♪ Opening theme music ♪
Hello and welcome to this episode of ArtsAbly in Conversation.
My name is Diane Kolin.
This series presents artists, academics, and project leaders who dedicate their
time and energy to a better accessibility for people with disabilities in the arts.
You can find more of these conversations on our website, artsably.com,
which is spelled A-R-T-S-A-B-L-Y dot com.
♪ Theme music ♪
Today, ArtsAbly is in conversation with Andrea Benham, a singer songwriter
and a Grammy district advocate.
You can find the resources mentioned by Andrea Benham during this episode
on ArtsAbly's website in the blog section.
♪ Walk Away by Andrea Benham ♪
Tell me something I don't know
cause you keep saying you'll change but you're blowing smoke
I've been planning to leave but I can't let you go.
Cause you're coming home late at night
and when you slip into bed it doesn't feel right
but you touch me babe I forget all the thoughts.
I need you to know
that I can't do this alone
so you need to leave yeah you need to go
cause I know I'm better off on my own
I need you to walk away
so caught up in the games they play
cause you say you love me but it doesn't show
you keep me lonely but I know
if you don't leave me I'll just say
so I need you to walk away
walk away
I've been tossing in my sleep wondering who you've been with why it isn't me
I get so jealous sometimes that I can't breath
don't you say that we're fine and it's all in my mind
but I don't think that you care you're ignoring the signs
so you need to leave yea you need to go
I need you to know
that I can't do this alone
so you need to leave yeah you need to go
cause I know better off on my own
so caught up in the games we play
that I can't seem to walk away
cause you say you love me but it doesn't show
you keep me lonely but I know
if you don't leave me I'll just say
so I need you to walk away
walk away
Welcome to this new episode of ArtsAbly in conversation.
I am today with Andrea Benham, who is a singer, songwriter
and a Grammy district advocate.
Andrea, welcome.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you for being here.
Okay, so I wanted to start this episode
by asking about you. Could you present yourself?
Okay.
My name is Andrea Benham.
I started songwriting when I was seven years old, and I could play
the clarinet, piano, guitar,
clarinet, I sing, I write.
So that's pretty much a little bit about me.
And you started music at seven years old.
What made you start with music?
Is that something that everybody else around you in your family was doing,
or was it just like, oh, I want to start music?
Yeah, my grandmother played piano by ear,
and my great uncle has a Grammy.
And music was very influential in my life.
And it was a great outlet for me as a kid
to start writing how I was feeling and to work on the melodies.
So, yeah.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Hillsborough, New Jersey, in the United States.
Very good.
And so did you wanted to go for musical studies after that or jump directly
in a musical career as a young person?
When I was three, my mom put me into dance class,
and my dance teacher was a Rockette for the New York Rockettes.
And my mom always kept me very active in dance class.
And then once I got into school, I started learning how to play the clarinet
and piano, and I was in choir, so I kept very, very, very active as a child.
So from that period of being young and being active in the arts
in general, what happened next?
Let's see.
When I was in college, I got an internship at Billboard magazine,
and I ended up meeting all -
I ended up seeing the business side of music, and I really loved it, and
I just wanted to create amazing dance music and to make people's lives better
for three minutes a day or with remixes it's now - sometimes it's 15 minutes.
But it's been a lifelong dream of mine
just to always make people's lives better.
And it's interesting that you like sports that much because I think
what you like is a rhythm.
It's something that in your songs, it's - in your songwriting, it's dance music, and it's
a lot of very energetic and happy music.
And I think that one influenced the others. Right?
Yeah. The lyrics are pretty...
The lyrics face a lot of emotion and a lot of things that I've been through.
But then the melody of the record will always become an earworm for people
that they'll never forget it.
And that's how I like to write.
So let's talk about these lyrics.
What's your process of creating a new song?
And can you talk a little bit about what you write exactly, and what you -
What your songs are?
I mean, let's start with the first record, Reincarnation.
Reincarnation is about my godfather, who was always supportive of me,
and he passed away senior year of my high school.
And so that record is about him.
And then I have Overcome, which is on Kult Records, and it's all about overcoming
any obstacle that life faces you.
And then I have I Won't Cave, all about overcoming a messy relationship, you know,
and then I have Walk Away, it's almost on the same thing
that you're not going to stay in an abusive relationship,
that you're going to walk away from it.
