If there's a platonic ideal of a singer-songwriter voice that would appeal to teen girls, it's the one that emerges from the pipes of Alec Benjamin. His voice manages to be soft, safe, melodic and dextrous. It rings clear with an innocent sincerity of a sweet, good boy — the kind that your parents are fine with having come over to hang out in your room without making sure to crack the door open. It's exactly what you want to hear when a boy picks up an acoustic guitar as you both sit on your twin bed, awash in awkward, lovesick teen pheromones.
Considering pop music is the rightful domain of teenage girls, it's no surprise that Benjamin has found a massive audience in recent years. After trying to grind out a living as a singer-songwriter for years, he hit it big with the release of his 2018 single "Let Me Down Slowly." Really big. The song will soon surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify (he also has 13.7 million monthly listeners on the omnipresent streaming platform).
Watching videos of him playing the song live, it becomes obvious he's hitting the target demographic, as entire audiences of youthful voices almost scream the heartfelt lyrics back at him.
"I think it is probably the coolest feeling ever," says Benjamin. "Because you spent so long playing shows beginning and opening up for other people, trying to get your music out there. And hopefully, you have enough people to play your own show. Sometimes you're singing at and to people, and then it becomes singing with them. It's really nice to feel sort of connected with everybody who's in the audience, and as a songwriter, it's pretty much the highest honor you can have. It's one of the things that kept me going through the pandemic, knowing that there would be hopefully the opportunity to do that again. It never gets old, and I never get used to it."
But there's also a slightly odd disconnect that Benjamin is acutely aware of when performing. He may have the tender, angelic voice of a teen heartthrob, but he'll be turning 28 years old next month. His youthful sound can't be helped, so he chooses to work within its parameters.
"I'm built how I'm anatomically built, so there's nothing I can do about the way that my voice sounds," says Benjamin. "But as an artist, you think about your voice — the timbre or tone of your voice — as like the palette of colors that you're painting with. The way you make art is you take things and you sort of manipulate the context around them in order to make them beautiful or to prepare the emotion that you want to portray. So, like, I'm aware of the way that my voice sounds and the way that it sounds over certain types of productions, in certain chord progressions, and the way that it sounds when I'm talking about certain topics. That's one of the reasons why the productions have evolved, and the topics and lyrics have evolved.
"I hope that allows me to mature even though the sound of my voice maybe doesn't," Benjamin jokingly adds. "It's like... I've already hit puberty, so it's not getting any lower."
While Benjamin often writes songs that have him singing from a relatively shy, almost timid point of view, he's confident in his musical approach. Growing up on artists like Eminem and Jason Mraz certainly contributed to the flow of his delivery, which can transition from ballad to almost a hip-hop-esque flow without skipping a beat. He knows that his voice is a tool wielded with precision.
"It's not always the best singers that are ultimately the most popular singers. When you listen to someone like Neil Young or even like Blink-182, they have interesting voices, but they're self-aware," says Benjamin. "Tom DeLonge is not trying to sing Celine Dion's music. That's not what his voice is. So I also hope I know how to use my voice in such a way that allows you to grow and mature as an artist."
That maturity can be heard on his upcoming studio album, Un(Commentary), which drops on April 15. Written during COVID times, the state of the world allowed Benjamin to explore subjects he'd never touched before.
"I spent not so much time looking inward, and more time looking outward," Benjamin says. "During the pandemic, there were not that many things that you could do, so it gave me time to reflect and also to watch what was happening in the world. I think that kind of put human nature on full display.
"So for example, I have a song on the album called 'Nuance,' which is about how the world is kind of devoid of talking about the nuances of each individual situation because things have got so polarized."
Before the album releases, Benjamin is kicking off his new tour in Spokane. The show comes just a week before he takes the stage at the 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. But don't think of it as a toss away warm-up gig. After so long away from the road, Benjamin savors every live audience who comes out to see him play.
"My mom always used to tell me, 'Every show is Glastonbury,'" says Benjamin. "If people are gonna spend their hard-earned money and spend their time to see us perform, we've gotta put on a great show." ♦
Alec Benjamin, Sara Kays • Sat, April 9 at 8 pm • $30 • All ages • Knitting Factory • 919 W. Sprague Ave. • sp.knittingfactory.com • 509-244-3279
