We were lucky to catch up with Eric Benz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Eric thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I kind of have 3 really meaningful projects to me but I’ll try and keep them short and sweet.

The first is with my first band, started at the end of high school with my brother and a couple of his friends, called LakeMonsters.

We got together as a church band, essentially. We played for school assemblies and events like that but after high school, we realised we all had been working on our own music and so we came together to work on some songs together.

We spent 2012-2014 writing and perfecting a cluster of songs and then in 2015 we recorded and released a self-titled album to Bandcamp.

I learned a lot from that process about myself as an artist but also myself as a person. The confidence that it unlocked in me would carry over to the rest of my musical journey.

The second is a duo I started with a friend of an ex-girlfriend of mine called Hill Park. We would jam every other weekend both during LakeMonsters’ run after the band broke up in 2015. Eventually we also had a good chunk of songs that we didn’t know what to do with.

Long story short, my band mate booked us a gig at his university bar and the response from that got us excited to record those songs. I contacted an audio engineering student at Melbourne Polytechnic named Mick Pedder and we recorded 4 tracks in the first day. He mixed and mastered them over the next week and put them on Triple J Unearthed.

That experience made my confidence in myself as a musician and band leader sky rocket, giving me the push I needed to start working on my own music more seriously.

I started writing and releasing my own songs under the name Little Theatre after LakeMonsters finished in 2015 and some of the songs felt like they would suit Hill Park but some of them felt more personal, like I wanted to work on them myself.

I had also always struggled with doing my own thing because I was always looking to other people and seeing what they were doing, but also what they weren’t doing and if I had a different idea, I’d tell myself ‘they’re not doing that, there must be a reason for it’.

Specifically, I had the idea to start recording demos with an iPad 2 and a USB condenser microphone – I wasn’t aware of anyone that was doing this but I powered through the self doubt and recorded Little Theatre’s first EP ‘Few and Far Between’.

That process really showed me that there are no rules when it comes to creating something. If there’s a will, there’s a way. For example, I’m currently studying audio engineering and one of my lecturers was telling us about an artist that recorded vocals for his songs through a prison phone while he was incarcerated. The possibilities and opportunities really are endless.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into audio engineering, mainly just so I could record my own music to a higher standard and to help my friends get their music recorded as well.

But I realised pretty early on that that’s kind of small potatoes when it really comes down to it.

I believe I’m here to help interpret, capture and produce something truly special. To help other artists in their pursuit to be not only heard but understood by the listener.

Everyone has a truly unique story to tell and I want to help anyone I can to tell that story.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect I would say is that, a lot of people I speak to about their art tell me a similar story: quite often, they use their art to convert a message they don’t feel like they can simply say with words.

And I think that’s true for a lot of creatives; we feel somewhat misunderstood in our day to day and our experience so we strive to find the right way to say the things we want to.

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

If you have a friend or family member that is a creative, go to their show.
Don’t just stream their songs but ask if there’s somewhere you could buy their music from; bandcamp is a great one.
If they have merch, buy a tshirt.
If all they have is a social media page, share it with your friends and tell them about the artist

You’d be surprised just how far those small acts will go for that artist

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @littletheatremusic (band) @marigld.creative (audio engineering)
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@littletheatremusic
• Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/kKG3CwEoWsgJeEcLA