Ben was born on Wednesday, October 24th, 1979. He is 22 years old presently. To understand the "wild boy" of silverchair, perhaps you have to understand where he comes from and what he has lived through. Ben has his mother's smile. Annette Gillies worked as a cafeteria lady at Newcastle High School. It's not known if she still works there. Ben's father, David, is currently a plumber. He even has an older sister named Kristy. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any pets, but a long time ago, he mentioned that his sister had two parakeets.

Ben's childhood is full of interesting excitement. His funloving nature is pretty abundant as well as the signs of what will be the musical history behind silverchair's drummer! Ben used to have braces when he was little. Who cares? He played local cricket with Daniel. On to his musical history...Ben said in an interview, "I started playing when I was about eight years old and bought my first drum kit for $75. It wasn't too bad and I went on to sell it for $380, so I got a pretty good deal. I got lessons for a few years and learnt all the technical stuff. He had drum lessons for 5 years with two different drum teachers. After Ben started getting into drums, he was a quad drummer in "The Marching Koalas,". He taught Chris how to play bass in 3 months! As Ben reached 11 or 12 years old, he was nicknamed "Short Elvis" for obvious reasons...he was short and he listened to Elvis! His other nickname was "Gillies." As for school, he was a quite excelled student! Although his most hated subject was English ("I hate reading. It sucks! It's so boring," he said on February 4th, the day Freak Show was released), he took classes like advanced maths and marine biology. He dropped out of advanced maths after silverchair started touring.

Ben gained quite an interesting image during the Frogstomp days. He was known as the perverted one and the prankster, short-sheeting silverchair's manager's bed and melting chocolate all over the toilet seat. He was well recognized as the surfer of the band and he STILL surfs quite a lot! His musical influences were bands like Led Zeppelin, Korn, Soundgarden (of which he wore their tee-shirt throughout Frogstomp's tours), and Helmet. Although, as I said above, he hated English, both Ben and Daniel received the award for "Australian Songwriters Of The Year" at the Apra Awards in Sydney.

Once Freak Show came out, Ben's image stayed pretty much the same. He didn't change that much...he still surfed, liked the same bands, played practical jokes, snored (according to Chris), and yet, he had a whole new experience making music. On Freak Show, he experimented with timpanis and other indian-style drums that he was interested in trying out. Then, on March 30th, 1997- Ben shaved his head! He had been disappointed with his performance at the Offshore Festival in Torquay, Victoria because his hair was getting in the way of his drumming. So, he told Daniel to shave it all off. There's been quite a few versions of what happened..."supposedly" Ben was drunk at the time and "supposedly" Daniel used toenail clippers to shave Ben's head instead of an actual razor. As time progressed, Ben's hair grew back and he became "Mohawk Ben." It was an interesting look for silverchair's drummer. Ben's personality shined, though, throughout the Freak Show days. On Outtakes and Misstakes, Ben said of himself, "Hi. My name is Ben Gillies. I am 5 foot something. I weigh 67 kilos. I like water sports, fishing. I like playing my drum kit at home. I like hanging with my friends..." He also started driving. 18th birthdays for guys in Australia are very important! Ben had a huge party at a local surf club, where everyone had to dress up like hippies!

In 1998, Ben's life was like a clash between the past and the present. He went to the beach with his dad every morning. To keep in shape, he swam laps in a local Newcastle pool. For his 19th birthday, he received a new surfboard. Do you see the trend here? Ben has another talent other than being an excellent drummer, surfer, and prankster. He can cook! Once a week, he makes dinner for his family! He usually makes homemade lasagne or chicken in white wine sauce!

During the Neon Ballroom Era Ben was STILL the same great guy he had been 4 years ago when Frogstomp came out. His drumming deeply improved. He's known to be the outgoing one of the band, always nice and signing autographs and glad to pose for a picture! The only thing that's changed a little is his taste in music. Recently, he's really gotten into dance music like Crystal Method, Junky XL, and Death In Vegas. Throughout the tour, Ben has become somewhat of a cinematographer, taking his video camera and taking videos of the crowd and whatever goes on backstage :) He has also done quite a bit of drinking. In November of 1999, he "spewed" over Blink 182's manager...