9 minute read
Meet Alec Benjamin
ALEC BENJAMIN
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Some artists are very good at telling stories and Alec Benjamin is definitely one of them. From his demos posted on YouTube and his performances in the street, the singer-songwriter took a revenge on his first experience in the music industry. The young man who had been dropped from his record label can now boast about his million of views and streams. After a first opus called «Mixtape 1: America» released in 2013, Alec Benjamin became a real storyteller and came back with a new body of work last November: «Narrated For You». Sit down and get to know the little prodigy.
Taken from the music video of « The Other », the first track Ari Leff decided to release as Lauv.
On The Move: Hi Alec, first of all we’re really happy to have you with us today. How’s Paris treating you?
Alec Benjamin: Thanks! I’m really excited to be here. This is the first city that I ever played like on the street in front of another concert. When I got dropped from my record label, I was touring in France and I opened up for this girl named Marina Kaye. We finished with the last tour date and we came back to France. I played at the Olympia theater with her. We came back to Paris and Shawn Mendes was playing and I played in the street in front of his concert. That’s where I started playing on the street in front of people at other people’s shows, I started in Paris. It was the first time I ever did that.
On The Move: That’s a thing you used to do to get people to know you and your songs and you still do it in a way on your YouTube channel today, with your «Can I sing for you» videos. Is this process still important for you? To challenge yourself singing in front of people who don’t know you?
Alec Benjamin: Yeah… I don’t know what it is but it’s not while I’m touring at the same time because my voice gets really tired. Singing for people not on a microphone in public and trying to be loud enough so that people can hear you is really hard on my vocal cords. I prefer only to do that when I don’t have anything else to do.
On The Move: You often take something that you went through as an inspiration for your songs…
Alec Benjamin: Like food poisoning (laugh)!
On The Move: It might be a good song (laugh). What’s the difference between writing for yourself and writing for or with someone else? You wrote «Swim» with someone else for example. If you’re working with someone, do you still write about something you’ve experienced?
Alec Benjamin: Yes I wrote «Swim» with someone else. And that’s what I’m not very good at writing songs for other people because a lot of the songs I write are personal. I think sometimes when you write a song that’s so personal and you use details from your life, it’s hard for other people to sing those songs so only sometimes do I write songs for other people or they have to be like my friends. I’ve only worked with a couple of people on that capacity. But writing songs with other people for me is sometimes helpful because if I get lost or if I get stuck, I’ve somebody that can help me get around those barriers so that’s nice. But it has to be the right collaborator. That’s it.
On The Move: Your mixtape is called «Narrated For You» and a lot of people describe you as a storyteller or as a narrator. What can you tell us about this new body of work?
Alec Benjamin: I chose to do it as a mixtape because I didn’t put all of my favorite songs on it. I have more songs that I think are better suited for the album. I think I will take some of the songs off of this mixtape, like two or three, and put them on the album. That’s why… I didn’t feel like I was ready yet to put out a fulllength album. A lot of people released music before they put out their album and I had been making music for a long time but only released a couple of songs so I feel like I was not really ready to put that much pressure on myself and my music.
On The Move: So maybe later?
Alec Benjamin: Yes next year, the beginning of next year I’ll put out an album. I’m already working on it, it’s almost done…maybe…not really (laugh). I don’t know!
On The Move: Some of your songs are about love, growing up and family but there are still some serious topics like in «Boy In The Bubble». It talks about bullying from a different perspective, which is quite unusual in the music industry. Why did you make this choice?
Alec Benjamin: I don’t know, those are just things that I was thinking about so I just wrote about them. Sometimes I write about things that are unorthodox in music. I talk about topics that other people don’t necessarily talk about as much. I wasn’t really in love while I was writing the songs so it is hard for me to write a bunch of love songs honestly. I guess that’s why those are just some things that were on my mind
at that time. And I think on this next project that I put out, this is going to be different themes. I was thinking that the next project that I do will be like sort of «Narrated For You» but maybe a little darker and a little more grown up.
On The Move: Are you writing songs while you’re on the road?
