A Chat with Bennytheghost
Interview by Sydney Hise
Meet Bennytheghost, part-time singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, and full-time Strokes fan. Having recently toured with Jelani Aryeh and Hippo Campus this past spring, the LA-based artist has since released his new EP 29 Palms on May 13. A few weeks prior to this release, I had the opportunity to speak with Bennytheghost about his biggest musical influences, the process behind the EP, and more!
Photo: Nathalie Benshmuel
PLEASER: To kick things off - how does it feel to have released a new single, how has the response been?
Bennytheghost: Feels good, response has been medium. Honestly, I haven’t heard a lot about it. It’s probably the least response I’ve gotten on a song, which is totally cool, I mean I was kind of expecting it. It’s just like a mid-tempo, you know what I mean? It’s not thrilling, I mean, it’s great, but-
Are you excited to have released it? Like is it a song that you're excited about? Or is it just kind of “mid” to you?
BTG: I wrote it like a year ago, it’s very old, and at some point listening to it - this is sounding so jaded - at some point, I was like, okay, we need to just put it out. I’m tired of just listening to a DropBox version of it. So in that tense I’m really excited that it’s out. It’s weird because it’s out now, and people are like, “You just released it! This is your newest thing, this is what you sound like.” But in reality, this was me and what I sounded like a year ago. It’s not really…the shit I’m making now is what I sound like now.
Is the EP that you’re putting out at the end of April more of what you sound like now?
BTG: Uh, no. The EP is what I sounded like half a year ago, six months ago. The stuff that will come out right after that EP comes out, so hopefully in June, July - that stuff I am incredibly excited about now. That stuff will be the sauce. I am really excited about the songs, they are old.
That’s fair. It does take a while for things to happen.
BTG: Too long, it takes too long. There are people that rush songs out, and I almost prefer doing that, because it still has life in it. There’s this excitement train that goes: you make it, and it's sick, and you sit on it forever. And then you go back and you mix it and master it, and it’s exciting again. And then you sit on it again. So I’m excited for it to be out, and to have a discography of music that exists. That’s the exciting bit.
Can you tell us a little bit about the production on this track?
BTG: Absolutely. We came in how I come in with every song, which is - you know The Strokes? It’s to make a Strokes song. They’re just one of my all-time favorites ever. We did the guitar like a Strokes song, which is really pretty, introverted rock. It’s the shit that the Strokes make now, really beautiful and introspective rock, as opposed to the rock of ages, which is really loud and really outward. So all the guitars came from that vibe. We just wanted to do really fat drums and synth stuff, and all of that was referenced from Phoenix. 1901 and Lisztomania, and all of those. That was the ultimate goal, was to be able to combine those two favorite bands. It doesn’t live up to them whatsoever, but that was the aim. Same with the distorted vocals, that’s a Strokes thing. It was pretty direct influence or inspiration - or thievery, whatever you want to call it.
It’s cool that you take bits and pieces from other artists and then directly credit them. I feel like there’s some artists these days that will make something that is completely inspired by a certain musician and try to pass it off as their own. So saying you have influence is cool.
BTG: Yeah, nothing is new. When I came out with the song before this song, Say Something, I called my lawyer, and I was like, “It sounds like Still Woozy, it sounds almost too much like Still Woozy. Like a lot.” And he and Still Woozy’s lawyer work at the same firm, and he was like, “Nah, it’s good. Still Woozy isn’t the first person to make guitars like this. Just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s his, you know? Nothing is new.” And I was like, “Damn, you’re right.”
Speaking of The Strokes, I have a question about the Strokes. You said this song was inspired by the way the Strokes turn rock music into something deeply personal. Are all of your songs written about things you’ve experienced, or is there some fiction in the way you write things?
BTG: That’s sick, did I say that? That’s beautiful, good for me. It’s always a mix. I think the emotion behind it and the overall vibe behind them is usually something that is real. But the specifics, it varies from song to song, but I would say it goes half and half. It’s more like you’re painting or coloring, and you’re trying to paint this specific feeling or sentiment, and you’re trying to most accurately describe that color, but with words. Doing it fully true could inhibit you trying to portray this one idea, whereas if you have some things true and some things fantasy, you have the best opportunity possible to try and describe what you’re trying to say. These lyrics, if you read them, are about nothing at all. There’s nothing specific here whatsoever. There’s no he-said-she-said, none of that is in here. It’s just, “Call me what you want if it makes your day, you can hang me by your door so you don’t forget…” All of those are things that I feel for sure, sometimes. A lot of my songs are slightly different genres, but they all describe a different piece of my personality very well, they’re all very me. This one specifically is the slice of me that is just a little desperate and lonely, but in a cute way. It strikes me as like, desperate and lonely but in a comedy movie, like Owen Wilson. That’s the vibe for me. Cute, and sarcastic. It's a self-deprecating humor kind of loneliness.
