Benjamin Speed

Benjamin Peter Speed is an Australian musician, producer, and composer. He previously performed and recorded as Mister Speed, Mr Speed, and more recently as Mister Benjamin Speed. He was vocalist and songwriter in the Australian alternative, electronic, and hip hop duo The New Pollutants, along with producer and musician DJ Tr!p. They performed live at many festivals and as support acts, and also released music. They were best known for their Metropolis Rescore, a new soundtrack to Fritz Lang's famous silent film Metropolis. Speed has composed many other scores for film and television, for which he has won awards.

Early life and education Benjamin Peter Speed He says that he was "named by [his] brother and sister after Beatrix Potter's books The Tale of Benjamin Bunny and The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

His parents were separated when he was a child. Living with his mother, he grew up without television, meat, or junk food. He spent every second weekend at his father's house, and he enjoyed listening to his father's music, which included Michael Jackson's Thriller and Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms. He learnt to play classical guitar at school, playing in the school orchestra and then the high school band, which played grunge music, including covers of Nirvana songs, as well as other rock classics. Late in high school he started making electronic music, inspired by crossover hip hop bands, such as Rage Against the Machine, Beastie Boys, and later DJ Shadow. He graduated with a music technology honours degree

The New Pollutants

Speed formed The New Pollutants in 2001 with Australian musician Tyson Hopprich (DJ Tr!p). "DJ Trip", according to Hopprich, "arrived in about year 10". By 2002 he had released several tracks, including "Vinyl Perplexa", "Recyclise", "Recyclise Reinterpreted", and an EP, Rock the beat (EP). In 2002 he was DJ'ing on Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Crown & Anchor Hotel.

Their sound traversed through a number of different genres, including lo-fi, trip hop, electro, Commodore 64 music, 1950s and 1960s pop, comedy, alternative hip hop, and electronica. Rachel Paterson wrote in RealTime Arts in 2003: "The New Pollutants are intellectual hip-hop with an experimental edge. These guys have their own sound, it's global and it's local and it has evolved from who these artists are... The live experience integrates visual experiments with original sound and a theatrical, interactive edge".

Hygene Atoms The New Pollutants released Hygene Atoms in 2002. The duo were compared to Buck 65, Tricky, and DJ Shadow after the release of Hygene Atoms.

Using tracks recorded between 2002 and 2004, in July 2004 they released Urban Professional Nightmares as a Twelve-inch single. The music was created using lo-fi technology, including a Commodore 64 SID chip. and other music and film festivals, including the 2006 Edinburgh International Film Festival. ACMI described the soundtrack as "an infectious and unique approach ranging from Germanic trip hop and lo-fi electronica to unforgettable classical and breathtaking cinematica".

In 2011, a newly updated score was composed to the 2010 restoration version, which has an extra 30 minutes of footage originally thought lost.

On 7 March 2021, the film was screened with The New Pollutants performing their re-score live at Federation Square in Melbourne, presented by Insite Arts.

Live performances In September 2001, The New Pollutants played Electrofringe: Independent Electronic Labels Conference 2001 in Newcastle, playing alongside Anticon, Mad Professor, and others. In the following month, they supported Anticon on part of their Australian tour.

Recognition and awards

Sydney's 3D World magazine named their single "CD release of the week" for September 2002. Their tracks were included in albums on labels such as Surgery Records, ABC, LaTrobe, and Semikazi.

They were a Top 15 finalist in the Ninja Tune/Big Dada/UKHH.com remix competition, with more than 300 entries from around the world.

During his time as part of The New Pollutants, Speed also released some songs on his Myspace page, described as following "a skewed and slightly surreal geeky hip-hop aesthetic". These songs were noticed by Australian independent record label Creative Vibes, leading to a record deal for a solo album. Chris Downton noted in Cyclic Defrost: The Dreamer appears primed to take his compositions and productions to a new audience considerably broader than those previously familiar with his work as one half of The New Pollutants. Particular apparent upon even an initial listen is the diversity of musical touchstones and influences that have gone into its creation, with everything from Central European folk instrumentation ("You Should Be Dancing") to 1950s-styled rock n' roll ("Ready For Action") / skiffle and jazz-tinged dub ("Can't Get Home") rearing its head over the album's fourteen track running length". The style is more eclectic than Speed's previous work with The New Pollutants, and Speed described the album as "1950s laptop hip-pop". He also said that he had "wanted to emphasise the idea of 'oneness' and I particularly wanted to be both musically and lyrically more positive" [than in The New Pollutants' music].

Also for The People's Republic of Animation, he wrote the score for the animated short film Carnivore Reflux (2006). and won numerous other awards.

In 2010 he won an APRA/AGSC Award for his work on the series Itty Bitty Ditties.

Speed has also worked with Closer Productions on their films and television series. In 2013 he composed the music for Sundance and Berlin Film Festival award-winning film 52 Tuesdays directed by Sophie Hyde, In 2016 he said that had been his best "pinch yourself" moment so far.

Speed composed for the feature documentaries The Snowman in 2010, which won the Australian Documentary Prize and was nominated for an AFI Award.

In 2019, he worked with Leigh Marsh to compose the film score for Zane Roach's short film 37 Things (released 2020).

In 2022, Speed composed and played "Monos Lithos" as the film score for the scifi thriller from Monolith, which one reviewer called "pitch perfect" for the film, and was praised by several others. In 2023, Speed composed the score for the film The Portable Door starring Christoph Waltz and Sam Neill. It won Feature Film Score of the Year at the 2023 Screen Music Awards, in which his "Monos Lithos" from Monolith was also nominated, for Best Original Song Composed for the Screen.

He also composed the scores for Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls (2012); In My Blood It Runs (2019); A Game of Three Halves (2020); This Is Port Adelaide (2021); and Make It Look Real (2024).

In Sydney, he taught film composition at AFTRS. The related annual Screen Music Awards were first presented in 2002 by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2009 The Cat Piano (Benjamin Speed) Best Music for a Short Film

Itty Bitty Ditties (Thomas Bettany, Speed) Best Music for Children's Television

The Snowman (Speed) Best Music for a Documentary 2014 Time Tremors – Series 1 Best Music for Children's Television

The Portable Door (Speed) Feature Film Score of the Year

"Monos Lithos" from Monolith Best Original Song Composed for the Screen 2025 Eat The Invaders Best Music for Unscripted & Reality Television Series

Other awards and nominations ?: South Australian Award for Excellence in Arts Education 2006: Best Original Score, St Kilda Film Festival, for Carnivore Reflux 2020: Co-winner, with Leigh Marsh, Best Music Composition at the South Australian Screen Awards, for 37 Things