Brendan Benson is rummaging though a bunch of jackets at an empty bar in Silverlake, CA. 'I need my thing' he keeps saying, and apologizes twice for holding us up. 'Heres my thing!' Finally he smiles, very relieved to have found his first of about a trillion cigarettes.
Brendan is a classic heartbreaker; what's more, this boyish man (or mannish boy) with blonde curls to spare has never written a bad song in his life. His most recent album, The Alternative to Love, is out on V2.
Brendan Bensons official website.
Brendan Benson: Ive just been recording in the van, with one of these between my legs, [takes my digital recorder and holds it between his knees]; Ive been playing, trying to get ideas down.
(L)Auren Suicide: No way!
BB: Yeah. Im pretty familiar with these.
AS: Is that how you usually write? While youre on tour?
BB: Yeah, I went through a creative burst, or spurt, or whatever you want to call it just recently and everyday when we got in the van this was in Europe when we got in the van, in the morning, I was just writing like mad, for hours. So now Ive got a ton of material. Ive got like sixty songs.
AS: Sixty!?
BB: Theyre all at various stages of completion. Im thinking maybe Ill put out a double record or something.
AS: Well, that would make a lot of people very happy.
BB: I've actually heard that its sort of foolish well not foolish but if you put out a record with fifteen songs on it youre not collecting [royalties] for five of those songs. [dramatic pause] Okay, I totally dont know what Im talking about. Im in way over my head with this. [laughing]
AS: [laughing] Well, it sounded good! So, I got One Mississippi [Bensons first album, released on Virgin Records, 1996] when I was in high school and lost my mind. I had never heard anything like that besides The Beatles or The Beach Boys, stuff my parents had played for me. It was the first time I had heard anything melodic in any sort of modern context.
BB: And its all happy
AS: [laughing] Yeah! And it felt so right!
BB: How old were you? What were you into at the time?
AS: I was...[we are interrupted by a guy bringing ice backstage and taping an note to the counter that says Brendan Bensons Wine]
BB: Um, is there like, somewhere private we can go?
AS: [looses train of thought] Um...
BB: What were we talking about?
AS: Oh yeah, in 1996 I was sixteen and I was just really into all that punky girl music that was really popular. I dont know what it is, you get into high school and all of a sudden youre like Im very angry!
BB: Right, right!
AS: Kids really identify with those feelings.
BB: [laughing] Totally! I was the same way.
AS: What were you listening to at that age?
BB: I was also listening to a lot of punk, DC Punk. It was tough and that made it exciting. Some of those records I cant listen to now, some I can. [more loud noises] We keep getting interrupted, its our thing.
AS: We have a thing! So...
BB: I was like that too coming out of punk music I heard The Kinks, Village Green, Todd Rundgren and The Turtles, stuff like that, The Zombies. Of course I was also turned on by the chords I didnt know. I had learned how to play all these punk songs, but then these songs had, like, major seven chords, minor chrords and stuff that I didnt know at all. Just a different vibe. And The Beach Boys, too. The California stuff I didnt know at all. My life changed.
AS: So how long did you work on One Mississippi for? Cause I heard that you made The Alternative to Love very quickly.
BB: Yeah, I did. Well One Mississippi gets kind of complicated because first I recorded it first with [solo artist] Jason Falkner you know Jason?
AS: Yeah!
BB: We went to New Orleans. It took about three months down there and in the end I decided that I didnt like it, so I scrapped it and started again and made it in about a month in San Francisco so its kind of hard to say how long it took. Its just that Jason had a real heavy hand in it and it sounded more like Jason. So I thought, I cant do this, I cant put it out. I mean its a good record...
AS: Oh my God! Yes!
BB: Well, this version, I mean Jasons version [laughs].
AS: I would love to hear that.
BB: I would love to put it out. But Virgin [Records], they say they lost the tapes.
AS: Conspiracy!
BB: [laughs] I think they just dont want to go look for it. You know?
AS: You own those songs though?
BB: Yeah, I mean I think here I go in territory I dont know again I think they own the tapes. I couldnt walk in there today and take the tapes and put that record out without their permission.
AS: And then you went to Startime [indie label, released the critically-acclaimed Lapalco in 2002] and then finally on to V2 where you are now. Those are crazy-different labels youve jumped around from.
BB: Its funny because Startime is like the tiniest [label], I mean its run by one man, but he handles it so well, hes so efficient and productive its just impressive. And then you have V2 which I think is like a small major or a big indie, they're not quite huge. But also they are likeits kind of like Keystone Cops.
