Ben Kweller has wanted to be a musician ever since he was pretending to be a rock god with his toy guitar as toddler. The indie rocker mastered the piano at a very young age and was writing music before the age of ten. When he was nine, Kweller received an honorable mention in Billboard's annual songwriters competition, foreshadowing the early success that Kweller would experience.

Kweller studied the guitar and drums as he approached his teens and spent time jumping from band to band before starting a group by the name of Radish. Radish received recognition on Dallas' local music scene, not too far from Kweller's hometown of Greenville, in the early ‘90s. Radish released several albums and Kweller spent the bulk of the decade touring with the band and making television appearances on programs such as The Conan O'Brian Show and Late Night With David Letterman.

Still not even 20 years old, Kweller signed a deal with Island Records in 1999 as a solo artist. He released his debut, Freak Out, It's Ben Kweller, the following year. His style reminded a lot of music fans of Beck without the raspy voice. His 2002 follow-up Sha Sha was an impressive sophomore effort. The album is packed with teenage hormones, but isn't restricted to goofy, immature notions. In the introspective "In Other Words" Kweller cries, "The butterflies are passive aggressive and put their problems on the shelf but they're beautiful/He'll realize the only thing that's real are the kids that kid themselves and the demise of the beautiful/What is beautiful?"

Kweller followed with On My Way in 2004 and a self-titled album, on which he displays his musical versatility by playing all of the instruments, in 2006. Kweller's eccentric, whimsical ways have garnered him some attention, but his music's appeal to the indie scene is what has made him an artist worth noting.