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Background information
Origin	Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA
Genre(s)	Post-Grunge Alternative Metal Hard Rock
Years active	1998 - present
Label(s)	Hollywood Records
Website	Official Site
Members
Benjamin Burnley Aaron Fink Mark James Chad Szeliga
Former members
Jeremy Hummel Jonathan Price

Breaking Benjamin is an American post grunge band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Contents 1 Band history 2 Members 2.1 Current 2.2 Former 2.3 Temporary 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 3.2 EPs 3.3 Singles 4 Trivia 5 Filmography 6 External links

Formed in 1998 by vocalist Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel, Breaking Benjamin quickly garnered a strong local following. In 1999, the band briefly renamed themselves "Plan 9." In late 2000, after various line-up changes, the band changed its name back to "Breaking Benjamin" and two friends of Burnley, Aaron Fink and Mark James, left their previous band, Lifer, and joined the ranks of Breaking Benjamin as guitarist and bassist, respectively. Lifer was a band that gained brief mainstream attention because of their part in an MTV cover band contest that resulted in a record deal with Universal Records.

The band signed to Hollywood Records in 2001 after the success of an independently-released, self-titled EP, which sold all 2,000 copies that were manufactured. Hollywood Records released their full-length, major-label debut, Saturate, on August 27, 2002. The album's first single, "Polyamorous", received a fair amount of radio play, although it failed to reach mainstream audiences. A video was released in two different versions for Polyamorous: one that had all live-action footage, and one that had footage of the video game Run Like Hell; both videos can be seen on YouTube. The following single "Skin" was also released from Saturate, although it fared worse than "Polyamorous" and received even less airplay."Skin" was also performed live on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. "Medicate" was also released as a single, to little commercial success and airplay. Saturate has gone on to sell over 300,000 copies.

Breaking Benjamin released their sophomore album, We Are Not Alone, on June 29, 2004. The album featured the leadoff single "So Cold", which reached as high as number two on the United States Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The band had two music videos made for the song, one of which was a promotional video made for the movie Hellboy. The commercial success of "So Cold" led to We Are Not Alone achieving platinum status in late 2005. Also released as singles from the album were "Sooner or Later" and a re- recorded version of "Rain", which was featured on later pressings of the album. While the former again got the band as high as number two on the Mainstream Rock chart and featured a music video, the latter garnered little radio play and had no video created for it. Later in 2004, the band released the So Cold EP. The EP contained live recordings of We Are Not Alone's "So Cold" (an acoustic recording), "Breakdown", and "Away", as well as studio recordings of "Blow Me Away", a song that was featured in Bungie's videogame Halo 2, and "Lady Bug", an early fan favorite of the band's.

In September of 2004, drummer, and founding member of Breaking Benjamin, Jeremy Hummel was relieved of his duties in the band. Subsequently, on September 28, 2005, Hummel filed a federal lawsuit against the remaining members of Breaking Benjamin, as well as its management, claiming he was not paid for songs he helped write. Hummel's lawsuit asked for more than $8 million in damages. A message was released October 25, 2006 on the bands official website stating that the band and Hummel had come to agreement on the lawsuit.

The band released their third album, Phobia, on August 8, 2006; the album debuted at number two on the Billboard album charts. The first single, "The Diary of Jane" was released online on May 22, 2006 and later was released on the radio June 6, 2006. The music video for "The Diary Of Jane" premiered on Yahoo! Music on June 21st, 2006. The song has reached as high as number two on the Mainstream Rock chart. Frontman Ben Burnley indicated on RockLine that Phobia was written so that all the songs could stand as singles, each having an equal opportunity to be next. Soon after, the band announced on their Myspace page and during a live performance that "Breath" will be the next single.

In the fall of 2006 the band began a tour opening for Godsmack along with HourCast for the IV tour, hitting up mostly eastern and Ohio Valley venues, and soon moving out west, still in support of the Phobia album. Several of the shows had been canceled, or turned into Breaking Benjamin headliners due to scheduling conflicts. Many of Breaking Benjamin's tour dates from December 3rd have been rescheduled due to illness in the band's ranks. All dates were rescheduled as the band announced another headlining leg before going on a Nationwide tour with Three Days Grace and Nickelback.

Phobia was certified Gold by the RIAA in November of 2006 for shipments over 500,000 copies.

On March 4, 2007, HDNet premiered a one-hour show of the Breaking Benjamin concert in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at Stabler Arena. This is also the concert that will be included on the Phobia re-release DVD in April of 2007.

On April 17th, 2007, Breaking Benjamin will re-release the album Phobia. The album will feature a DVD with about an hour of concert footage.

The band also recently got their first number 1 single with "Breath."