AS: [cracks up]
B [laughing] You know what I mean? So yeah, they are very different, but maybe not in the way you think like tiny label, big label. Virgin was a big label. And comparatively, actually not that big! In retrospect back then I thought it was this huge corporate thing. I actually had a choice. I was contacted by Virgin, Columbia and Atlantic. I chose Virgin because they were the smallest and they seemed into it. They were less corporate then the others. I went to meetings at Columbia in New York. It was this skyscraper, I couldnt relate, I was terrified. And then Virgin was just in, like, Beverly Hills, a really small complex. Everyone was cool and young.
AS: But then right after that what happened? I mean, I didnt see you tour for One Mississippi.
B I didnt. Well, I did, but no one saw me. We played little bars and we sucked. I sucked. And I got friends to play and they werent always very good, they were just, you know, friends. People stopped coming to the shows. Well, the fans came but the people in the business stopped coming. It was like wow, you need some work, which I did. I could barely stand up and play the guitar. I was signed based on a tape that I gave them, I had never played these songs live. And I hadnt played live since high school - small shows, little punk shows.
AS: I was actually going to ask if youve ever been in a band that wasnt your name.
BB: Yeah, I mean, but nothing youd know. High school stuff. I wish this wasnt my name. I didnt want it to be. I didnt know what to call it. I was in a panic. I had a month to figure it out [before The Alternative to Love came out], I just couldnt think of anything good enough. In the end I was like, fuck it, it will just stay Brendan Benson.
AS: Might as well.
B Im sorry I did. I think its a turn-off. I mean the name itself is kind of hard to remember, hard to say.
AS: Um, no. No its not.
BB: [laughing] Ok, yeah youre right. And I think being a solo artist is not very advantageous. People just think, oh singer /songwriter or folk guy or whatever.
AS: Right.
AS: Which Im not, I meanI dont thinkat all.
AS: I think youre pretty rock.
BB: I just think I write songs to be played by a band. Im not, like, pouring my heart out or saying I have a message. I dont sing or play guitar very well. Its got to be the whole thing, you know?
AS: Its funny that you say that because I think the definite perception about your songs is that youre pouring your heart out, like, all the time, thats like across the board people who know your music really well and people who dont.
BB: Its true. Just 'cause I think a lot of times my songs tend to be about girls. Or they look at titles of songs, or the title of my record having love in it. I think people then just assume or kind of guess its just some real heartfelt confessional or whatever. I mean sometimes it is confessional but most of the time its just stream of consciousness, words that rhyme [laughs].
AS: The lyrics are so crazy and random but then all of a sudden it feels like oh okay thats what going on.
BB: Thats how I feel too! I dont know whats going on and then its like suddenly ok this makes sense or Ill just think of something that makes sense. I mean, thats how it is for me. I dont know really.
AS: Yeah.
BB: Its coming out of me and I dont know what it means.
AS: I think it's so cute, and it just ends up working in the end and it feels so real because it is real.
BB: I dont think ive ever heard anyone call my music cute before.
AS: Stop it!
BB: No, im serious! I like that thats cool!
AS: Oh my God, it's so cute.
BB: I'm serious. I mean it would be different if a dude was saying that.
AS: [laughing] Well its got some of the best hooks ever. Do you feel that there is sort of a desire [amongst your fans] to keep you as a secret?
BB: Yeah, I think thats a common thing. No one has ever said that but I have gotten that impression they would be sorry a lot of them would be kind of pissed or resentful if I became popular or more successful. I've seen it happen with other bands too like The White Stripes. I saw that audience desperately holding on, clinging to them, and it was not a pretty sight [laughs]. I was on tour with them at the time when they were just sort of breaking and we were opening up and the audience was so tense and sort of not very nice there was like the front part of the audience, the die hard fans, and there was this tension between the people up front who were just bitter and kind of jerky. I hope they dont feel that way about me.
AS: Even if youre not singing about girls, the way that your songs make people feelI think everyone should have that.
BB: Wow, thanks. Thanks a lot.
AS: Hey, and I hope you like the SuicideGirls book! [a gift from Missy Suicide, also a fan]
BB: [smiles] Oh, Im sure I will.
AS: There are some naked girls in there.
BB: It just so happens I like naked girls!
