We sat down with indie pop artist Jared Benjamin ahead of his Toronto show at the Drake Underground on April 17th. The Long Island singer-songwriter began making music during the pandemic, and is known for emotionally honest pop that blends sharp hooks with vivid, story-forward lyrics. Lately, he has been gaining traction on ‘BookTok’ where his music has been resonating with readers who are using his songs like “Three Steps Ahead” for edits and videos of romantasy (romance/fantasy) books. His latest album ICARUS, released this January, and his latest single “Drag Me Down” just released on April 10th.
Read our conversation below:
SYHANN: You just released your new single, “Drag Me Down”. Is there a deeper meaning behind the song and why you wrote it?
JARED: I just feel like there’s a lot of hate. Like, I’ve gotten a lot of hate from just starting doing all this. Like, I did a lot of really cringy TikTok videos when I first started, which I think is just a stepping stone to just finding your creativity and getting better at your art and everything. My family was very supportive, but nobody really done anything like this in my community. And it led to a lot of just like, “what are you doing? You’re supposed to be like going on track to be a lawyer or doctor or something”. And uh and I had no idea what I wanted to do. And I was making music. So Drag Me Down is really just an homage to saying, “Fuck you. I’m going to do it.”
SYHANN: Exactly. And you started during the pandemic – that’s when you learned to play guitar, right?
JARED: Yeah. First time.
SYHANN: Where were you when you went from learning covers to starting your own career? How did it spark?
JARED: Well, I was a junior in college and Covid hit and my sister had an old guitar in the basement. So I picked it up and I kind of fell in love with it. But I don’t really listen to a lot of music. I have about 50 saved songs on my phone. Total. So I kind of ran out of covers to learn really really quickly. I was googling the best songs to learn on guitar. I don’t know how to play “Free Bird” still, but apparently that’s like one that you get kicked out of Guitar Center for. I was practicing in my apartment. And I just I was like, I’m going to write a song. And my roommate at the time, Jack, he was like, “you go do that, bud.” I was like, you know what? I am going to do it. And I went into my room. I wrote something. I came out and he was like, “go write another one.” And I just kept kept doing it.
SYHANN: Have you always wanted to be an artist or did it spark out of nowhere?
JARED: I can’t say that it fully sparked out of nowhere. I was the kid with the hairbrush in the bedroom looking in the mirror, but I had no idea that that was going to turn into anything. I didn’t really sing. I didn’t play an instrument. Music wasn’t even on any sort of horizon. I think it just kind of came out of nowhere and I started posting every single thing that I was making from the first song that I wrote to now. I just kind of fell into it and fell in love with it and never wanted to stop.
SYHANN: Is there something people don’t understand about going viral? And was there anything that changed in your life after your first song went viral?
JARED: Virality is a moment. It’s not a career. And that was something that it took a second to realize because the mountain is way taller than you think it is. I made it through the first foothill and I thought I was on the top and then I looked over and I was like, “wow, I have $9 in my bank.” I’d say that virality is like it’s a wave and it’s going to crash and you’re just going to keep trying to ride it until you find the next one.
SYHANN: When you first went viral, did you feel excited or overwhelmed?
JARED: I actually had no idea how to feel. I had been making videos for a couple months and the first one that popped off had 10,000 views. I wouldn’t even consider that viral or anything, but I remember the feeling I got from it and I was like, I really hope nobody I know finds out about this, but this is really cool. And then when I got the first million, two million, I was freaking out for like 2 days. I was like, this is the best thing that’s ever happened. (…) They’ve seen me. What do I do with that?
SYHANN: Your music is very story driven. Would you say your songs came from real experiences or imagined scenarios?
JARED: I’d say they’re all from real experiences. I dramatize a lot of my stuff, but all the experiences are real. I try like really really hard to keep it as honest as possible, which in the world of songwriting and artistry, a lot of people don’t know that a lot of songs — I’m not writing all these songs alone. I’ve got a wonderful team of people, like two or three friends that I write these songs with. There are also a lot of songs that get pitched to you. And pitching a song is just getting a song and being like, do I resonate with this? Do I want to say it? Is this my voice? Personally, I just love writing. I got into the whole game for writing.