That makes sense, you get that. You keep saying things that are exactly the questions I’m going to ask.
BTG: My favorite color is red!
This question is about color, actually. Is there a colorscape that comes to mind when you think about this song or the upcoming EP?
BTG: That’s crazy. I think the overall vibe of the project has been like an orange for me. Which is funny, because I hate orange. Orange and green were my school colors. So now they’re my least favorite colors. But for some reason, I wore this shirt in a music video one time, and I was like, “This perfectly describes the song.” So we did the text and the art in that color, and this warm, sunset orange is what this music feels like. And ever since that song, which was Anxious on the first EP, I haven’t been able to stop imagining that this shit is orange. But I do think overall it’s a pastely vibe. And the merch, when I make it, is going to be that pastel orange, a pastel blue, and one pastel pink. They’re peaceful and easy to look at, but also kind of fun. It’s a little cute and a little cool.
Tell us a little about the album artwork!
BTG: Me and my friend Natalie were taking pictures for a different song, and we ended up using photos from that shoot for all of the songs because there were so many cool ones. That photo specifically, we had one of those backgrounds where it’s like, the two poles and a pole that goes across, and you hang a sheet across it. And we had that setup in the middle of the street, and behind it was the background of the hills of LA. There’s a bunch of shots of me running in front of it, and standing in front of it, and that was the main idea. Except the fucking sheet kept falling off, and we had nothing to clamp it on. So I used my lanyard to tie it around the pole, and the one time it fell off, I was reaching up to fix and tie the keys back on, and she just took a picture of my hand. It doesn’t sound like anything special but the shot being really zoomed in, it’s just a hand as opposed to a whole body, and the blue of the background against the blue of the sky, and the little bit of red on the keys, and just my hand up there with all of the tattoos - it just looked really pretty. I’m looking at it right now, and it’s almost the blue that I was imagining for the thing I was talking about.
You have really amazing album art. I love, as a photographer, looking at photos and not necessarily being able to tell what something is.
BTG: What does it look like to you? If you see it without knowing, I guess it’s just a pole, a red thing, and then some cloth and a hand.
It kind of looks like a clothesline, like the end of a clothesline. But now that you say it’s a T-stand and a sheet, that’s what it looks like. I like that color of blue a lot.
BTG: I think I agree with you, something about it being so zoomed in makes it ambiguous as to what it really is. My ideas fucking suck, and this was not me doing this, so it was a super pleasant surprise.
It suits the song in a lot of ways because the song can kind of be applied to a lot of different situations and isn’t super-specific. And then you have this sort of vague photo with it.
BTG: I’m trying to be more mindful about the art that I make for the cover art, because that’s the last thing I think about.
I think you nail color, which is always good. Color is important.
BTG: For the third EP, I’ve thought everything through and I think I pretty much know what I want now. I don’t think that’s ever happened.
How was touring with Hippo Campus?
BTG: It was great! You went!
I did go, I was there the first night.
BTG: You were there in Madison? That was one of my favorite ones. And I’m not just saying that. I had other favorite ones. It was probably in my top four out of 20. It was so good. It was pretty much what I had ever dreamed of. Minus our Covid restrictions. They were pretty tight. But regardless, still, everything I had ever dreamed of. I think it would be more fun without Covid because we were very limited in people we could see and things we could do. I really wanted to stand by the merch table and meet people and say thank you, but we couldn’t do those things. Not allowed to take pictures, really be in the audience. Hardly allowed to be with Hippo Campus at all. A few times! Those were just really minor complaints. Overall, it was amazing. It was my first big tour. It was so fun. I think I got a lot better at guitar.
My dad is now obsessed with you. He went to Madison and he loves you. He literally is like, “How is Benny?” I’m like, “Dad, I have no clue!”
BTG: That is so funny. That’s great. It’s funny because I think I bring the vibes. I tell Jelani, “I’m 80% smiles and 20% good at guitar.” Mostly just there to have fun and bring the energy and the guitar playing is super secondary.
Do you have anything else that you’d like to tell anyone that is reading this interview?
BTG: The song, while about nothing in particular, still is very personal. It is more of an emotional image than a specific one. That's the mindset I would get into listening to it.
29 Palms EP is available on all streaming platforms now!
