Wunderkind singer-songwriter Ben Lee is currently enjoying the raves that are rolling in for his third solo album, "Breathing Tornados," and one of the many recent changes in the 20-year-old veteran's life is the fact that he's now making his home in the United States.

Lee has many reasons for living half a world away from his native Australia, and they don't all have to do with his high-profile relationship with actress Claire Danes. Recently he told MTV News that the nature of his notoriety down under made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"I mean, it's like, embarrassing in Australia if you have ambition, you know what I mean?" Lee mused. "It's seen as kind of being a trader, like you're meant to stick with the pack and not stick out too much."

Frustrated by the constraints his Australian critics (and fans) were putting on him, Lee decided what he needed to do was turn his attitude up to 11.

"I've been getting this lumped on me from day one in Australia, that like, I've been too ambitious, and I've wanted too much," he explained. "I should just be good and stay in the country and just be quiet, and I was like, you know what? If you want me to play the role of someone who's gonna represent that, I'm gonna do it properly, 'cause you know, if you're gonna make me piss people off, then I'll do it."

Trouble is, the ploy left a lot of folks feeling cold. Especially when Lee decided to rank himself above one venerated combo in the Aussie Rock pantheon -- even with his tongue (semi-)firmly in cheek.

"In every interview I did, I said this ['Tornados'] is the greatest Australian album of all time, and I just left it that, with absolutely no irony or anything," said Lee. "I believe it. It's a great record. 'Back in Black' was good too, by AC/DC, but this is a lot better, and people went ballistic. I mean, in a way, it was really disappointing, because I expected that everyone would take the humor in it." {ReaVideo]

Now Lee is living in a place where such irony would be better appreciated, but he's still not giving up on his homeland for good.

"I'm not settled," he explained. "I can't be settled yet. I have a lot of things in my life, like I'm in a serious relationship. I work really hard on my career. But geographically I'm in turmoil, and I'm being torn apart."

He added, "I have such strong feelings about where I'm from. It shaped so much of me, and so much of the Australian landscape is inside me, that eventually I'll have to make some kind of decision. But at the moment, I want everything. I don't want to decide."

For more on Ben Lee, be sure to check out this week's MTV Online Feature.