Ben Searles(IV)
- Sound Department
- Composer
Ben Searles is a multi-disciplinary artist and engineer. A composer, engineer, producer, mixer, sound designer, recording engineer, post production engineer and performer/DJ. Ben lives on the west coast of Canada just outside Vancouver. His musical roots run deep and his journey started at a young age in rural southern Ontario Canada.
Starting first with classical music in piano followed by flute he later turned his attention to percussion and drums. As he grew older his desire to hear new sounds lead him into the realms of electronic music. It was this immersion in electronic music and DJ culture that furthered his interest into engineering and a deeper understanding of electronic music production. Most recently Ben has turned his sights on sound meeting picture. Building on his early history of composition (A Love Poem, 2008) a quest for deeper understanding of sound with picture has lead him into the realms of post production. After returning to school and completing a diploma in Post Production from Nimbus School of Recording and a CSARN Mentorship with Re-recording engineer Keith Elliott, Ben has begun his journey into the Sound Department. Credits for 2022 include re-recording mixer, sound design, sound effects editor and Foley recordist.
The quest to learn more in the engineering and production worlds has at the same time led him to west coast studio The Farm Studios where he mentors, engineers and programs with and for music producer Garth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Biffy Clyro, Red Hot Chillipeppers). Spending time making records and learning from Garth continues to be an invaluable experience and has already seen Ben work on and be a part of Kensington's Gold and Platinum records coming from their work on Kensington's "Time" album that was produced by Garth and mixed by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Paul McCartney) released late 2019.
While working at Garth's at The Farm studios Ben had the opportunity to meet and work with Devin Townsend as an additional engineer on his Empath album released on Sony Music. Ben was been invited to take part in Devin's most recent albums Puzzle and Snuggles. Composing and contributing keyboards and synths parts to the album's Puzzle and Snuggles, Ben was honoured to join Devin and his other contributors including Morgan Agren (Frank Zappa), Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa), Steve Via and Che Aimee Dorval.
Ben worked on a number of exciting albums for and at Garth's studio, including Cuban-Canadian Grammy Award Winning Artist Alex Cuba on his record "Sublime". Alex Cuba was nominated for Latin Grammy for Sing Songwriter album of the year.for "Sublime" and Engineer John Bailey was nominated for Latin Grammy for Engineer of the Year. Engineer John Bailey was nominated for and won the Juno, Engineer of the Year for "Sublime". Most recently Alex Cuba won the 2022 Grammy for Latin music for his album Mendo which includes a song Ben worked on as assistant Engineer with Engineer John Bailey.
Whilst the engineer side of Ben runs deep, so does the creative side. Composing new music for various projects has Ben exploring a number of different areas. 2022 sees the return of one of Ben's original solo electronic music projects, Sela. This project explores bass music spanning genres and tempos. In addition to electronic music focused on the dance floor, Ben has expanded to start composing more score, underscore and ambient music suitable for picture. This complements a foundation in Electronic music that was built on a catalog of successful releases with his brother Josh J Searles and their bass music duo Daega Sound. Spanning the early days of Dubstep and Bass Music to present day, Daega Sound has over 50 releases vinyl, CD and digital including a #1 release on Dubstep pioneer Hatcha's Hatched label and saw the release on seminal Record Label LoDubs that included a remix from one of the UK's most well-known dubstep originators, Kromestar.
Starting first with classical music in piano followed by flute he later turned his attention to percussion and drums. As he grew older his desire to hear new sounds lead him into the realms of electronic music. It was this immersion in electronic music and DJ culture that furthered his interest into engineering and a deeper understanding of electronic music production. Most recently Ben has turned his sights on sound meeting picture. Building on his early history of composition (A Love Poem, 2008) a quest for deeper understanding of sound with picture has lead him into the realms of post production. After returning to school and completing a diploma in Post Production from Nimbus School of Recording and a CSARN Mentorship with Re-recording engineer Keith Elliott, Ben has begun his journey into the Sound Department. Credits for 2022 include re-recording mixer, sound design, sound effects editor and Foley recordist.
The quest to learn more in the engineering and production worlds has at the same time led him to west coast studio The Farm Studios where he mentors, engineers and programs with and for music producer Garth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine, Biffy Clyro, Red Hot Chillipeppers). Spending time making records and learning from Garth continues to be an invaluable experience and has already seen Ben work on and be a part of Kensington's Gold and Platinum records coming from their work on Kensington's "Time" album that was produced by Garth and mixed by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Paul McCartney) released late 2019.
While working at Garth's at The Farm studios Ben had the opportunity to meet and work with Devin Townsend as an additional engineer on his Empath album released on Sony Music. Ben was been invited to take part in Devin's most recent albums Puzzle and Snuggles. Composing and contributing keyboards and synths parts to the album's Puzzle and Snuggles, Ben was honoured to join Devin and his other contributors including Morgan Agren (Frank Zappa), Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa), Steve Via and Che Aimee Dorval.
Ben worked on a number of exciting albums for and at Garth's studio, including Cuban-Canadian Grammy Award Winning Artist Alex Cuba on his record "Sublime". Alex Cuba was nominated for Latin Grammy for Sing Songwriter album of the year.for "Sublime" and Engineer John Bailey was nominated for Latin Grammy for Engineer of the Year. Engineer John Bailey was nominated for and won the Juno, Engineer of the Year for "Sublime". Most recently Alex Cuba won the 2022 Grammy for Latin music for his album Mendo which includes a song Ben worked on as assistant Engineer with Engineer John Bailey.
Whilst the engineer side of Ben runs deep, so does the creative side. Composing new music for various projects has Ben exploring a number of different areas. 2022 sees the return of one of Ben's original solo electronic music projects, Sela. This project explores bass music spanning genres and tempos. In addition to electronic music focused on the dance floor, Ben has expanded to start composing more score, underscore and ambient music suitable for picture. This complements a foundation in Electronic music that was built on a catalog of successful releases with his brother Josh J Searles and their bass music duo Daega Sound. Spanning the early days of Dubstep and Bass Music to present day, Daega Sound has over 50 releases vinyl, CD and digital including a #1 release on Dubstep pioneer Hatcha's Hatched label and saw the release on seminal Record Label LoDubs that included a remix from one of the UK's most well-known dubstep originators, Kromestar.