Last Updated on March 2, 2023

Alec Benjamin Biography

Alec Benjamin is an American singer-songwriter known for his songs “Paper Crown”, “I Built A Friend”, “End of the Summer”, “Let Me Down Slowly” and “Water Fountain”. He is also known from his demos. 

Alec Benjamin Age

Alec was born on28th of May 1994, in Phoenix, Arizona. He is 24 years old as of 2018.

Alec Benjamin Family

His was known for playing music as a hobby. There is no much information about his early life and how he was raised.

Alec Benjamin Dating | Girlfriend

Alec dating status has never been opened to the media. He has not revealed any information via social media about his dating partner and girlfriend.

i had a girlfriend once. she slept over. i woke up. all of my underwear was gone. there was shaving cream and maple syrup all over my room

— Alec Benjamin (@AlecBenjamin) September 5, 2016

Alec Benjamin Education

Alec was a loner in school and preferred while in high school, he had started began singing on his own. At 16 when many amateur musicians were moving to ‘YouTube’ to exhibit their skills. While most of them were producing covers of famous tracks, he began creating original music. He later started writing his own songs and composed them by using computer software.

After his graduation from high school, he had decided that he would pursue music as a career. later he started writing emails to artists he thought could help him in some way. He was featured in playing music in the parking lots of music concerts and played at some clubs and coffee houses, too. His music was being adored, and he started meeting the right people. Following his high-school graduation, Alec enrolled at the ‘University of Southern California.’

Alec Benjamin Career

Alec began his career after meeting a songwriter named Sacha Skarbek through a common friend. Sacha had before written songs for artists such as Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey. The duo began writing songs together, and Alec started performing at more venues. Sacha as well had her own studio in London, and Alec flew across the Atlantic Ocean without any financial support from his parents.

Still, in Europe, he got a significant fan following. He later opened several concerts and performed at the ‘Berlin Music Week’ and ‘The Reeperbahn Festival.’ He later experienced popularity for the first time. Soon he began attending concerts to listen to his performances.

Alec Benjamin Photo

He later signed a deal with a small-time independent label named ‘White Rope’ and released his debut mixtape, ‘Mixtape 1: America, in 2013. though it was not a hit. The same year, Alec moved back to the US and performed at a few venues in Los Angeles. Talent scouts from ‘Columbia Records’ located him and soon offered him a record deal.

The deal with ‘Columbia’ seemed like a major opportunity by the time he was 20 years old. Although ‘Columbia Records’ had promised to produce his first album, they canceled the deal 24 hours after the submission of his first album. This was a major blow to him and he decided to start his career from scratch.

He stayed asway from social-media promotion for a very long time. However, when his sister insisted, he decided to give it a shot. By then, he knew that creating a loyal online fan base was extremely beneficial for a struggling artist such as him. He had written the entire album that was pitched to ‘Columbia Records,’ and he planned to post it online. He started with ‘YouTube’ in August 2016.

He uploaded first his ‘Paper Crown,’ became a major hit almost immediately. The emotional song got to the hearts of his listeners and garnered a million “views” soon. Currently, the song currently has more than 4 million “views” on ‘YouTube.’ This as well successful beginning boosted Alec’s confidence. A few weeks later, he uploaded another single, ‘The Water Fountain,’ and it earned more popularity than ‘Paper Crown.’ The single has earned more than 10 million “views” on ‘YouTube.’

His style was well received with the listeners because he wrote songs about the mundane things of life that anybody could relate to. Almost all of the songs have heartbreak and friendship as their central themes. Alec released a track titled ‘I Built a Friend.’ It earned over 4 million “views” on ‘Spotify’ in less than 12 months.

He later released the mixtape ‘Narrated for You in 2018.’ The tape as well as revolved around themes of love, friendship, and parents. It showed how several phases in his life had worked together in harmony to create Alec, the musician.

The mixtape was a big hit that featured 12 tracks. Some of the most popular tracks from the album were ‘The Boy in the Bubble’ and ‘Let Me Down Slowly.’ The latter is his most popular song on ‘YouTube’ and  has also earned more than 16 million “views.”  Alec also creates animations to accompany his music on ‘YouTube.’ His style of showcasing his lyrics on the videos has also become quite popular.

In 2007 he made his biggest career achievemen7 when his song ‘I Built a Friend’ made its way to the national TV via the 12th season of ‘America’s Got Talent.’ A contestant named Merrick Hanna performed a dance sequence on the song in the first episode of the season. Alec as well got success in collaboration with artists such as Jon Bellion. He was featured in the song ‘New York Soul Pt ii’ from Jon’s album ‘The Human Condition.