And then you have I Got This. I Got This talks a lot about the accident
that disabled me and that no matter what,
I was going to turn the story around.
And then you have Melt, which I wrote about one of my neighbors
who lives in my building.
And then you have Fences.
Fences is a new record.
It's technically not a new record.
Fences was written in 2014 and was released, and then the label folded.
So I went out and I rerecorded the record and I added some other lyrics
and Fences about my best friend who passed away in 2014.
So I really write from a lot of emotion, a lot of things that I've been through personally,
but I like to twist it, even though it's such an emotional
and such a heartfelt thing for me.
I like to write lyrically and melodically that people
will always remember the lyrics.
And in these different records and songs
you've written, five times you've been -
You submitted Grammys, right?
Yeah, five times I've submitted.
I submitted for
You Might Be The One, Walk Away, I Got This,
Fences and Love You and Melt.
Yeah. I was never up,
I never grasped, I never quenched a nomination.
I was up for your consideration.
Okay, great.
And you always work with collaborators, right?
DJ's or producers? Always.
Can you talk about your team?
Well, the Klubjumpers, they're based in San Antonio, Texas, and
their remix on Reincarnation had gotten me signed in 2006 to MisWax.
And then working with John Kano.
I've known John since I started interning at Billboard.
So I've known him for a long time.
And I would say the base of this industry is really not
what you know or who you know.
It's really how you develop these relationships.
So how did you start working with this team
and develop these relationships?
Well, I was introduced to the Klubjumpers by a gentleman named David Jurman.
And I met Dave at a club in the city on the Lower East Side in 2005.
And Dave at the time was working under Clive Davis.
And we sat down, we chatted, and I told him about this record, Reincarnation.
And he said to me, let me go home and listen to it.
So he listened to it and he goes, oh, I know the perfect team
that will do the remix for you.
And that remix got me signed.
That's very nice. And you've been working with this team since, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Very good. Okay, so...
I think we're going to share on ArtsAbly's podcast and channel,
and also the resource page that will go with your interview, all the links
so that people can hear that on Spotify.
Also, you have a YouTube channel with nice videos that I recommend.
And so your music right now is...
Do you have projects to release -
I know you just released one, right?
I just released Fences.
I released I Got This,
and Fences was released the end of June.
Okay, good.
And so can you talk about, like, if you have any future projects
or activities that
you want to talk about that are happening right now?
Okay, well, right now I'm actually in the running to be in Rolling Stone magazine.
Right now. I'm holding the third position.
I made it to the top 20, and then this coming Thursday, we'll go to the top 15.
And I'm number three.
I was holding the first spot for, like a full week, and then,
then I got taken back.
But I'm not worried about it.
I'll continue to keep working on that.
And it's really like the article is really about me overcoming a lot of obstacles
in my life and being positive.
And I'm very, very, very grateful for every day that I get,
and I'm very grateful for the gift of music.
Are you also on the top 20 of America's next top hit maker?
Yes, I'm number three right now.
Okay. So, wow.
Congratulations. I mean, it's...
Thank you.
And how is the... There is a voting process
and it's going to end when?
Well, the top 15 will end this Thursday.
And then I'm sure it's going to keep graduating into the probably top ten.
Top five.
Yeah. And so the prize is $10,000 and
it's spread in Rolling Stone magazine.
And then I would go down to Austin and I would be able -
I would perform.
Wow. Good luck.
Thank you.
Fingers crossed.
Okay.
I want to go back -
Would you mind speaking a little bit about what you're overcoming right now
or what pushes you to write.
So you told me you had an accident?
Yes. Yeah, I had an accident in 2015.
I was walking, and a guy went through a stop sign, and he hit me,
and I lost my vision in my right eye.
And so at the time, I was working for the state of New Jersey,
and they didn't take me back to work, so I'm still legally not done with that case.
And so a lot of things have been thrown at me.
You know, I didn't get my job back, and it was really just figuring out
how to turn this story around.
And I had met with the surgeon who saved my life back in 2019,
and he said to me, the hardest thing I had to do as a doctor
was tell your mom I didn't think that you were going to make it.
And then he went back to work the next day, and I was still alive,
so it just wasn't really my time.
And it's a lot of things that, like, I.
That I like to sit with about, you know, how it's affected my relationships
and how it's affected my music and
how I'm just so grateful to even be here.
