We were lucky to catch up with Benjamin Conrad recently and have shared our conversation below.
Benjamin, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
I wish I had started my musical career so much sooner! From a very early age, music was one of the few things that consistently held my interest. Becoming a guitarist is one of the earliest choices I remember making for myself and has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. Despite having an aptitude for music, I never received much encouragement to pursue it in earnest. I instead went the more conventional route and found myself working a typical 9-5, which has taken up the past 10 years of my life. I would occasionally record and share my music with friends and family from time to time, but was unable to prioritize it amidst all my other responsibilities. This past year I’ve taken a lot of risks to be able to focus most of my energy into song writing and still can’t believe I waited this long to do it.
Benjamin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m an Arizona native and part time instructor at The Design School at ASU. Apart from my recent musical endeavors I focus on web development, work with generative AI, and other creative projects. Though my current project Crooked Truths is relatively new on the scene, it has most definitely been a long time coming. I’ve been a closet singer/songwriter for most of my life and struggle to maintain an ever-growing collection of unreleased material. Lately I’ve experienced this sort of restless drive to share my music knowing that if I don’t breathe these songs into existence now, its likely no one else ever will. My aim with Crooked Truths is to share the songs that have been the most personally authentic and vulnerable, yet so natural to write that it sometimes feels as though they write themselves.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My main goal as a musician and favorite aspect of songwriting is taking complex, confusing, and emotional human experiences and transforming them into something more digestible. While music has always served as a natural outlet for emotional expression, I embrace the added challenge of crafting lyrics that are not only transparent and personal but also universally relatable and open to interpretation. To accomplish this, I impose certain constraints on myself during the writing process. For instance, I often have multiple stories or experiences in mind for a given song to ensure that the lyrics remain sufficiently broad. I also consciously avoid gender-specific language, allowing anyone who listens to easily relate to any role within the song. Juggling all these elements while adhering to formal verse structures sometimes feels like solving a complex riddle, and I love every minute of the process. Ultimately, if I can share my experiences in a way that helps even one person to feel like someone understands them better, then mission accomplished.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Yes, a lesson I am still working on unlearning so to speak is that the traditional or supposed secure career path guarantees happiness. I spent a long time going through the motions, moving up the ladder, and all the while never felt closer to meaningful happiness. The notion of a steady, predictable job trajectory lost its appeal as I began to embrace the unpredictable but rewarding journey of exploring my creative passions. It was a big risk and has not been the easiest of adjustments, but I have found that the joy derived from pursuing creative endeavors has far outweighed the imagined security of a conventional career. It took me longer than I would have liked to unlearn that lesson and take the plunge, but better late than never!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/crookedtruths
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crookedtruths/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@crookedtruths
Image Credits
@noir.blvd @gregohhh