Ben Moody

After achieving both popular and critical success--including a Grammy for Best New Artist in 2003--songwriter/guitarist and co-founder of Evanescence, Ben Moody, walked away. Due to creative and personal differences with bandmate Amy Lee, he left the popular band in 2003. After winning a battle with alcohol and drug addiction, he re-emerged to collaborate with the likes of Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson and contributed music for the Fantastic Four and The Punisher soundtracks. He also established his own film and TV production company, Makeshift Films.

His first solo effort, Can't Regret What You Can't Remember is slated for release in late 2005. On the album, Moody will be joined by Marty O'Brien (bassist, Methods of Mayhem), Lance Garvin (drummer, Living Sacrifice), studio guitarist Michael "Fish" Herring, and Jason Miller (Godhead), who sings lead on a few of the album's tracks.

Ryan Cabrera

Guitarist, songwriter, and Texas native Ryan Cabrera never planned on a career in music. His hobby turned into a passion after hearing Dave Matthews, causing him to turn his back on the noisy punk rock of his high-school band, Caine, and pick up an acoustic guitar for the newly minted Rubic's Groove. The group found popularity in the Dallas area, sharing stages with Cheap Trick, Ben Harper, and Third Eye Blind, before Cabrera's departure. Making the most of a block of studio time -- a birthday present from his brother -- the high-school dropout cut three original songs that impressed the engineer enough to offer the opportunity to do a full-length -- for free. Elm Street was a self-released success, selling out locally and garnering favorable reviews and a deluge of Internet orders. In 2001, Cabrera signed to Atlantic, which scheduled the long-player Take It All Away for release in 2004. Assisting behind the boards were Sabelle Breer and Curt Frasca (Avril Lavigne), Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams), and co-producer Johnny Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls). You Stand Watching arrived the following year. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide

Ben Lee

In a music culture where bands dominate, Ben Lee is the youngest singer/songwriter to make an impression on Australian music. Even before his solo career, in his early teens Lee came to attention as a member of Sydney band Noise Addict.

In 1993, on the strength of a self-produced and distributed four-track demo recorded in Lee's bedroom that the four Sydney school friends sent out, the head of independent Fallaheen Records Steve Pavlovic (as a promoter he brought Nirvana to Australia at the same time as Nevermind was reaching number one) went to watch the band make their debut performance in 1993 at a library book sale. He signed them to a record deal and Pavlovic's connections immediately won the band high-profile support spots and some famous fans.

Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore became a champion for Noise Addict and released the group's demo tape as an EP entitled DEF in the U.S. on his Ecstatic Peace label. Things were happening quickly and kept happening quickly. At the time, Noise Addict's average age was 14. The first single was "I Wish I Was Him," a satirical tribute to the Lemonheads' Evan Dando. Dando himself heard it and recorded a cover version. The Beastie Boys' Mike Diamond heard it and asked to be allowed to issue the song as one of the first releases on the Beastie Boys' own label, Grand Royal, followed by the Young and Jaded EP, six acoustic songs again recorded in Lee's bedroom.

Touring was limited because of the group's schooling commitments. Instead, Lee followed interest in his music by recording his first solo album, Grandpaw Would, in Sydney and Chicago with producer Brad Wood and toured the U.S. on his own with an American backing band. Lee was now 16. When school was finally out, Noise Addict recorded and released an album and packed their bags for a U.S. tour at last. They broke up soon after and Lee, now 18, went back to his acoustic guitar for his next solo album, Something to Remember Me By, again produced by Wood.

His "boy genius" reputation was starting to affect him. Rightly or wrongly, he thought that America celebrated his youthfulness, while it was held against him in Australia. Lee was in the unusual situation of selling more records in America than at his home, in numbers and per capita. That changed with the release of 1998's Breathing Tornadoes, dreamed up in his Los Angeles apartment and polished in the studio using mostly synthesized sounds. The single "Cigarettes Will Kill You" almost became a national hit in Australia when it was finally released on single after months of airplay as an album track. Lee was also finding himself achieving celebrity status by osmosis, thanks to his relationship with actress Claire Danes.

Hey You. Yes You. was released on the Modular label in 2002, and Awake Is the New Sleep followed in 2005. Directly after that album was completed, Lee started work on his next album, spending nearly three years perfecting it and whittling 80 songs down to 12 in a big-time studio. In September 2007 he chalked up 15 years in the music business by unveiling his newest creation, Ripe. ~ Ed Nimmervoll, All Music Guide

C-Rayz Walz

Socially conscious and a skilled freestyler, underground rapper C-Rayz Walz had been participating in open mics around New York City before hooking with the Stronghold collective. Walz's earliest appearances include mixtapes, an AWOL magazine compilation, and Single Minded Pros' Session 2 EP. A demo-filled first album, The Prelude, appeared on his own Sun Cycle Entertainment imprint in late 2001 and soon caught the attention of the folks at Definitive Jux. A guest feature on Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein with fellow Stronghold member L.I.F.E. and an appearance on Aesop Rock's Labor Days kicked off his relationship with the label. Definitive Jux released Walz's proper debut, Ravipops, in 2003. The EP We Live: The Black Samurai appeared in 2004. Walz took a break after the EP's release and spent most of his time off in seclusion. Burning his old rhyme books was a cathartic act that freed the rapper's creativity for his next album. The full-length Year of the Beast hit the streets in 2005 with El-P, Jean Grae, Aesop Rock, and Rob Sonic all making guest appearances. Though the death of his brother sidetracked him somewhat, he still released a set of new material, 1975: Return of the Beast, on Draft Records the following year. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide

Ben Kweller

A lot of kids are raised in musical families, but few had the introduction to music that Ben Kweller had. Nils Lofgren was one of Kweller's father's buddies during Lofgren's days with Bruce Springsteen. Young Kweller, not even old enough for kindergarten at the time, would try to be like the famous guitarist when he picked up his own toy version of the instrument. He played the piano since his very early childhood and by the age of eight had graduated from toy guitars and simply tapping the ivories to penning his own tunes. The following year, he received a nod of encouragement from Billboard magazine when it conferred an honorable mention on the youth for his entry into its yearly songwriters competition. By the time he hit his teen years, Kweller was accomplished on the guitar and also played the drums. As many teenagers do, he pulled together a band, which he dubbed Mirage. He followed up with groups named Green Eggs & Ham and Foxglove.

In 1993, with Bryan Blur on bass and John Kent on drums, Kweller established Radish. The group made its mark on the local Dallas scene, not far from Greenville, TX, where Kweller was raised. In 1994, the musical wunderkind and his outfit put out the EP Hello through Practice Amp Records. That same year, the label released the album Dizzy. Roger Greenawalt, a producer, stepped into the picture in 1995. He led Radish through the production of a demo that led to the inking of a contract with Mercury during the summer of 1996. The label released Restraining Bolt the following spring, and Kweller led Radish through European and American tours and stops on late-night television talk shows, including The Conan O'Brian Show and Late Night With David Letterman. When Radish disbanded in 1999, Kweller headed east, in the spring, to Guilford, CT, where he stayed only a short time before relocating to Brooklyn, NY, the following November. Not yet 20 years old, he signed with Island Records as a solo artist. He spent time touring with such artists as Juliana Hatfield, Guster, Kristin Hersh, and Evan Dando. He also collaborated with Ben Folds and Ben Lee for a series of dates down under in 2003 and appeared on Folds' limited-edition EP The Bens. Kweller's sophomore effort, the much more subdued On My Way, followed in spring 2004. Two years later, he returned with his self-titled third album, on which he played all the instruments. ~ Linda Seida, All Music Guide