Ben Varon

Ben Varon
Ben Varon at Tuska Open Air 2012
Background information
Birth name	Ben Varon
Born	(1983-11-18) 18 November 1983 (age 33)
Origin	Helsinki, Finland
Genres	Metal, hard rock
Instruments	guitar
Years active	1997 – present
Labels	Imperial Cassette
Associated acts	Amoral
Website	amoralweb.com

Ben Varon (born 18 November 1983) is a Finnish guitarist and music maker. He is known as a guitarist of the Finnish metal band Amoral and he is one of its founders.

Ben Varon started playing guitar when he was 11–12 years old. He had been begging for an electric guitar for about a year, and finally got a Strat copy as a birthday present from his parents. The first few years went by without much progress: He did take a few lessons to get started, but did not really practice much at all. Ben tells at his bio that it was only later when he understood, that if he wanted to go anywhere with his playing he should start to work on it.

1997 at the age of 14 Ben Varon started to play with Juhana Karlsson, with whom he went to the same school. They started by jamming on a couple of Metallica songs. That was the first time Ben played together with another musician. They went on jamming as often as possible. Amoral was founded 1997.

Ben Varon is mostly self-taught, but he has taken some lessons over the years. First, when he got started to learn to tune the guitar and to form a power chord. Then, a few years later when he started actually to practice, he took lessons for a while at Pop & Jazz conservatory in Helsinki. Ben was taught also by the Finnish legend Roope Latvala around 2001 about scales and modes including some of Stone licks, in which he was very interested that time.

The biggest influence on Ben Varon's music had been Slash, the guitarist of Guns 'N Roses and Pantera's murdered guitarist Dimebag Darrell. Slash, with the pompous Use Your Illusion songs, blew Ben's mind up and has been the reason to him to start to play guitar. A bit later on Varon got into Pantera, but Dime's playing has affected him until now. Both the lead and rhythm work of Dime has inspired him greatly. Some other sources of inspiration include Nuno Bettencourt, Roope Latvala, Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde.

From 2007 Varon has played also at Dimebag Beyond Forever - tribute act. 2011 Varon played at Tornado's album Amsterdamn,Hellsinki. Varon plays also in Andy McCoy´s band Grease Helmet, which was created 2012. Crease Helmet released one album in 2012.