Benson, introduce yourself to those who don’t yet know you.
My name is Benson Boone. I am a cliff jumping, rope swinging, rollerblading, snowboarding, surfing, rock climbing, skiing, scuba diving, scootering, flipping dude that happens to write songs and sing too.
In your own words, you’ve said that you didn’t really discover your voice until quite late during a battle of the bands. How was it stepping up to sing for the first time in front of an audience?
It was crazy! I didn’t know that I could sing until pretty late in my life. I think I was seventeen. So, it was wild for me to try and go for something that I had just recently discovered when I kinda grew up playing sports and being outdoors. Trying singing was very new for me, but it was a wild experience.
What about now, your performances are charged with energy and there’s a connection between you and the fans – has that emerged organically?
Yeah, I think I genuinely just love my fans more than anything. Everything I really do is for them. Especially when I’m performing, I feel the most connected to them because that’s when people can actually see my talents in person and my passion for music – so I would say it’s very organic!
In terms of live performers, who does it for you on stage?
I’ve only seen two people in concert: Harry Styles and Jon Bellion. They do it for me. When I went to Jon Bellion’s concert he just made me feel like I was the only person in the room, and I think that that’s a very rare talent. So, Jon Bellion is very personal with his crowd. And Harry Styles is just freakin’ wack on stage - which makes it so cool.
In the studio, you’ve noted that your artistry and songwriting has evolved. Is this a constant state of flux, do you have goals in mind when penning tracks?
My music is always evolving, my style is evolving, the way I write is always getting better and my melodies are always improving. It always changes. I mean I’m not always gonna like the same music and I’m not always going to write the same style of music. I am letting my music show how my emotions are changing and they just flow with my emotions. [When penning tracks] I just do my best every time.
We read that it’s important for you to have a piano on stage. Care to elaborate?
Yes. Most of my songs have a piano in them so I like to bring a piano onstage, so my songs are able to be sung live. Because that’s what a concert is.
Before you took this path, you were on your way to study architecture. Whose work do you admire and why?
I don’t think that there’s specifically someone’s work that I admire, I think it’s more just I enjoy the satisfaction of looking at a building that’s aesthetically pleasing. I think it would be a very satisfying feeling to look at a building you’ve just constructed, and it looks cool.
Can you see a link between the two disciplines? Writing songs and drafting architecture / the legacy of the built environment and the finished song …
I really think the only link between the two - well I guess there are two links between the two - is that they’re both forms of art. Building and constructing a physical sculpture or a building is a form of art just as writing a song and constructing melodies and putting them in the right place is a form of art. But I think the feeling you get afterwards is a mutual feeling where - when you finish creating a building or creating a structure and you get to look at it for the first time when it’s finished - you’re proud of it. And you get that same feeling when you finish a song. When I’m done writing a song and spending hours and hours just portraying emotions onto paper, it pays off.
Let’s go merch. How does that slot into the music these days?
I create all my own merch. So, it’s nice to see people at my shows wearing merch that I designed and knowing that I can use one of my skills to help people feel a little bit more personable towards me. Kind of like walking away with a part of me.
How involved are you in the designs and artwork?
I am very involved in the designs and artwork. I create them all myself and I design them all myself. I think it’s fun to go to a concert and come back with something to remember it by, and especially when that’s created by the artist. I think it makes it more personal.
What are your influences as far as the merch goes? There’s some cool retro-inspired stuff and LA/Cali vibe we’re getting.
Well, I don’t actually live in LA so I don’t really know where that comes from but I just design what I think will be cool for me. I don’t lean towards a certain genre or certain way of designing things. I like style and I like fashion and I think it’s cool to base my T-shirts and sweatshirts and hats on something that I would wear.
What’s the merch mean to your fans and how does it feel to see them wearing it?
What a good question! I just think when you go to a concert and it’s an artist you really love it’s nice to leave with something you can remember that night with. Whether that’s a T-shirt or a picture - you do you - I think it’s cool to have a T-shirt designed by the artist. It’s cool to see people wearing something that I have spent a lot of time creating.
Finally… TikTok/social media. How important for an artist are these channels and what advice would you give to artists when it comes to social?
I think you just gotta go for it. It’s not like there’s a certain way to do social media or an exact right or an exact wrong. I think you just figure out your lane, and what you like, and then give it your all.
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