This is my friend Ben – I was actually going to steal another picture of him as he’s the chief composer for Ubisoft Asia and I wanted to tie-in my new job; but then I got thinking about Ben and while I’ve told everyone I’ve come into contact with here about him, I should break-it-on-down for the people who don’t know.

I first met Ben when he came to one of our indie nights at a local venue to go on the air and promote his involvement with a ‘noise’ show (pictured)- within 10 minutes of meeting him, I was totally enamored. Since then, he’s amazed us all with his piano/guitar/singing ability (an ability that led to the tour de force named ‘Ben and Aric’), sung backwards to impress his now-girlfriend, recalled a rap he once wrote in high school about the periodic tables and once stuck an entire mobile phone in his mouth. Fluent in French, not-too-far-away in Mandarin, raised in Kenya, composing music for Tom Clancy’s new game and practicer of his own mantra, one that actually makes sense:

‘If I fall asleep in the bar, then no one can say that I was lame and went home early – I’m technically still out’.

Ben is, by far, my coolest friend.

…on a related note, I got a call from a Japanese film director on Friday letting me know that I had been cast to play the ‘playboy assassin’ in a new video game. VOX work is hard, but to know that my voice will soon be forever immortalized in a sword-wielding partyboy, might make for an early retirement.