For Benny Bellson, The Time is Nigh

Benny Bellson is on the cusp. The 23 year old released his inaugural EP "Posters" a few months ago, and it has undoubtedly become one of our favorite projects of 2024. An intoxicating miscellany of indie, alt., hiphop, and rock influences, Benny Bellson has evidently carved out a piece for himself in Los Angeles's underground music realm. Over the course of 5 songs, this EP trudges through the complex layers of what it's like to be a young person, living life, on a mission to surmount towering ambitions.

Originally from Chico, Benny is a bit of everything. One could call him an artist, a producer, a drummer, a romantic, an admirer of breakdancing. But ultimatley, he is a culmination of varying edges that align to create one of the most intriguing and original artists currently operating.

Pookie took a walk through the Hollywood Hills with Benny Bellson about his debut EP "Posters", evolving dreams, what he's been up to, and where he's headed. Read our conversation below.

Pookie: Benny Bellson, thanks for taking a walk with Pookie. How are you feeling today?

Benny Bellson: A little out of breath, a little sweaty. Today’s been a good day though. Finished a good movie, “The Worst Person In The World”. Got some pull ups in.

Your newly released debut EP “Posters” is fantastic. You’ve stated that you’ve been holding onto these songs for the past 3 years. What made you decide that now was the time to release them?

BB: These tracks had been finished for a while, but I didn’t know how they would find each other. There’s so many songs, scattered about in my finished songs folder. Nothing mastered yet, just songs I knew I loved. I was doing the music, played my first show, and right after that I got a call from my buddy 347aidan asking me to play drums with him on tour. That consumed the next year of my life, on tour with him opening for Oliver Tree. This was my dream, playing drums, but at the same time I put a pause on my own stuff. There’s only so much creative energy to go around, and then there’s not much left for yourself. We did 2 tours back-to-back. And when it wasn’t touring, I was spending just about 24 hours a day with him out in Malibu in the studio. All of this was so awesome, but I needed to step back and take a look at what I was doing. Because my music is what I really want to do, I don’t wanna just play the drums anymore. Even though at one point that was my dream.

Pookie: You fulfilled your dream!

BB: I fulfilled my dream but it wasn’t my dream anymore. So that’s when I decided to move to New York. I was like, “I’m gonna go to New York next month”. Because I wasn’t doing my shit anymore, and I felt like I had to be alone. A month prior I’d just moved into a new place in LA. I called everyone I knew in New York, found a sublet, then found someone to take my room in LA. Worked out in a cool way. The move let me step back and think about everything. And when I was in NY, I decided I wanted to release “Posters” with some kind of backing, because I wanted to push it stronger. Then I did it alone (chuckling). I have a great lawyer, he showed the project to someone who plugged it to Mark Ronson’s sub label at Columbia. They showed a lot of interest in the project, but then signed another guy they’d been talking to. Then a friend of mine comes along who works at RCA. She sent my music to the CEO, and in the following A&R meeting, he requested to play “Posters” for everyone. But from the beginning I felt kind of wary. I liked the Mark Ronson team because it was smaller, it felt like I could genuinely build with them. Working with RCA would be like jumping into a huge pond with all these massive artists. I felt more fear stepping into that. I had requested certain term agreements and they said no. I was like “Hell yeah, that decision was easy”. Then a week later, my lawyer calls me to say RCA changed their mind and agreed to meet my terms. But I still didn’t know how I felt about it. This time I said no. I decided to release it on my own, and I just started dropping music for about a year. Now “Posters” is out, and I did it on my own. It’s doing good. I’m building, and fans are slowly trickling in. I don’t know what it would’ve been if I did it with RCA. I settled back in LA, setup some shows, and put the band together. Now it feels ready to be out. I got the songs mastered, figured out which ones were right to put together. I made the cover myself. I felt like I couldn’t make anymore music because I had all this music that I love that I was sitting on. So anytime someone asks do you have any unreleased stuff? I’m like I have all the stuff I love. To make more shit, I have to put that out. Who knows if I made the right decision, I feel like if you follow your gut and what feels right, then that’s the right decision. Anytime I have a bad day I’m like, “Shoulda signed that deal” (laughing). And on good days I’m like, “I made the right decision.”

What’s the backstory for this EP? What does this project mean to you?

BB: I didn’t go into [the EP] with an overarching idea, I didn’t know I was going to make an EP. Lyrically, it’s mostly stream of consciousness. I’ve tried to write about specific ideas before but that doesn’t work for me. It’s all in the moment, I don’t know what I’m writing until it’s written. Sometimes half way through I’ll realize what the song is referencing, then I can start forming the rest of the song from there. But I usually just sing a melody, let go, and then I can freely say exactly what I’m thinking. A lot of it is about me, going over observations I make about myself. A lot of it is talking to myself, giving myself advice about life or girls or about what I want. Figuring out what I want. It’s subconscious, like a journal. It’s not one specific thing but if you read it all, it’s what I was going through. “Upon A Glance” says “out of the shade pick me up / luck say my name”. It’s about living in someone else’s shadow and feeling the suppression that comes with being in someone else’s world. And then “i wonder” has “evenings like these / a nice fine wine / wishing you would stay for a while”,

That’s one of my favorite lines from this project.

BB: It’s about relishing the moment. Specifically I was inspired by a great night with a bunch of my friends that I just didn’t want to end. Other songs are about girls, relationships. Like “Keep Quiet” I like the lyrics, “I just want a friend you see / maybe more just let it be / locked up in a fantasy / I want you in my recipe”. I don’t really know what I want. Those lyrics are about that. I want someone, but maybe I really just want the idea of them. Then it says “caught in disguise / intertwining entities locked in her eyes”, in that line I’m asking myself if this is how I’m really feeling, or if it’s just exciting romanticization. It feels like a connection, but maybe it’s just lust. This EP is kind of about everything, just all my random thoughts and what was going through my head at specific moments.

