We recently connected with Benny Bassett and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Benny, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I grew up in a family that had an expansive love of music. We were always going to concerts at the local University in Chico, California. Musicals, theater, symphonies, chamber music, and all those kinds of performances. My stepfather had an advanced degree in music instrument repair, and his parents owned a music instrument store. So music and performance was always in my life. I played in bands as a hobby and for fun all through my early childhood.

I continued playing music with different groups through High School and College, and then it came time to choose a career path, and I decided to go to law school. I was very fortunate to have a great educational background, and some excellent professors that helped me narrow down that choice. In a weird twist, I never even considered music as a possibility.

Instead, I went to law school in Chicago. The day I graduated I met a guy in a band there, and ended up going to a few practices with his band. As time went on, the economy grew worse, and my experience of lawyers in a big city like Chicago soured intensely. I loved the work, and the intellectual challenge of a lot of my cases, but I came to despise the nature of being a big city lawyer. Meanwhile, the band had more and more successes, opening for some of our favorite artists, and playing big festivals in Chicago and the Midwest.

In 2015 we had our biggest break, which was winning a Battle of the Bands styled contest to play on a music festival cruise called “The Rock Boat”. Through that event we met thousands of music fans all over the United States and the world. When we returned home, however, we were confronted as a band by the reality of what the next phase of growth might mean for us. Touring, traveling, possibly leaving careers, more gear, and on and on. Many of the guys in the band determined that was too much for them to take on. The band then decided to break up.

Over the next year I worked on a solo album. It was an album about all the hope I had about our music and our future, and how it disappeared almost overnight. When my first album “These Dreams” was complete, I determined that I wanted to give music as a career a real chance. I determined that for that summer I would head out on the road playing every kind of concert I could find. Open mics, house concerts, opening slots, small songwriter festivals, and even a wedding. I fell in love with the road, and getting to play music for a living. I found that even though I was constantly working on non-music things like social media, booking, or driving all over the country, I was working FOR ME. That was incredibly freeing, and I still feel that today.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Music has always been a huge part of my experience. At the most pivotal moments of my life I can vividly recall how music comforted me, spoke to me, and at times healed me. It is that incredible power of music that also makes it so incredibly subjective, and is the reason there are so many artists out there, each with their own distinct message, that connects with a specific set of people.

I like to say that I write music for the in-betweens in life. I drive a lot; like over 600,000 miles since 2016 a lot. I have an abundance of time to think about things that have happened to me, or experiences I have had, and interactions that have not quite gone how I may have expected or wanted. The result is that my songs tend to address that subject matter. There are lots of songs about breakups, but maybe not as many about how we work through why it happened, or how we deal with, and work through that frustration or loss associated with how it happened. There are a million songs about love, but not as many about the day to day expressions and micro-level struggles of maintaining love. Those are the things I try to address with many of my songs.

The last thing I will say on this, is that I don’t have fans. If you know me, or you have been to my shows, I have friends. So many of the people that have supported me along the way have become lifelong friends. When I come through town we spend quality time together, and talk about life, and it is the most soul-fulfilling thing about what I do. Ultimately I love the stories people tell. I love connecting to very real things inside of people, because that is where life occurs.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I was extremely fortunate to go to an exceptional school when I was young. Music, dance, and foreign language were required for each student. I think these days we do a grave disservice to young people when we do not give them the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of artistic forms of expression. I recently wrote in my Patreon (a small subscription-based platform where I discuss and share deeper stories and behind the scenes from my journey) about how music gave me a voice as a young person. While I was in middle school, and lost in a sea of peers trying to find their place in the world, music became my guiding light.

This same idea carries over into adulthood. We must continue to make sure that we invest in the arts. Whether that looks like Summer Concert Series, paint nights, or art gallery pop-ups, or supporting small businesses that want to host music and art shows, or providing grants for artists, it is imperative that we continue to nurture creativity in our communities.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The first time someone told me what one of my songs meant to them.

I worked as lawyer for hundreds and hundreds of hours on behalf of clients, and if you didn’t perform exactly how they wanted, or didn’t get the specific result they wanted, you never received appreciation. In some cases, even when I won large settlements for clients, they were disappointed it wasn’t more. In almost ten years, and hundreds of clients, I had only one client look me in the eye and say thank you.

As an artist, appreciation has become a regular occurrence, even in cities where I have never played, and in front of audiences who have never heard of me, people will go out of their way to acknowledge my music and my performance. It has been one of the single most important changes in my life, and made never looking back on law the easiest decision I have ever made.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.bennybassett.com
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/@benny_bassett
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/bennybassett

Image Credits

Sarah Nest – Look Twice Studio
Joy Davis Photography
Benjamin Bassett Photography