ENTER: BENCILS

It starts with an email. March 19th, 2:48 AM Pacific. The opening line: "yoooooooooooooooo."

Sometimes (oftentimes) that’s all it really takes. But looking back on it, that intro should have given me a good idea about the artist I was about to meet. Focused beyond a doubt, but at the sacrifice of a healthy circadian rhythm. Enter: Bencils.

For those who know me, the fact that I didn’t see or reply to this email until two weeks later should be no surprise. But from the first call where we had a seance on the creative process, I understood one thing. Ben is a character, straight out of a cartoon, and that’s what makes him a great artist. As a musician, engineer, lyricist, actor, and video editor, Ben is very clear about who he is. Which means he can build an entire world for his art to live in.

Following the shoot and the release of his third album ALIVE, Ben and I hopped on the phone to chat about life, his process in creating the album, and everything in between. My humid evening in The City was, in fact, Ben's morning as I caught him following a late-night gaming session. After some banter and the lighting of a Newport, I put my detective glasses on (the ones with the thick frames), got my mini pen and notebook out (turned on call transcription), and got right into the difficult questions -

ELI: What did you want to be growing up? That first goal?

BEN: Um. I think when I was growing up, my goals changed a lot. Like, it was kind of like a different thing every day. Like when I was, when I was really young, I wanted to be a Minecraft YouTuber so bad. 

E: Hahaha me too.

B: I wanted to be PewDiePie, or like some shit where I was just like, I don't know, I had like 3 Minecraft YouTube channels. I was hustling. Those shall remain unnamed. Those will never get unearthed.

E: I also definitely had a YouTube channel with some Black Ops too quick-scoping clips on there. Do you think that kind of had an influence on who you are today?

B: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, throughout my childhood, I stayed at home a lot rather than going outside and playing. I wasn’t really into sports. So, I kind of was always on my computer, you know what I mean? I play less video games now, but when I was a kid, bro, it would be like literally every day after school that was all I do. 

And so when I got into editing videos, um, I don't know, I think it just kind of naturally evolved into like. I turned, you know, 16, 17, 18, I was listening to like ASAP Mob, and like Macaroni Time by Chief Keef, and like Smoke Purp, and I was like, damn, like, I want to get some ladies. So I started producing EDM music with my homie. Editing music videos and stuff.

E: Sick. You’ve been making music for a minute then.

B: Since I was 16. 

E: Okay, yeah, I definitely got that feeling. 

Are you doing all your own production as well? You know, I wanted to really get into the drums and a lot of the different percussion that you use on the album. Is that all you? Or do you have another hand in that? 

B: Yes, so this last album that came out was my 1st self-produced album. So did all the guitars, did all the drums, did mixing, literally everything front to back.

E: Congrats. Do you feel closer to their music in a sense? I had a college internship where I wrote about underground music, and all the best projects were from the same person, you know? Like, there's a certain touch. Do you think that you kind of feel that in what you make now?

B: There’s a great quote. I can't remember who said it, but something along the lines of like ‘if you don’t have a hand in every part of it, you might not discover what you could make or like, you might not find your unique sound. 

Like when you think of Frank Ocean, when you think of OG Odd Future, like, when you think of, shit, the whole ASAP collective, I'm just using rap as a reference point because it's a lot of what I listen to, but like, all of those artists are unique to where the sound matches the visual identity. The visual identity is them, and it just feels real, because the shit came from the heart. And I guess that's what I wanted. 

Producing the album was a challenge in two ways; I had produced a lot of rap music before, but I had never produced my own shit. That was just like a hurdle to get over. The exploration of stepping stones like “let’s see what’s up”.

E: That's definitely a challenge. But I love that kind of ownership on all of it. Especially as things get deeper, just having ownership over your art is definitely super important. 

Personally, I think that everybody, every creative, kind of has that moment where you make that decision to start putting yourself out there. Do you think you had that moment? Maybe sounds like you always had this… You kind of knew who you were. 

B: Um, that’s a good question. Let me hit this Newport while I think about that -

I have to. Damn, did I always know I was him? No. But I guess I just kind of view it as, I always knew who I was. I guess I'll say this, like, when I was 18, I was in a psychology class, and I had a teacher named Miss Butterworth, and Miss Buttersworth fucking hated me. I just, I just hit the pen in class and would just sit there and fucking make jokes all day. But like one day in class. I told Ms. Buttersworth. I like, I'm going to win an EGOT one day. And she was like, no way. And I was like, yeah, for sure. And I'm gonna shout you out. Like every time I win each of those awards. 