Did you have any posters in your room growing up?

BB: I had a terminator poster. I think the first one. And I also had a Bruce Lee poster because I loved Bruce Lee.

You recently made the move back to Los Angeles, how are you enjoying it? How has being here affected your creativity?

BB: Since I moved here, I feel like I became myself even more than I was before. Like a new version of myself. Because no one here’s gives a shit, they care about what they look like but at the same time, they’ll do whatever and make a fool of themselves. But it’s not making a fool of themselves because they don’t care. So I was like “wow I respect that”. Everyone is focused on themselves, so you can really do whatever you want. It led me to be more confident in making bolder choices with creative direction. I admire LA also because there are so many creative people I’ve met since being here who I love.

You’ve played shows in LA and San Diego, how was the energy of the crowds? What’s your favorite aspect of performing live?

BB: The energy has been so great. I’ll feel nervous before the show, but then extremely comfortable once I’m on stage. The band I’m with is all my friends, and they’re so good, that nothing can go wrong. And if something goes wrong, it doesn’t matter. We’re all up there together and it feels great. A lot of people I know came to the show, and so did a lot of people I didn’t. It’s great to play your songs in front of people, because it brings them to life. The biggest take away from the shows is that I realized I want to record songs live. The energy just feels real. Live instruments, amps, drums, feels like life. Whenever I go to a show, I feel like I can be brought to tears pretty easily or get the chills, I’m really sensitive to my emotions while watching someone perform. I love when I can tell they’re 100% in the zone, it puts me in the zone. As an audience member I love that. So on the stage I try to be as much of that as I can, so other people can feel it hopefully, too.

Your music has a haunted, jaded grunge to it while also feeling youthful and light at the same time. Your lyrics peruse themes of love and lust and searching for depth among the shallows. Would you consider yourself to be a realist or a romantic?

BB: I feel like both (laughing). Because I’m definitely super optimistic and happy, I definitely fantasize a lot of things. But I’m also very self aware, and always consider the fact that I could be romanticizing. At the same time I let the feeling take over because it feels good.

I feel like it’s important to let yourself get lost in the good moments when they happen, to get the most out of the human experience.

BB: Yeah, I think coming to LA opened a different side of me that I didn’t have before. Ive always been joyful and happy and goofing off, and that’s still the case, but I started having a lot more depression and sadness on some days. But it’s all dependent on the people you’re surrounded with. I love my friends and the people I’m surrounded by. Also comparing myself to other people is a huge thing that I get lost in. I started having more anxiety here because everyone is vying for the same thing out here. The stresses of life introduced themselves to me. Your environment is so crucial to how you feel. I’m definitely a romantic (ha).

You covered “Pop Lock & Drop It” by Huey. Very tastefully I might add, what do you love about this song? How has rap & hiphop influenced your creativity?

BB: I remember that song from my childhood pretty vividly. The reason I covered it is because I heard the chorus and was like, “I can sing that”. Some songs I hear from the 2000s with a female singer, my voice just kind of fits there. I was with my buddy Cannon one night and we were just joking, but then it turned out pretty cool. I’ve always liked rap & hiphop. I was talking to one of my friends about what music was on our earliest iPods. I was in like second or third grade when I had my first one and I thought about the music it contained, and I just started laughing. Because it really was “Drop It Like It’s Hot” by Snoop Dogg, “Smack That” by Akon (laughing), I’m like 8 years old. “Ride Wit Me” by Nelly. I liked to dance when I was little and that’s why I started playing the drums. I started break dancing first, and I was kind of good but I wasn’t physically in shape for it (laughing) so then I started playing the drums. Those beats and a lot of those melodies are what I built my foundation on.

One of my favorite tracks off your EP is definitely “RUNAWAY”. if you were to run away right now, where would you go?

BB: I’d probably just go to my house right now. I would just lock myself in my room there. My room/the kitchen. I love those spaces. I went to New York the other week and all I wanted to do was come back to my space. Making that song was hilarious. I always go through these periods where I feel like I’m never gonna make another good thing, and then all of the sudden I make something I really love, which is what happened with runaway. I started runaway when I was at my parents house visiting around Christmas. I had the bassline and the melody for the chorus and I couldn’t figure out what came next. I kept getting a reggae vibe, I was writing with my friend Sha on FaceTime, he writes a lot of the lyrics and melodies with me. Sometimes I’ll get ideas that reference other songs that seem completely different, but the juxtaposition can sound awesome. “RUNAWAY” stayed unfinished for a while, sometimes it can take so long to finish songs because the moment passes.

It’s hard to get back into the same real true groove of writing an individual song. I don’t know if you ever really can. All you can do is try to get close.

BB: Sometimes you can. I’ve definitely tapped into it, but then there’s other times when it’s been forced.  Like “Keep Quiet” was a whole different song, with like 2 other versions. And one day I’m driving, I hadn’t been actively trying to figure it out, listening to the song and when it cut off I just kept singing and that’s how it continued on. You just have to get that excitement, the newness of it back.

What’s next for Benny Bellson?

BB: The live shows have put me into the mindset of wanting to record live music. I started making live demos with my buddy Jack Xander. I love working with him. I have a show November 16th with Dark Dazey for MakeOut Music. And other than that, just putting out music. A deluxe version of posters that has two new songs and one old song that I don’t want people to miss. Just keep putting out music, while I make this live album.

Listen to Benny Bellson's latest EP "Posters"

Benny Bellson is performing live in Los Angeles tomorrow, November 16th with Dark Dazey in Boyle Heights courtesy of MakeOutMusic. Purchase tickets here.