3. Mark James

Markus James Klepaski (born September 11, 1975) is an American bass guitarist, best known as the former bass player for the American rock band, Breaking Benjamin

Biography

“I started playing bass in the 80s when it was all like hair metal bands and stuff out. I originally started playing drums and one of my best friends at the time, who was younger than me, he started playing drums as well. And he was just like a virtuoso…He just was amazing and he basically just blew right past me. He started this band and he was just like "well we have this but we don't have a bass player". No one was like going crazy… Ya know no one was running out to music stores to buy basses back then. Everyone either wanted to be a guitar player or a drummer. So I was just like hmmm well I guess I'll try it. I really didn't know much about the instrument so I was just like alright let's see what this is all about. I started taking Led Zeppelin records and listening to the bass on them and I was just like oh my god this instrument is amazing. I think bass is kinda like the glue that sticks everything together. It was obviously the instrument for me.”

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Before Breaking Benjamin, Mark was the bass guitar player for Lifer (Strangers With Candy). He and guitarist Aaron Fink eventually made the decision to leave Lifer for Breaking Benjamin, headed by good friend Ben Burnley, because of their faith in his songwriting abilities. Mark is also the founder of the clothing line Ke'Kuhn.