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Ben Kasica
Kasica in concert
Background information
Birth name	Benjamin Judah Kasica
Born	(1984-04-15) April 15, 1984 (age 40) St. Louis, Missouri
Genres	Hard rock, Christian rock, alternative metal, nu metal, post-grunge
Occupations	Guitarist producer graphic designer audio engineer designer
Instrument	Guitar

Benjamin Judah Kasica (born April 15, 1984) is a guitarist best known as a former lead guitarist for the Christian rock band Skillet. Since leaving the band he has engaged in producing and engineering recordings and graphic design.

Career

He began playing guitar at age eleven. He joined Skillet in 2001 at the age of sixteen, and recorded the albums Alien Youth, Collide, Comatose (which went Gold on November 18, 2009) and Awake (which went Platinum) with them.

Kasica is known for his many tricks while playing the guitar live on stage. These range from his solos to playing his guitar behind the back of his head. John Cooper said in the YouTube interview that he enjoyed having Kasica in the band "for his integrity; someone who wants to be honest about things." Kasica announced he was leaving Skillet to pursue other interests on February 14, 2011. He was asked to return on a temporary basis on April 11, when Jonathan Salas left. On April 14, he played his next final show, as Seth Morrison played the show the following day.

Other work

Kasica is one of the owners of the clothing brand "LifeLoveMusic", a Christian organization that encourages Christians to "be the light of the world" by "loving the unlovable and sacrificing our lives for others."

Kasica is also the co-owner of Skies Fall Media Group, which offers artists many services; from their website: "Along with the record company, artist development/management and recording studio, Skies Fall Media Group also contains a full service graphic design and professional photography division, model and actor management, and live music production division with more to come."

Kasica was the director/producer of Cellofourte: A String Tribute to Skillet which is an album by Tate Olsen, the cellist for Skillet, doing four-part cello covers of popular Skillet songs.

Kasica produced Skillet's music video, "Not Gonna Die". He is the executive producer for the music video, "Back from the Dead", and made a cameo appearance towards the end of the video.

Guitar equipment

Kasica played GMP Guitars exclusively when he first joined the band. However, he and his fellow Skillet guitarist Korey Cooper later switched to PRS Guitars, most notably the PRS SC 250, and the Mira. For "Awake" Kasica recorded with Gibson Guitars, mostly Gibson Les Pauls.

• PRS SC250
• Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
• Boss DD-7 Digital Delay
• BOSS FS-5U
• Ibanez TS9DX
• Tonebone JX-2 Switchbone
• Vox Wah
• Boss OS-2 Overdrive/Distortion
• Keeley C4 Compressor
• Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler
• Vox AC30HH
• Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier

References

1. "Skillet's "Comatose" Goes Gold, "Awake" Passes 200K In Sales". Ardent Records. November 18, 2009. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
2. Publicada por Nuno Ribeiro (February 14, 2011). "Skillet - "Ben Kasica" leaves the band". HeavyHardMetalmania. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
3. "LLM Clothing: Buy a shirt. Change the world". Lifelovemusic.com. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
4. "Skies Fall Media Group". Skiesfall.com. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
5. "Skies Fall Records". Retrieved July 6, 2012.
6. Childers, Chad. "Skillet, 'Not Gonna Die' - Exclusive Video Premiere". Loudwire. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
7. "Skillet Fights Zombies in New 'Back From The Dead' Video". New Release Today. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
8. "Backstage with... Skillet (GuitarEdge.com)".

• Skillet (band) members
• Living people
• Lead guitarists
• American performers of Christian music
• 1984 births
• American Christians
• American heavy metal guitarists