And so I think I've always been really obsessed, or not obsessed, but I've always really liked kind of the hero's journey and like stories of like, um, somebody building themselves up, uh, or like hustling to get to the top of whatever it is. Whether it's like Top Boy, The Wire, Rocky, anime like Naruto. Like Avatar, the last Air, which isn't really an anime, but still great show. Solo leveling.

E: Super goated. Definitely a huge influence. What’s your favorite show? To take a complete left turn real quick

B: Naruto's definitely number one. Favorite character is Rock Lee. Kind of like going along exactly with what we said, like, Rock Lee is a dude trying to prove himself similar to Naruto, but his whole thing is about hard work. And having to prove to not only himself, but the people around him in a healthy way that he belongs there. 

E: And he ends up being a beast.

B: Exactly. He’s got one of those stories. Fucking fighting in the Great Ninja War. Really -

E: Climbing that mountain. 

B: Exactly, really climbing that mountain. It was really kind of like, you know, you feel like you're on a journey, and that was the name of the 1st song I ever released. That’s a like really strong, really pertinent thing in my mind: it feels like being a creative, you have to push your own boulder up the mountain. But rather than being Sisypus and just being stuck there. Eventually you can get over that hill. 

E: And you got to make your next own hill. Like, you're almost making your own challenges that don't already exist. That's the game, right, having to put yourself out there like every time it's like brand new. Like, ‘I’m gonna have to try to get them to see something new’. It’s super inspiring. This is all me. There's no other hand involved, you know. This is not to be confused.

B: And that’s why I respect what you guys have going on. Independently driven creatives. If you stop putting your minds together, the whole engine stops.

E: And sometimes it does.

B: Exactly. And to relate the lack of sleep thing you brought up (earlier). It all goes hand in hand. 

E: Jumping more to that. How do you feel like the lack of sleep has honestly affected you as a person or creative? Not to force an answer, but sleep is mentioned a few times on the album.

B: I mean, I recorded the whole album, uh, pretty much in sessions from midnight until 7 in the morning in random classrooms around my college. I was subletting an apartment in College Town Boston, and my walls were paper thin. So I could literally hear like every breath. My roommate lived right next to me, and so I was like, well, I knew I wanted to make an album, but I was like, this is so cooked. Like, I can't speak at night without my roommate hearing it.  

So, I was working a job, and I started going to my college after work. I would get off at like midnight, and I'd bring my speaker, my guitar, my whole setup into a classroom, and I just record for like 7 hours straight. I would crush like literally like, 800 milligrams of caffeine, which I don't recommend, but you got to do what you got to do. I would go, make the beat, and then record. There was a lot of prayer along the way.
E: What school was this?

B: Uh, Berkeley (College). 

E: Shoutout to Berkley for giving their space to the craft.

B: I mean, they don't really? You just, I was tight with the janitors. I would like… buy the janitor's snacks and waters and stuff and like give them cigarettes so they would like let me into classrooms. 

E: Hahahaha you were the plug. Made your own path.

B: Exactly, exactly. Shout out my boy David, uh, the overnight janitor at Berkeley, for holding it down.

E: What was the 1st song that you made during that period, or even if it wasn't during that period, when you feel like you finally were starting to see some movement?

B: Oh my god, bro. The 1st like 10 songs I made were so ass. It was literally because, bro, I was just trying to get over the hill of like, fuck, what do I want my production for me to sound like? And which sounds kind of corny, but it's true. Then “Green Light” happened. It was one in the morning in one of those classrooms.

I had just downed my 2nd 300-milligram cup of caffeine, and I played this nasty bass riff and recorded it. And I was like, ah, this is tight. laid some chords over it, and I recorded the whole song with no drums. So it was just bass and guitar. And I imagined myself in the music video. Like, that doesn't really happen to me usually, but while I was recording each line, because usually I record like a Detroit rapper, I'll punch in line by line, so I saw it perfectly. That visual never really left my mind.

When I played it back, I was like, yeah, there's something here. Um, and I mean, the whole album (ALIVE) took like, probably 8 months,  8 and a half months. After I made that song, it felt like I started to have a direction. And probably made 40/50 songs for the album, minus transitions. While I was making it, I was sober for 8 months just because, like, life was kind of beating my ass. So I would wake up, go to work, go to class, thinking about working on the album, which can be a little draining.

E: That's the best drug, though, honestly. Like, some of the greatest satisfaction that you'll ever get, from, you know, a desire.

B: For real. But then, yeah, my process in creating an album is like all laid down all the demos, vocals little by little, but none of the songs had drums on them before all the vocals were finished. Then final tweaks to drums, mixed it, mastered it little by little, made the cover, and now we’re here!

Keep up with Ben!

https://www.instagram.com/wfbencils/?hl=en

https://open.spotify.com/artist/00BvMkNF8woBL83B9XaIOg

Photos by - [@mortyvision] [@hivesite]