{"id":107985,"date":"2025-08-31T03:30:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107985\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T03:30:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T03:30:14","slug":"musician-ben-lee-on-finding-balance-in-a-busy-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107985\/","title":{"rendered":"Musician Ben Lee on finding balance in a busy life"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a touring musician, producer, DJ, podcaster, father and husband, Ben Lee is no stranger to multitasking.<\/p>\n

Since entering the public consciousness at 14 with his band Noise Addict, he has released 15 solo albums, acted alongside Rose Byrne and undertaken numerous explorations into alternative spirituality.<\/p>\n

He now hosts the podcast Weirder Together with his wife, actor and author Ione Skye and is about to embark on a national tour to mark the 20th anniversary of his double platinum album Awake is the New Sleep.<\/p>\n

After spending much of the past three decades in the United States, last year he moved back to Australia with Skye, their teenage daughter, Goldie, and stepdaughter Kate.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Lee and his wife, actor and author Ione Skye, host the podcast Weirder Together. (Supplied: Ben Lee)<\/p>\n

“I feel like, as artists, we have to somewhat go with the flow of life, where the work is, where the energy is, and it does feel like an amazing time to be in Sydney, creatively,” Lee says.<\/p>\n

They live on the traditional lands of the Gadigal and Birrabirragal people with their dog, Gus. Ben shares how he finds balance in a busy life.<\/p>\n

Unwind with \u2026 is a column that explores the simple ways interesting people take care of themselves.<\/p>\n

A typical day for me involves\u2026<\/p>\n

I get up early. I have a teenager, so I pack her some lunch and get her off to school. I’m enjoying exercising, I feel like late 40s is the right time, so I’m working out, doing Pilates.<\/p>\n

I’ve always really thrived on variety, so I always have a lot of different projects and different collaborations and different things happening. At the moment, it’s quite chill because I’ve got this bigger tour later in the year, so I deliberately took a bit of time off the road.<\/p>\n

We do a lot of social things in the evenings and part of what’s been fun about the podcast growing is we get invited to so many great things, and now it’s nice because our kids are older, [so] we can do that.<\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/p>\n

Ben Lee with Grammy winning English musician Jacob Collier after a recent event in Sydney. (Supplied: Ben Lee)<\/p>\n

For me, a break looks like\u2026How Dominic Field unwinds<\/a><\/p>\n

Dominic Field’ latest role in the Wiggles, as the Tree of Wisdom, has taken his career to new heights. He shares how he finds time to relax and enjoy his downtime.<\/p>\n

As a freelance artist, I have somewhat of a resistance to holidays \u2026 because you feel like either you don’t deserve them, or [think], ‘Is work going to come up?’<\/p>\n

I always look at people that have “normal” jobs and just the way they know what their year’s going to be like seems so crazy for me.<\/p>\n

But me and Ione are going to go to Bangkok the week after next for me to get some suits made for the tour.<\/p>\n

That’s kind of my favourite type of holiday, where you make it like a work holiday, sort of, and tie in some fun.<\/p>\n

To find balance during busy periods\u2026<\/p>\n

I talk to my wife. I love just having some time to just break it down, like, go for a walk and a talk and every now and then.<\/p>\n

It’ll maybe have been a stressful day, or there’s parenting things going on and we’re like, ‘Do you want to go get a martini at Paradise?’, which is a little wine bar we like up in Potts Point. We’ll go for 45 minutes and just talk and go, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to remember to do this, this is so grounding’.<\/p>\n

It just brings it back to two people who want to help each other get through. It’s really nice.<\/p>\n

My favourite place to unwind\u2026\"A<\/p>\n

A secluded Central Coast beach is one of Ben Lee’s favourite places to relax. (Google Maps)<\/p>\n

Anytime I’m touring up and down the [NSW] Central Coast and have the chance to step onto a beach that’s got no-one on it.<\/p>\n

You might have driven for four or five hours and suddenly you’re just like walking out onto this beautiful piece of coastline that’s just empty.<\/p>\n

That’s one of my favourite experiences.<\/p>\n

Changes I have made or tasks I have stopped doing\u2026<\/p>\n

I micromanage things that I’m involved in quite a lot and I’m starting to realise \u2026 your time is limited and there are things you can delegate.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Realising time is limited and it is OK to delegate tasks for others has been a game-changer for Ben Lee. (Supplied: Ben Lee)<\/p>\n

So, in general, I’m more open to delegation of admin than I’ve ever been and I’m more of a believer in that having more time to be creative is worth respecting.<\/p>\n

A piece of advice I often turn to\u2026<\/p>\n

I suppose the most fundamental thing spiritual exploration has given me is a firm belief that the life that happens to you is where you’ll learn the lessons you need to learn.<\/p>\n

Stream now on ABC iview <\/a><\/p>\n

The enigmatic Isabelle arrives in the quiet seaside cul-de-sac of Pleasant Court \u2014 and suspicions quickly rise. Stream all episodes now on ABC iview.<\/p>\n

It’s not from some esoteric book that only a few people have access to, or that’s hidden in a church, in a vault, or anything like that.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying everything happens for a reason, but you can have that attitude and that belief and learn from everything, and everything is useful in a way.<\/p>\n

I guess that’s the main thing, not living like a victim of circumstance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a touring musician, producer, DJ, podcaster, father and husband, Ben Lee is no stranger to multitasking. Since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,77426,77425,134,17870,10365,136,19791,61289,6602],"class_list":["post-107985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-awake-is-the-new-sleep","tag-ben-lee","tag-entertainment","tag-ione-skye","tag-leisure","tag-music","tag-rest","tag-spirituality","tag-work-life-balance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}