September 15, 2018

ALEC BENJAMIN INTERVIEW: THE POWER OF STORYTELLING AND LYRICISM

Alec Benjamin is an artist who makes his own opportunity. He brings forward unbelievable grit, determination and passion in order to, as he describes it – ‘narrate’ his own stories and the stories of those around him to share them with his audience.

He has emerged into a ground-breaking storyteller, but the road to the present has entailed hard work and tenacity.

Formerly building himself by performing “parking lot shows” for Shawn Mendes concertgoers, Alec now finds himself in Australia, on the other side of the world promoting his music.

His innovative and detailed lyricism both create an immersive experience for listeners, with his vivid and emotive lyrics captivating audiences in the stories he shares.

We talked to Alec about his latest single “Death of a Hero,” as well as reflecting on his latest music video for “If We Have Each Other”. Check it out below!

Alec’s blossoming of ideas sparks in a more fragmented way. “Death of a Hero” came into fruition significantly after the moment past where he was challenged with the vision of his own hero letting him down.

LB: How was it to revisit this? Was it liberating or confronting? What feelings were there?

AB: I think what’s interesting is that you don’t know that something is bothering you until it comes out. I’ve found that recently, like sometimes you don’t even know that you have a problem or that something has been bothering you, and then it just comes out. So, it’s liberating in a sense, but for a while I didn’t even know that it was something that bothered me.

Like in your subconscious?

Yeah, but it was liberating getting to talk about it. It was cool.

The song centres on the realisation that Alec wasn’t a kid anymore and that growing up is an irrefutable element of life, where sometimes the world isn’t as you imagine it.

Do you still take any positives out of the situation?

That’s an interesting question. I guess there are. I guess it makes me want to behave better. That’s actually a really good question. I think even if you find out about something that disappoints you, I guess it’s always good to learn. So, I guess that’s positive, but I think overall… I don’t know. The answer to that is I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know.

An enthralling component of this song comes from the power of the lyricism. The poetry in lyrics such as “I put my youth in a casket” and the name of the song “Death of a Hero” intensely grips listeners.

Were you surprised with what you were able to produce?

Well, when I wrote the song I thought it was really bad and I didn’t want to finish it. I wrote it with someone, but I wrote the words. Obviously it was a collaborative effort, but I always like to write the words because lyrics are so personal. I wrote it, [and] I was like “youth in a casket,” that’s the dumbest thing ever, no-one’s going to like it. Then, I sent it to my friend and my friend was like “oh this is really cool,” and the person I trust most with my songs is my mum and my mum was like “this is a great song”.

So, they help you in tapping into your potential?

Yeah, I think the best people that you work with sometimes, they obviously contribute ideas, but sometimes they’re just people that you really feel comfortable with, just being honest and saying something like that. Sometimes you throw out ideas and they’re really outlandish and you know, you have to trust somebody that they’re not going to laugh at you. So, I think just creating a good environment and also musically speaking too, working with people who are going to come up with different ideas on the guitar, on the piano, or different rhythms and melodies and things like that. But yeah, I wrote that with a person named Scott that I really like, and it was cool. That was the process of the song. It was weird, I thought it was terrible when I left. I was like I’m never going to use that song, but I really like it now.

Because you write it with someone else, and you go in not knowing if you’ll finish it, do you instantly think I’m going to write about as it happens or is it afterwards that you say you want to write about this?

No, I think it depends. Usually, when I think I’m going to write a song about something I actually don’t write about it and usually when I don’t think anything is going to come of it, I write a song about it. It’s very rare that I know exactly when I’m going to write a song about something.

You talked about being the one to write your own lyrics because they’re so personal, so is your main focus lyrics and the melodies?

Yeah, it depends. Sometimes I write songs by myself, so I just do the music too and all that stuff. My main focus is just every time I write a song that the concept is something that means something to me. I like all my songs to be about something else. There’s a lot of different things that happen in life, and I feel like there’s a lot of different things that people are affected by, and I like to touch on different portions of my life that make me feel something. So, I guess my main focus is making sure the song says something meaningful to me because it’s easy to walk into a room and write a song and be like “well what am I actually talking about?” and then it’s not about something personal to you. So, I guess it’s about concept [for me], but I can do music, or melody or lyrics but it’s nice to have other people’s perspective.

Because you write for yourself, when the song gets released, what feelings do you have? Do you get a high off of people’s reactions?

If they like the songs! If they don’t like it, it’s a big bummer!

Have you seen it grow since its release? Have you heard stories and how it’s resonated with people in different ways? What has that meant to you?

I think you can immediately see whether people like the song or not, because they’ll just stream it or won’t stream it. And then people can post on their Instagram story or not post it. But, you can see people posting your song and tagging you which is really cool because you’re like “wow that’s awesome. They like my song enough that they’re going to share it with their network of friends,” and that’s a big deal, because it takes effort to stream a song and a whole other level to be like “I’m going to share this with other people.” I have seen a big uptake in people sharing my music and my social media growing and people streaming my songs.

How does it feel when people interpret your song differently, considering you write for yourself and what happened in your experience? Is it strange seeing it resonate in different contexts?

No, and I do write for myself, but I wouldn’t make music if I wasn’t going to share it with other people, so I think I definitely make music because I like to perform and I want to say something, so it is exciting when people have different interpretations of my songs, because that’s why I want to make music.

Alec also gave us some insight and his thoughts on his recent music video for “If We Have Each Other”. This is how the conversation went after he asked me if I liked it.

I loved it, I almost cried. The 3 stories were illustrated so well!

Okay cool, honestly, I didn’t film the video, other people helped us out with that, but I really like it too

Was it actually your sister in the video?

No, my sister didn’t want to be in the video. I asked her though, but no, that was [another] girl that was nice enough to be in the video.

I loved it, the shots were so fitting for each story!

Oh cool. The old people were so cute, huh?

Yeah and the little hand gestures they had in the car! Did you meet them?

I did. They were very friendly. They were actors. I would’ve had my grandparents in it, but they were not in it, it would’ve been nice. My grandparents passed away recently, but if they were alive, they would’ve definitely been in the video.

Did they have the same personality?

Actually yeah! My grandpa was in World War 2 and right after he got home he got married to my grandma and they were married for over 60 years.