And so that's what I would say, that a lot of that inspires the writing.
Well, the proof that you have
a lot of things to say through your music
is that you keep releasing these songs.
So that's great.
And so you plan the next one, too, right?
I'm in the midst of writing it.
Okay, good.
Okay.
And so, for me, when you are working on some challenges
that you try to incorporate in your songs,
it goes to what I call accessibility arts,
because, in a way, it's how to adapt your songwriting and your access needs
and things like that to accommodate your own needs, your own rhythm
that might be different from before.
So what does it mean for you to work in that kind of environment,
and how did you adapt to it?
I think it's good to have, like, a great understanding as to, like,
what I'm able to offer as an artist and that maybe I could change somebody's life
for, like, three minutes or six minutes or
any period of the day, that I'll get a message and it'll say,
oh, your song totally changed my day, which I think is so important,
and it's so uplifting for me as a songwriter.
And it makes me feel, like, super motivated.
I get a lot of things, like, even on my birthday, a lot of messages
from fans or from family members saying how I motivate them and how I push them.
My one cousin, she just finished chemotherapy for breast cancer,
and she says to me all the time, I think of how hard my life is.
But then I look at you and I think of how you really got through. You turned this whole story around.
And I'm grateful that I'm able to do it through music.
And she would say to me, oh, your music inspires me all the time.
I always listen to it when I'm down, so I think that's really important.
Yeah. And it goes two ways, right?
When someone tells you, your music inspires me and motivates me, then
you get motivated to continue what you're doing, which is nice.
Of course.
Speaking of inspiration, I was wondering if in your career
and in your songwriting skills,
if you have someone to think of who really
accompanied you or inspired you in your path, if you have one or two persons
to think of, who would it be and why?
I would say the first person that definitely comes to mind is my godfather.
My godfather, our last conversation that I had with him,
he said to me, you never want to be 40 and look back and think, what if?
If you want to sing and you love music, go for it.
I always said to him, when I grow up, one day,
I'm going to wake up and see New York City every day.
And guess what? That's what I do.
I wake up and I see New York City every morning, and I never take it for granted.
And that will always stick with me, that conversation,
because it was our last, and
I was really head over heels with music.
And then I got into the Grammys, and I just -
I was so, so grateful for that.
And then the second person I'd say would be Neil Diamond.
Ironically, he is a pop, amazing, amazing songwriter.
He's such a classic songwriter.
And my mom would always take me to see him.
I've seen him in concert about 35 times.
And the last time that I saw him was in 2017.
And a few months later, he announced that he had Parkinson's.
And I had never gone to a concert by myself, but it was my birthday,
and I was like, you know what?
Nobody wanted to go with me.
And I was like, I'm going to go by myself.
What do I have to lose?
And I went, and, you know, when you go to a Neil Diamond concert,
everybody knows the lyrics to the songs.
You know, Sweet Caroline, you know, Hello,
everybody knows the lyrics to all the songs.
So it's one big sing along.
And I was so happy that I did because that was the last time
I would ever see him perform.
I did go to his Broadway show in December that opened and he was, like,
right in front of me, which was amazing.
But I would say my godfather and Neil Diamond.
Very nice. Neil Diamond. Wow.
Not a dance artist, but a classic songwriter.
Yeah. Very nice.
I have a last question. Really last one.
If you have a piece of advice to give to our listeners right now
who are, like, struggling with -
I would love to go to songwriting, but I don't know how.
I don't know if I have the courage or I don't know if I have the guts
or I don't know if I have the money.
What would be this piece of advice?
I would say, I mean, when I started, I started at seven years old,
so I just started writing poems.
And then I started working with the melodies as I got older.
But I'd say poetry is a really good way to start.
Okay, well, thank you so much for this conversation
and I wish you all the best for the next periods of votes.
And maybe we'll see each other at the Grammys.
Of course. I hope so.
We share the fact that we are both RAMPD Pro members
and a lot of pro members are also going to Grammys to support the other artists.
And so I hope to see you in person over there.
Of course I was able, I was fortunate to go in 2019,
and I went to the Dolly Parton MusiCares Person Of The Year's party.
And when I had my accident, MusiCares, they donated a lot of money
that really helped my survival.
So I'm super grateful for it.
Okay, well, have a great day. Thank you, you too.
Bye. Take care.
Okay, bye.
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