SYHANN: Do you usually write in your room or 2 a.m. kind of thing? Or just do they just come up in your head and you think, I need to write that down?
JARED: Usually it’s at the most inconvenient times. Usually me and my girlfriend Diana are in the apartment and I just pull out the guitar and she’s probably doing something else. I’m like, “Diana, is this a good line?” And she’s like, “yeah, that’s a good line.” I was like, “Okay, you have you have another line? Like, you want to bounce off this?” And she’s like, “Jared, I’m in the middle of doing something.” I’m like, “No, no, it’s okay. Cool. You do your thing. I’m going to go back to doing my thing.” And then 5 minutes later, I’m like, “You know what? I have more. I’m going to show this to you.” And she’s like, “Jared, we have to leave in 15 minutes for dinner.” And I’m like, “It’s okay. I’m just going to get the last line.”
SYHANN: What’s like the most emotional or difficult song that you’ve written so far?
JARED: It’s not out. But I wrote this song that will be coming out on the next [project]. It was actually the hardest song I’ve ever written. My grandfather is currently going through dementia right now. And my grandmother’s name is Sue – the song is called “Sue”. That one was really tough because I didn’t want it to just be sad. I wanted it to be like an homage to him because he’s a wonderful human and like the happiest, most caring man I’ve ever met in my life. I just wanted it to be like an homage to who he was and how much love he has for my grandmother.
SYHANN: What’s one lyric you’ve written that still hits you every time?
JARED: Every drop of blood in my body screams for you. All these love songs are for the same girl. And it’ll always be for the same girl.
SYHANN: So your songs “Flatline” and “Doomsday” feel pretty intense. Where does the emotional weight come from?
JARED: After college, I went through pretty difficult time and I didn’t know how to express it, so I just got angry at the world, at like everything. I’m not an angry person, I’m pretty mellow all the time, but I didn’t have an outlet for it. I didn’t know how to react to it. I didn’t know how to feel about it. And I was working with my dad at the time doing landscaping, and he had to like tell me to stop working because I was like breaking tools unintentionally because I was just upset. So then I started putting that into the music. “Flatline” was my love for Diana. “Doomsday” was everybody’s waiting for your downfall. “Let It Burn” – it’s just my therapy.
SYHANN: Your music is big on BookTok at the moment. How does it feel seeing your songs become a part of other people’s stories?
JARED: I think it’s amazing. I think it’s actually the coolest thing ever. Also, from just a straight lore perspective, when I said that I didn’t listen to a lot of music, that’s because I read a lot of books.
SYHANN: What’s your favourite book?
JARED: I’d probably say Name of the Wind. I’m a really big fantasy fantasy and sci-fi [fan]. I think I’ve read like probably a thousand books in the last two years.
SYHANN: What’s the most unexpected way you’ve seen someone use your songs?
JARED: So, these books are romantasy. I didn’t know what that meant. I now know what that means. I’ve read the books since, and I didn’t write any of these songs with these books in mind, but they connected almost perfectly. My friend Jenna, who writes a lot of the songs with me — I wrote “Three Steps Ahead” and I brought it to her. We have this running joke that if I write a song that isn’t with her and it’s good, she gets upset with me. She’s like, “How dare you write such a good song without me?” and she looked at me and she was like, “You need to read this book and you need to caption your video like this.” So that was the first “my friend told me that this song is more Fourth Wing than ACOTAR (A Court of Thorns and Roses) and it just blew up. And I had no idea what that meant.
SYHANN: Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
JARED: I personally have a hard time seeing past like 5 seconds. But 5 years from now, I’d like to I’d like to at least be playing MSG. I’m from New York. That that would be really really cool. Even if I’m just opening. And I’d love to I’d love to get to a point where I feel as though I’ve made the people around me proud.
Watch the full video here, and check out Jared’s music here.