Fellow New Jersey native Phil Bensen sat down with me before his performance at The Knitting Factory. Bensen’s music is the perfect blend of soulfulness reminiscent of the Jackson 5 intertwined with pop influences of musicians like John Mayer and Maroon 5. Before warming up for his set, Bensen took some time to discuss his musical influences, hopes for the future and the inspiration behind some of his songs.
I read that you started out performing in college.
I always wanted to get into music but I never had the patience to sit down and do it. My college was a real liberal arts school, it was very artsy - people playing music in courtyards and stuff like that. They had these coffee houses and the first night I went to one of those I was like, “I have to do this. This is what I have to do.” And that’s when I started to play live. I had played before that, but I really got inspired. I loved it. So then I started playing, never thinking it could be a career. And then i just kept getting better, and my voice developed, and i wrote some songs..it was a natural progression. Here I am two years later, there you go.
You've been on tour the last two years, right? How has it been touring with bands like Lifehouse and the Jonas Brothers?
Well, technically I guess the last, yeah two years. But not really always on tour. Kind of getting shows here and there and recording and getting all that stuff ready to go. I only played one show with Lifehouse. The Jonas Brothers have been great to me. It’s not like, the best fit musically, but it works. For them to be playing sold out House of Blues and to invite me along because they like my music is a really cool thing. And so I’ve done shows with them, toured the west coast with Secondhand Serenade and Powerspace and just shows like this, up and down the east coast with Sparky’s Flaw. Bamboozle. Two years ago I was there, but it was on the small stage and no one knew who I was. Last year I played on the main stage and it was really cool. This year I don’t know yet, but I know I’m in the line-up.
What inspires your music?
The great songs with great hooks... real music, you know? The Beatles, Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Maroon 5, Bright Eyes I love. There are so many. I’ve always been a big fan of Elliott Smith. My stuff is . . . I don’t know, I’m kind of breaking away from the acoustic ballady kind of stuff and going more towards funky, cool, sort of stuff. But i'll also write some ballads too.
I really like your song, “Paper Airplanes.” What’s the story behind it?
It’s actually a good story behind that song. I was playing an open mic, trying to get anywhere in music, and there was a guy singing a song, “Paper airplanes fly so high” and I’m thinking to myself, “No they don’t. That’s kind of a dopey thing to say. They crash. It’s a piece of paper.” And I thought, “Hey, that might be a cool concept.” You know, something delicate and beautiful that gets destroyed. I thought it’d be a cool thing to pair that with life in general.
There are all these stories within the song, what inspired those stories?
A lot of times, especially when I was in college, after partying it would be like 2 in the morning and it was always cool to look up at the sky and just see planes go by and... I don’t know, it was just almost like a somber, sad kind of place. And then, the train story in there was a real thing. You see yourself and you see a guy that’s 20 years older and a guy that’s really old and you’re like, “Wow, that guy was once my age, once this young.” And there was this guy on the train ready to die. I don’t know. That’s my song. It’s almost like a Catcher in the Rye inspired song in a sense where the guy in Catcher in the Rye wants to be protecting all the kids jumping over the cliff and there’s no way he can do that.
Do you have a favorite song to perform?
You know, it changes every night. It’ll be like, “Wow that song felt really great or that song didn’t.” I like to play “Bruised.” I think it has a bit of a cool dynamic. It’s just a MySpace special, but it will be on my next album. Then there’s this song called “A Little Respect” that I like to play. “Not Good Enough” I like to play. There are more, but I like to play the more upbeat songs because they’re just more fun live.
Happy Thanksgiving! :) hope you have an awesome Day Hope to talk to you soon! niice seeing you in providence the other night! hopefully see you in Boston on Saturday! -Zack
ps. what are you doing for nye? because you should totally come hangout at hershey pa. because a lot of my friends that i met @ monday's show in VA are going, and we allll wanna see you again :D
Hey Phil You were AMAZING last night! thanks again for talking to us your soooo nice hope you enjoyed your second time in RI we love you so come back here more often! I CAN'T wait to see you Saturday in Boston! Hope you remember me :) haha
PHILLL!!!!! I am sooo excited to you on saturdayy =) Its been wayy too long..i miss you soo much!! if you need help with anything on saturday, let me know and Ill be glad to help!! hanging with you is always so much fun! and I need a new pic with you too lol bc I didnt really like either of the 2 we took last time you were here lol Hope you have a great thanksgiving!! <3 always amanda
So Phil, I'm definitely going to see you November 28th! I got the day off from work. I thought you'd like thatt.(: I can't wait to see you, I miss you sooo much. Hopefully we can take a picture together. lol. Love you! <3
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