Ben Abraham is a Los Angeles-based, Australian-born singer/songwriter with a talent for pairing profoundly personal lyrics with soulful and cinematic indie folk with electronic flourishes. Emerging in 2014 with
Sirens, he has collaborated with many musicians, including
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis,
Demi Lovato,
the Chicks,
Sara Bareilles, and
Kesha -- he co-wrote the latter artist's Grammy Award-winning "Praying." In 2022,
Abraham returned with his second full-length,
Friendly Fire.
A native of Melbourne,
Abraham originally set out to be a screenwriter. The child of two Indonesian pop stars who hit it big in the 1970s with their band Pahama, he grew up surrounded by music. A multi-instrumentalist with a soulful voice, he began writing his own songs in his late teens/early twenties while working in a hospital. Eight years later, a seasoned
Abraham was putting the finishing touches on his self-produced debut album, which featured contributions from
Gotye, Tim Shiel, and
Sara Bareilles. The resulting
Sirens, a deeply personal collection of atmospheric and earnest indie folk-pop, was released to critical acclaim on Secretly Canadian in early 2016. An in-demand songwriter,
Abraham spent the next few years working with others, but a period of personal upheaval prompted him to shift his focus back to his own music. Working with producer
James Flannigan (
Dua Lipa), he decamped to L.A.'s Barefoot Studios and began work on his forthcoming sophomore effort. Beginning in 2021, he released a succession of singles including the cathartic "Like a Circle" and "War in Your Arms" in 2021.
Abraham's second album,
Friendly Fire, was released by Atlantic in March of 2022. ~ James Christopher Monger