INTERVIEW: Marco Benevento on his evolving, inquisitive sound
Marco Benevento likes to have a good time musically. One only has to look at his website for the evidence. There’s one picture of the singer-songwriter wearing a striped suit, sunglasses,top hat and red shoes. He’s holding a black, white and red umbrella, and he’s joyously sitting atop a piano. His Instagram account has a picture of him balancing on an amp while singing into a microphone — that top hat and sunglasses are positioned perfectly so they don’t fall off.
Benevento, the indie rock artist who is touring the West Coast, has a lot to be proud of in recent months. Besides his successful touring, the singer recently released a live album called The Woodstock Sessions, recorded at Applehead Recording in Woodstock, New York. The album, featuring such songs as “Dropkick,” “Heavy Metal Floating Upstream” and “The Story of Fred Short,” was recorded on a single take.
“We recorded it in Woodstock, New York, back in September, and it was at this really cool studio called Applehead,” Benevento said recently in a phone interview. “It’s like this farm, and there’s this big barn that’s been converted into a studio, a really nice studio. And there was room for about 100 people in there, and we did a live show in the studio and recorded with all the amazing stuff they’ve got in there. So that’s out. That’s our big 2017 release.”
Additionally, Benevento has 15 new songs that he is scattering into the set lists for his live shows. Every night he has been introducing a new tune to test it in front of a live audience.
When the singer is making music, he sometimes likes to find his inspiration in the studio, while other times he needs the crowd to help him perfect a song. “I’ve definitely had some songs that just sort of evolved in the studio,” he said. “We just recorded them, and then sort of after the fact we’ve played them live. But I’ve also gone the other way, where I play our bass player and our drummer a new song idea, and they’re kind of excited to try it out. We sort of play it every other night on tour. I got to say that way is probably a better way to get the song to its full potential.”
Benevento is particularly interested in the sounds he’s able to produce with a ton of synthesizers set up. At his house in upstate New York, he has a side building that serves as a studio. In addition to the synthesizers, there’s a drum kit, Hammond organ, amps, guitars and basses. It’s an electronic carnival at his disposal.
“I’m always messing with sound,” he said. “I’m very much drawn to the engineering side of things and producing side of things, so I’m in here constantly messing with sounds, reverbs, compressors and pre-amps and just messing around with how to get good sound. I also have a small tape machine that I like using a lot. You can record to the computer, but then you can bounce it to a tape machine and sort of flatten it out and make it sound a little different and mess with sounds that way. I’m constantly messing with sounds. Ever since I started making records with this band, back in 2008, so almost 10 years ago, I would go to studios and be involved in the mixing process, and I would always ask the engineer, ‘Oh, what’s that key command? What’s that do? And what’s that compressor do? What’s that microphone called?’ I was just prying. I probably pissed off so many engineers.”
That inquisitiveness has led to many successful albums on his label, Royal Potato Family. There has been The Story of Fred Short, This Is how it Goes, TigerFace and Swift, among others.
When Benevento is creating, he does not think about anything but the art form. He knows the music will eventually connect with an audience, mostly because he imagines what the tune will sound like in a future set list. “So maybe subconsciously, in the back of my mind, I’m imagining it within the set of our music, or I’m imagining it at a gig,” he said. “Then that’ll make me think, oh, maybe that’s too slow, or maybe we should play this one a little faster because I’m just imagining us playing this in a room full of people from 11 to midnight doing our set and imagining maybe this song being a little too slow. Let’s speed it up.”
Sometimes Benevento will even polish off an oldie but goodie. “Actually last night I even opened a song from 2011,” he said. “It was six years ago that it didn’t make it on our record, TigerFace, and I thought, oh, man, I like this. I kind of want to rework this one again, so some musicians that I’ve hung out with that are my mentors or people I respect, a lot of them have said just don’t ever throw away song ideas. Always keep them around. … Five years later, you might hear it in a different way, so I do enjoy that. I never dismiss a song or an idea as, oh, it sounds too much like that, or I don’t think it’s going to work. Let’s move on. I’m always just like, now, wait a minute. There’s got to be some redeeming quality with this idea that I just came up with.”
Benevento grew up in Wyckoff, New Jersey, only 30 minutes from New York City. He was drawn to music at a young age and liked playing piano and those synthesizers.
“There is something about growing up near New York City,” he said. “It took me like a half an hour to get into the city, so when I was around that age when you’re getting your permit and driving, I’d go into the city all the time and play with dudes my age. And it’s very competitive. It’s a very high level of musicianship for the youth, I’ve got to say, around those parts. The competitive nature of battle of the bands and all those things growing up, I bet that helped me get to a higher level at a younger age.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Marc Benevento is currently on tour and will play four California concerts April 12-15. Click here for more information and tickets.
