well enough. Jason Everman was hired as the band's new bassist, but for unknown reasons, was fired immediately after Soundgarden completed their promotional tour in mid-1990. Shepherd was then hired.

Musical career

Soundgarden (1990–1997)

In addition to his role as bass player, Shepherd's role as a singer and songwriter increased during his tenure with Soundgarden. On his first recording with the band, the studio album Badmotorfinger, Shepherd took part in writing the following songs: "Slaves & Bulldozers" (music, co-written), "Jesus Christ Pose" (music, co-written), "Face Pollution" (music), and "Somewhere" (music and lyrics).

In 1993, Shepherd and Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron formed a side-project band called Hater. Shepherd sang vocals and played guitar in Hater, in addition to writing several songs on the band's first release, a self-titled album. A second album called The 2nd was recorded in 1995 after Superunknown tour's end, but was not released until 2005, ten years late. During the lengthy hiatus, Shepherd found time to complete the tracks that would become The 2nd between his collaborations with Wellwater Conspiracy (another side-project with Matt Cameron and John McBain) and several other artists. Shepherd was the lead vocalist on the first Wellwater Conspiracy album, Declaration of Conformity.

In 1994, Soundgarden released Superunknown, which featured Shepherd compositions "Half" and "Head Down". "Head Down" was heavily influenced by The Beatles, while "Half" was marked by an Indian flavor and was the first song on a Soundgarden album for which Shepherd sang lead vocals.

In 1996, Soundgarden released Down on the Upside, in which six of the sixteen album tracks were lyrically and/or musically composed by Shepherd. The tracks were: "Zero Chance" (music), "Dusty" (music), "Ty Cobb" (music), "Never Named" (music) "Switch Opens" (music) and "An Unkind" (music and lyrics). Shepherd once said he penned the music for "Never Named" at the age of sixteen. "Ty Cobb" was the first song Shepherd wrote that was made a single.

In 1997, soon after the release of Down on the Upside, the band broke up due to a clash of artistic differences between Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell.

Post-Soundgarden (1997–2010)

In late 1997, Shepherd was part of the first, now rare, Desert Sessions collaboration (Volumes 1 & 2), on which he played bass and guitar.

In 1998, he quit Wellwater Conspiracy for unknown reasons. Matt Cameron took over lead vocals.

In 1999, he played bass on Mark Lanegan's album I'll Take Care of You.

In 2001, he co-wrote the song "Blues For D" ^[2] on Mark Lanegan's album Field Songs. He was also one of the largest instrumental contributors on this album alongside Mike Johnson.

In 2005, Shepherd formed a new band, Unkmongoni (the band's name was what Tarzan used to yell to the animals to run and be free), but the band no longer appears to be together. In that same year, the second Hater album, The 2nd, was released.^[1]

Shepherd has one daughter named Ione. He currently resides in Seattle, Washington and has a house on Bainbridge Island. Shepherd is also the partial owner of an upscale Seattle bar called Hazelwood.^[3]

Soundgarden reunion (2010-present)

On January 1, 2010, Chris Cornell confirmed that Soundgarden would reunite, with Shepherd playing as their bassist again.

The group released the compilation album Telephantasm in September 2010, followed by King Animal in November 2012, their first studio album since 1996.

In an August 2010 interview with Spin Magazine, Shepherd stated that he was "totally broke" and was sleeping on friends' couches.^[4]

Shepherd appeared as a special guest on The Mother's Anger 2011 concept album Escape/Revolution (Auntnest Music), playing bass on two tracks: "Up In Smoke" and "Screwed".

Solo project

In the summer of 2010, Ben finished recording his latest solo project. He began writing the record in 2009. It started out as an acoustic project, before morphing into a very electrified concept album in the end. Shepherd originally intended for the songs to be just voice and acoustic guitar, but soon Matt Cameron and Matt Chamberlain offered up their services on drums. The album was recorded by Dave French, at a few different studios including CHAOS in (Georgetown), The Studio With No Name (Interbay). The album was finished, mixed/mastered at Robert Lang Studios by Adam Kasper and contains a recording of frog ribbits.^[5]

On June 25, 2013, Shepherd announced he would be releasing the solo album entitled In Deep Owl on August 27, 2013 under the name HBS. Shepherd premiered the first single "Baron Robber" on Spin.^[6] The drummer on "Baron Robber" is Joseph Braley who also drums for Seattle based band The Mother's Anger and the band Reignwolf.^[7][8] Featured musicians include:

• Ben Shepherd - Guitar, Bass guitar, Vocals, Mandolin, Drums
• Matt Cameron - Drums, percussion
• Matt Chamberlain - Drums, percussion
• Joseph Braley - Drums, percussion
• Greg Gilmore - Drums, percussion
• Klaus - Winds (Sax)

Discography

HBS

• In Deep Owl (2013)

600 School

• Live recording (circa 1982)

March of Crimes

• Fairweather Friend demo (recorded circa 1984)

Tic Dolly Row

• Live recording (1987)

Soundgarden

• Badmotorfinger (1991)
• Superunknown (1994)
• Songs from the Superunknown (1995)
• Down on the Upside (1996)
• A-Sides (1997)
• Telephantasm (2010)
• Live on I-5 (2011)
• King Animal (2012)

Hater

• Hater (1993)
• Hempilation: Freedom Is NORML (1995)
• The 2nd (2005)

Wellwater Conspiracy

• Declaration of Conformity (1997)

With Mark Lanegan

• Field Songs

Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Bass, Piano, Vocals, Lap Steel Guitar (Wrote track 10: "Blues for D") (2001)

References