Benjamin Schippritt started to play drums on schoolbags at the age of 7. He was supported by his 8 month older uncle, playing air guitar. When he was 11 he took his father's guitar and tried to be Angus Young. In the mid 80s Benjamin was really blown away by guitarists like Yngwie Malmsteen and Vinnie Moore, and practised many hours a day. Of course a school band was formed back then, called Flanger. Actually also a family band was founded, playing loud rock music which their neighbours didn't like ;-) In 1987 he started to record his first instrumental songs on a 4-track tape-recorder. 1990 Benjamin was a member of the rock band Shine Dark, but left it after only 3 month, because he couldn't find his fulfillment there.
A year later his own band Tailgunner was formed. They played lots of gigs in the Ruhrgebiet (west Germany) and they won several band contests. A production of a CD, that unfortunately never was completed followed. In 1993 the recordings however accidentally ended up in the hands of Jörg Michael, drummer of the metal-band Running Wild. At that time he was in the studio with his Art-Metal side-project, House Of Spirits (now he is working with Stratovarius from Finland), and they were looking for a guitar player. Benjamin joined the band and recorded two studio albums with them, besides working as a studio guitarist.
-Turn Of The Tide (1994 / Gun Records)
-Psychosphere (1999 / Century Media Records)
In 1994 he recorded a 5-track instrumental demo tape with his 8-track tape reel machine, and got jazz-guitar lessons from guitarist Andreas Wahl. In 1996 he started a fulltime jazz-study at the Institute for the arts Arnhem in the Netherlands. During this time he was guitarist and composer of the projects Le Voyage Noir (acoustic folk/pop), and Elvisboy (rock). Elvisboy recorded a complete album (Better Learn My Name) which Benjamin was the guitarist, bass-player, composer, arranger and producer of.
During his study in Arnhem, he founded the metal-fusion band Zpawn with other students. In 2001 Benjamin also formed the Fusion-Trio-From-Hell Junk Farm. In the beginning both bands played only instrumental songs. You can describe the style as "Dave Weckl Band meets Annihilator". Both bands where looking for a singer, but everyone was full of doubt about finding the right one.
Benjamin started with the idea to become also the singer of both bands. But only under one condition: Benjamin didn't want to reduce his guitar parts because of that. So he trained hard and had his first successfully singing gig with Zpawn a year later. In 2005 Zpawn broke up, because the members couldn't find enough time to keep it going.
Junk Farm had the opportunity to play with Fates Warning and Freak Kitchen in 2005. In 2007 they signed at Unicorn Digital Inc., a Canadian progressive rock label, for a worldwide release of their 2nd album Ugly Little Thing. Junk Farm is now working on their 3rd cd.
Besides that Benjamin is working on a solo cd, puts his mind into different other projects and works also as a guitar teacher. Always amazed by realizing, that a lifetime is not enough to learn to play everything on that fantastic instrument.
Junk Farm CDs:
-Junk Farm
-Ugly Little Thing
Benjamin is endorser of Pyramid-Strings.
Junk Farm's cd Ugly Little Thing is out now!
It has been released by Unicorn Digital Inc.
Listen here