By Auren Suicide
Brendan is a classic heartbreaker; what's more, this boyish man (or mannish boy) with blonde curls to spare has never written a bad song in his life. His most recent album, The Alternative to Love, is out on V2.
Brendan Bensons official website.
Brendan Benson: Ive just been recording in the van, with one of these between my legs, [takes my digital recorder and holds it between his knees]; Ive been playing, trying to get ideas down.
(L)Auren Suicide: No way!
BB: Yeah. Im pretty familiar with these.
AS: Is that how you usually write? While youre on tour?
BB: Yeah, I went through a creative burst, or spurt, or whatever you want to call it just recently and everyday when we got in the van this was in Europe when we got in the van, in the morning, I was just writing like mad, for hours. So now Ive got a ton of material. Ive got like sixty songs.
AS: Sixty!?
BB: Theyre all at various stages of completion. Im thinking maybe Ill put out a double record or something.
AS: Well, that would make a lot of people very happy.
BB: I've actually heard that its sort of foolish well not foolish but if you put out a record with fifteen songs on it youre not collecting [royalties] for five of those songs. [dramatic pause] Okay, I totally dont know what Im talking about. Im in way over my head with this. [laughing]
AS: [laughing] Well, it sounded good! So, I got One Mississippi [Bensons first album, released on Virgin Records, 1996] when I was in high school and lost my mind. I had never heard anything like that besides The Beatles or The Beach Boys, stuff my parents had played for me. It was the first time I had heard anything melodic in any sort of modern context.
BB: And its all happy
AS: [laughing] Yeah! And it felt so right!
BB: How old were you? What were you into at the time?
AS: I was...[we are interrupted by a guy bringing ice backstage and taping an note to the counter that says Brendan Bensons Wine]
BB: Um, is there like, somewhere private we can go?
AS: [looses train of thought] Um...
BB: What were we talking about?
AS: Oh yeah, in 1996 I was sixteen and I was just really into all that punky girl music that was really popular. I dont know what it is, you get into high school and all of a sudden youre like Im very angry!
BB: Right, right!
AS: Kids really identify with those feelings.
BB: [laughing] Totally! I was the same way.
AS: What were you listening to at that age?
BB: I was also listening to a lot of punk, DC Punk. It was tough and that made it exciting. Some of those records I cant listen to now, some I can. [more loud noises] We keep getting interrupted, its our thing.
AS: We have a thing! So...
BB: I was like that too coming out of punk music I heard The Kinks, Village Green, Todd Rundgren and The Turtles, stuff like that, The Zombies. Of course I was also turned on by the chords I didnt know. I had learned how to play all these punk songs, but then these songs had, like, major seven chords, minor chrords and stuff that I didnt know at all. Just a different vibe. And The Beach Boys, too. The California stuff I didnt know at all. My life changed.
AS: So how long did you work on One Mississippi for? Cause I heard that you made The Alternative to Love very quickly.
BB: Yeah, I did. Well One Mississippi gets kind of complicated because first I recorded it first with [solo artist] Jason Falkner you know Jason?
AS: Yeah!
BB: We went to New Orleans. It took about three months down there and in the end I decided that I didnt like it, so I scrapped it and started again and made it in about a month in San Francisco so its kind of hard to say how long it took. Its just that Jason had a real heavy hand in it and it sounded more like Jason. So I thought, I cant do this, I cant put it out. I mean its a good record...
AS: Oh my God! Yes!
BB: Well, this version, I mean Jasons version [laughs].
AS: I would love to hear that.
BB: I would love to put it out. But Virgin [Records], they say they lost the tapes.
AS: Conspiracy!
BB: [laughs] I think they just dont want to go look for it. You know?
AS: You own those songs though?
BB: Yeah, I mean I think here I go in territory I dont know again I think they own the tapes. I couldnt walk in there today and take the tapes and put that record out without their permission.
AS: And then you went to Startime [indie label, released the critically-acclaimed Lapalco in 2002] and then finally on to V2 where you are now. Those are crazy-different labels youve jumped around from.
BB: Its funny because Startime is like the tiniest [label], I mean its run by one man, but he handles it so well, hes so efficient and productive its just impressive. And then you have V2 which I think is like a small major or a big indie, they're not quite huge. But also they are likeits kind of like Keystone Cops.