Alec Benjamin: Yeah I am! As many as I can. Unfortunately on this trip I’ve only written two because our schedule has been so packed. We didn’t have any days off or anything like that and we drove everywhere in a van. We’re not in a tour bus or anything. When you’re on a tour bus you can easily write songs but we’re in a small van. We had a drive a couple days ago, we drove from Warsaw to Amsterdam, that’s 14 hours it sucked! We started in the early morning and we got there late in the night. I didn’t get to see any part of Amsterdam it was such a bummer because everyone is like «Amsterdam is so cool» and I didn’t see anything. We went to the Red Light District late that night it was weird. We walked around for a little bit… I’m not sure how I feel about it. It’s a little weird, but everyone is like «you should go and see it!». We don’t have anything like that in the United States, that’s not legal. I don’t know how I felt about it, it made me feel a little uncomfortable to see people like that in the windows, a little bit sad… Yes it was a little bit sad but I suppose it’s interesting. But everyone goes just to see when they’re there! When we ask people «what should we do?» they just answer «you have to go to the Red Light district» so we went. But there’s also a lot of family restaurants and stuff in the Red Light district like right next door which is so weird. But Amsterdam was cool for what we saw. Anyway, I’m not sure you need to know all that but… (laugh)
On The Move: You just released the music video for your collaboration with Alessia Cara on «Let Me Down Slowly». How was it to work with her? Have you already met before?
Alec Benjamin: No we just met on Twitter so the first time we met was when we made the music video together. That’s it (laugh). We became friends over the internet, we were texting and things like that but we never met before.
On The Move: And why «Let Me Down Slowly»?
Alec Benjamin: Because she liked that song. She was talking about the song in an interview. I wanted to write a new song with her but we weren’t in the same city at the same time for a really long time so we said «why don’t we just collaborate on this song?». She was down because she likes the song!
On The Move: Do you plan on doing other collaborations? Can you think of artists that you would like to sing or write with?
Alec Benjamin: I worked with Khalid like a few weeks ago but I don’t know if anything that we did will come out. I just hit him up on Twitter too so… we’ll see. He’s working on his new album which is pretty much almost done. Actually I can’t talk about it. I mean everyone knows he’s working on his new music. He’s just put out a new song, it’s really awesome. We’ll see!
On The Move: You also covered «Stan» by Eminem, is this song important for you?
Alec Benjamin: Yeah I love that song! I love the stories and stuff in the song, I think it’s great.
On The Move: Would you like to do more rap in the future maybe?
Alec Benjamin: No, not really. Maybe another cover too but no rap…
On The Move: Still Eminem?
Alec Benjamin: Yeah maybe I don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it. I don’t think I would put a cover on an album but some people do, they put a cover on an album. I could cover one of my friend Edward’s songs, he has a lot of really good songs.
On The Move: What can we expect from you this year?
Alec Benjamin: Unfortunately a lot of travel (laugh) and then more music, probably soon and more touring. It’s pretty similar to what I did in 2018 just like doing it again (laugh). Not much changes… I just have more limitations on my time which is a little bit annoying because I like to be at home and in the studio. I like making music but I also like performing. Sometimes you can’t do them at the same time but that’s ok… I have to make it work and I think that I’ll probably have new ideas for music because of the experiences that I’ve had so it will all make my music more diverse. That’s what I tell myself.
On The Move: And a new album next year?
Alec Benjamin: Yeah! An album probably next year but definitely an album really soon. I want to keep «Boy In The Bubble», I want to keep «If We Have Each Other», «Death Of A Hero» and I want to keep «Let Me Down Slowly» on the album. So I’ll probably have 6 to 7 new songs. 11 songs on the album, that’s pretty good right? So if I have 7 new songs plus those 4, that will be fine (laugh). I have a lot more than 7 new songs but I want to pick the best.
Alec Benjamin’s second EP, released in November 2018
On The Move: Have you been thinking of a title already? Will it be in the same spirit as «Narrated For You»?
Alec Benjamin’s debut EP, released in April 2013
Alec Benjamin: Yeah but I want it to be like… you know how the picture of «Narrated For You» is like, at dusk it’s still kind of light out, this one is like if it were night time but I don’t have a title for it yet.
On The Move: We like to know what the artists are listening to at the moment? What do you have in your playlist right now?
Alec Benjamin: I’m listening to Khalid, I’m listening to Edward Allerton. Can I look on my phone? (laugh), let me check right now… I’m listening to Uncle Kracker, Kid Rock, John Cena (laugh) and Post Malone. They are my most recent artists.
INTERVIEW BY DEBORAH GAILLARD PHOTOS : ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
