Benjamin Goldwasser

MGMT: 2004–present

Goldwasser met Andrew VanWyngarden, the other half of MGMT, in his freshman year at Wesleyan University.^[10] Goldwasser was studying music at the time.^[11] While in college, he was a member of the Eclectic Society.^[12] He helped run the society's music venue (a room in the house). Goldwasser, already a keyboardist, took experimental music classes from composer Ron Kuivila with VanWyngarden which exposed them to progressive musical ideas.^[13] They made their debut as MGMT at a party in a college dormitory (playing the theme to the movie Ghostbusters over and over for hours).^[14] The duo would email one another and sign the emails "The MGMT" as a way of satirizing corporate culture.^[10][15] They chose this email signature line as the name of their new band.^[15]

After graduating from college in 2005,^[4] Goldwasser and VanWyngarden moved to New York City, experimenting with music and building a band.^[13] They immediately went on tour, opening for Of Montreal.^[4] But no record deal came, and the band was on hiatus by 2006.^[16] Goldwasser began working on a farm and was intending to move to California when the duo was signed by Columbia Records.^[15] The band's 2008 release for the label Oracular Spectacular was a major success.^[17] However, the band's sudden success, Goldwasser says, put a serious strain on his friendship with VanWyngarden for a time.^[18] The band released its album Congratulations in April 2010 to generally positive reviews.^[19] Additionally, in 2013, they released their third studio album, self-titled MGMT. In 2014, Ben, along with psychedelic band Foxygen was featured on The Flaming Lips cover album With a Little Help from My Fwends on track 12. In 2021, Goldwasser and Karen O composed the music for the animated film Where Is Anne Frank.