• Benjamin Burnley - Vocals, Guitar
• Aaron Fink - Guitar
• Mark James - Bass
• Chad Szeliga - Drums

• Jeremy Hummel - Drummer
• Jonathan Price - Bassist

• BC Vaught - Drummer

Fill-in after Jeremy Hummel was relieved of his duties

Image:Breaking_Benjamin_Saturate.jpg |

Saturate
August 27, 2002
#136 US Image:We Are Not Alone.jpg | We Are Not Alone
June 29, 2004
#20 US (Platinum) Image:Phobiaart.jpg | Phobia
August 8, 2006
#2 US (Gold)

• Breaking Benjamin EP (2001)
• Live EP (2004)
• So Cold EP (2004)

Year	Title	Chart positions					Album
		US Hot 100	US Mainstream Rock	US Modern Rock	US Pop 100	US Digital Tracks
2002	"Polyamorous"	-	#19	#31	-	-	Saturate
2003	"Skin"	-	#24	#37	-	-	Saturate
2003	"Medicate"	-	#28	#44	-	-	Saturate
2004	"So Cold"	#76	#2	#3	-	-	We Are Not Alone
2005	"Sooner or Later"	#99	#2	#7	-	-	We Are Not Alone
2005	"Rain (2005 version)"	-	#23	#39	-	-	We Are Not Alone
2006	"The Diary of Jane"	#50	#2	#4	#46	#34	Phobia
2007	"Breath"	#102	#1 (2 weeks)	#7	-	-	Phobia

• The name "Breaking Benjamin" comes from lead vocalist Benjamin Burnley's early solo experience. Burnley was covering a Nirvana song during an open-mic night at a club when he dropped the microphone to the ground, breaking it. The person who owned the microphone came onstage and said, 'Thanks to Benjamin for breaking my fucking mic.'
• According to the band, the Breaking Benjamin logo, a celtic knot, was found in a tattoo book.
• During live shows, the band has been known to frequently cover Nirvana, Tool, Depeche Mode, and on more recent tours Deftones, and Nine Inch Nails songs.
• The first single from the band's sophomore release We Are Not Alone, "So Cold", spent 37 weeks in the top 20 of the Billboard charts (as of February 3, 2005).
• Aaron Fink pointed out that his father joined the band on tour, and that his father's music collection is what originally sparked his interest in music. Gary Fincke is a professor at Susquehanna University and wrote Amp'd: A Father's Backstage Pass about his travels with the band.
• The band created an original cut for the immensely popular video game Halo 2 entitled "Blow Me Away", which can be heard on the So Cold EP & the Halo 2, Vol. 1 Soundtrack.
• Breaking Benjamin contributed a cover of Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever" to Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen.
• The band never travels outside of the U.S. and Canada due to Ben Burnley's fear of flying (though he said he would love to play outside the states and will go as far as a boat will take him).
• At live performances, Breaking Benjamin often plays a brief sound clip of the Wicked Witch of the West prior to playing Home, which has its lyrics largely influenced by The Wizard of Oz (1939 film).
• Singer Ben Burnley says he taught himself to play guitar by listening to Nirvana's "Nevermind."
• The band was planning on releasing a studio version of their cover of "Enjoy the Silence" along with "Ladybug" on the European version of Saturate. However, the European version was never released.

• "Wish I May" was played in the credits of the movie Wrong Turn
• "So Cold" was made a music video for the movie Hellboy
• "Polyamorous" was made a music video for the videogame Run Like Hell
• "Polyamorous" and "Firefly" were featured in the videogames WWE Day of Reckoning and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw
• "The Diary of Jane" was featured in the video game NASCAR 07
• "The Diary of Jane" was also used in a commercial for the FOX television show Bones.
• "The Diary of Jane" and "The Diary of Jane acoustic" was used in the portuguese TV show Vingança
• "Blow Me Away" was featured on the videogame soundtrack Halo 2 vol. 1
• "Breakdown" was featured in a commercial for the ABC Family movie The Hollow
• "Forget It" was featured in an episode of the TV show Smallville
• "Forget It" was also featured in the movie American Pie Presents Band Camp
• "Forget It" was also featured briefly in the background at one scene of the movie National Treasure and the song is mentioned while credit is given to the band members and Billy Corgan (who helped co-write it) in the ending credits
• "Natural Life" was featured in the video game MX Unleashed
• "Breath" was played briefly during the pre-show for Super Bowl XLI
• "Sooner or Later" was played briefly on a episode of Beyond The Break

• The Shallow Bay - Official Site
• Breaking Benjamin at PureVolume
• Breaking Benjamin at MySpace
• Breaking Benjamin at Last.fm
• Breaking Benjamin at All Music Guide
• No Games Fansite

Breaking Benjamin
Benjamin Burnley | Aaron Fink | Mark Klepaski | Chad Szeliga
Discography
Albums: Saturate | We Are Not Alone | Phobia
EPs: Breaking Benjamin EP | Live EP | So Cold EP
Singles: "Polyamorous" | "Skin" | "Medicate" | "So Cold" | "Sooner or Later" | "Rain" | "The Diary of Jane" | "Breath"