AS: [cracks up]
B [laughing] You know what I mean? So yeah, they are very different, but maybe not in the way you think like tiny label, big label. Virgin was a big label. And comparatively, actually not that big! In retrospect back then I thought it was this huge corporate thing. I actually had a choice. I was contacted by Virgin, Columbia and Atlantic. I chose Virgin because they were the smallest and they seemed into it. They were less corporate then the others. I went to meetings at Columbia in New York. It was this skyscraper, I couldnt relate, I was terrified. And then Virgin was just in, like, Beverly Hills, a really small complex. Everyone was cool and young.
AS: But then right after that what happened? I mean, I didnt see you tour for One Mississippi.
B I didnt. Well, I did, but no one saw me. We played little bars and we sucked. I sucked. And I got friends to play and they werent always very good, they were just, you know, friends. People stopped coming to the shows. Well, the fans came but the people in the business stopped coming. It was like wow, you need some work, which I did. I could barely stand up and play the guitar. I was signed based on a tape that I gave them, I had never played these songs live. And I hadnt played live since high school - small shows, little punk shows.
AS: I was actually going to ask if youve ever been in a band that wasnt your name.
BB: Yeah, I mean, but nothing youd know. High school stuff. I wish this wasnt my name. I didnt want it to be. I didnt know what to call it. I was in a panic. I had a month to figure it out [before The Alternative to Love came out], I just couldnt think of anything good enough. In the end I was like, fuck it, it will just stay Brendan Benson.
AS: Might as well.
B Im sorry I did. I think its a turn-off. I mean the name itself is kind of hard to remember, hard to say.
AS: Um, no. No its not.
BB: [laughing] Ok, yeah youre right. And I think being a solo artist is not very advantageous. People just think, oh singer /songwriter or folk guy or whatever.
AS: Right.
AS: Which Im not, I meanI dont thinkat all.
AS: I think youre pretty rock.
BB: I just think I write songs to be played by a band. Im not, like, pouring my heart out or saying I have a message. I dont sing or play guitar very well. Its got to be the whole thing, you know?
AS: Its funny that you say that because I think the definite perception about your songs is that youre pouring your heart out, like, all the time, thats like across the board people who know your music really well and people who dont.
BB: Its true. Just 'cause I think a lot of times my songs tend to be about girls. Or they look at titles of songs, or the title of my record having love in it. I think people then just assume or kind of guess its just some real heartfelt confessional or whatever. I mean sometimes it is confessional but most of the time its just stream of consciousness, words that rhyme [laughs].
AS: The lyrics are so crazy and random but then all of a sudden it feels like oh okay thats what going on.
BB: Thats how I feel too! I dont know whats going on and then its like suddenly ok this makes sense or Ill just think of something that makes sense. I mean, thats how it is for me. I dont know really.
AS: Yeah.
BB: Its coming out of me and I dont know what it means.
AS: I think it's so cute, and it just ends up working in the end and it feels so real because it is real.
BB: I dont think ive ever heard anyone call my music cute before.
AS: Stop it!
BB: No, im serious! I like that thats cool!
AS: Oh my God, it's so cute.
BB: I'm serious. I mean it would be different if a dude was saying that.
AS: [laughing] Well its got some of the best hooks ever. Do you feel that there is sort of a desire [amongst your fans] to keep you as a secret?
BB: Yeah, I think thats a common thing. No one has ever said that but I have gotten that impression they would be sorry a lot of them would be kind of pissed or resentful if I became popular or more successful. I've seen it happen with other bands too like The White Stripes. I saw that audience desperately holding on, clinging to them, and it was not a pretty sight [laughs]. I was on tour with them at the time when they were just sort of breaking and we were opening up and the audience was so tense and sort of not very nice there was like the front part of the audience, the die hard fans, and there was this tension between the people up front who were just bitter and kind of jerky. I hope they dont feel that way about me.
AS: Even if youre not singing about girls, the way that your songs make people feelI think everyone should have that.
BB: Wow, thanks. Thanks a lot.
AS: Hey, and I hope you like the SuicideGirls book! [a gift from Missy Suicide, also a fan]
BB: [smiles] Oh, Im sure I will.
AS: There are some naked girls in there.
BB: It just so happens I like naked girls!
By Auren Suicide
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
babyblue:
Great interview! Brendan has got to be one of the nicest guys around. I remember a few years back shyly approaching him with one of his setlists and he signed it for me and chatted with me for a bit. I was ecstatic. That tour with the White Stripes was an amazing show as well.
sickboyedd:
Heard the songs from the Raconteurs on the official websitehere. I'm really quite happy with them, in fact, I'm totally stoked.