Alec Benjamin Net Worth

Alec has an estimated net worth of $750 thousand. His income sources include music sale, tours/shows, Spotify and YouTube. He as well sells shirts, hoodies, and has via his official website. Benjamin has 5+ million monthly listeners on Spotify and 32K+ followers on SoundCloud.

Alec Benjamin Songs

Alec Benjamin Tickets | Concert | Tour Dates

Alec Benjamin Water Fountain

Alec Benjamin Boy In The Bubble

Alec Benjamin Outrunning Karma

Alec Benjamin Let Me Down Slowly Lyrics

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Alec Benjamin Interview

Time is really ticking down today. The mixtape drops tonight. Are you feeling excited?

Yeah. But I try to be careful about like… I’ve been putting out a lot of music recently, and I’m trying to just like always temper the way that I feel. Because otherwise there are too many highs and lows. So, I’m trying to keep more of an even keel. I’m excited, but also I’m trying not to be too excited because it’s emotionally exhausting. When you have so many things happening, you can’t be that way about all of them because it may be bad for me sometimes.

That makes sense. You have to take it as it’s coming. You have been dropping a lot of music recently. Obviously, tonight is the big release. But what would you say is the best part of releasing music for you?

I think the best part of releasing music is that you like, you know… I try to put a message in my songs. One of the reasons why I make music is because I like to… there’s something that I want to say. So I guess the best part about it is it feels like the message was delivered. Who knows if it will be received by the people who are listening to it, but at least I got it out there.

I’ve been listening to the mixtape a lot over the last day. There are a lot of songs that I like, and I want to talk about. First, I was curious; do you have a favorite song on the collection?

Maybe “If We Have Each Other.”

I love that song. It has such a powerful message. Especially the part when you’re talking about your sister. I really responded very emotionally to that actually. Then I was wondering why you selected “Let Me Down Slowly” as the lead single?

I just felt like, I don’t know necessarily if it’s the one song that’s my favorite or if it had the most important message. But it was the song that I felt like I had to write at the time. And I put it out and kind of the people decided. It was getting streamed the most, so I guess that’s how I picked. I don’t really decide what the singles are. I let the people decide.

“Water Fountain” is one that it seems your fans are most excited to hear an official version of. Can you tell me a bit about the inspiration behind it?

Yeah, I wrote that song like five years ago, actually. And I wrote it about, it’s about a missed connection. When you meet someone, and it’s just the wrong time. And then, you know, when you’re finally ready, the time has passed. And I feel like that’s always disappointing. Those are the things you always look back on and go “what if.” So that song’s just about that – the “what if” feeling.

Which makes it infinitely relatable. Another song I wanted to talk about was “Death Of A Hero.” I found that song particularly evocative. And it reminds me of something you tweeted earlier this month. What you tweeted was “Tryna turn this pain into poetry.”

Oh, you know what’s up. You’ve dug deep.

I try to do my research!

I appreciate it. Thank you for that.

No worries. But would you say that’s one of your ultimate goals musically?

Yeah, I guess. I mean, I just thought it was a cool line. But I think as it relates to that song, you know there are things that happen in your life. And things that are milestones in your life – whether you’re achieving something, or you learned something or you see something in a different way. And when those things happen to me, I like to put them into songs. I mean, if I could just like to talk about them if people wanted to listen to me. Then maybe I would never have written music. But it just so happens that I had found it more interesting to listen to something in a song than it is to just hear someone speak about it.

Yeah. Then another song I had wanted to ask about was “Steve.” Can you talk about that one? Because obviously, it is kind of playing on the Adam, Eve and Steve situation.

It wasn’t supposed to. I actually didn’t even know that was a thing. I was just, like… I just sat down in my room one day and wrote that song in like fifteen minutes. And then someone was like “yo, do you know that there’s like a whole like, there’s a really inappropriate joke that people make about that. That’s super offensive.” And I was like, “well, I actually didn’t know that.” But then I played it for some people and no one was really offended by it. They were like “yeah, it’s fine.” So, I decided to put it out.

But the song’s just about actually having a… it feels like that story. I’m not super religious or anything, but that story for me is just like a classic case of, you know, you have everything but you always want that one thing you can’t have. And I feel like that’s always the Achille’s heel of people. And it’s been my Achille’s heel time and time again. So I just felt like I could write about it in a way that was kind of funny. But, no, it had nothing to do with the joke. And I also don’t even think that joke is funny.

Yeah. I mean, I think it’s a really interesting song. It creates a dialogue and some interesting parallels. You’re closing everything out with “1994,” which was the last song you released. Is there a reason you felt it should close the mixtape?

It’s just the oldest song that I had put on the mixtape. And that was from an album that I had tried to release when I had been signed to another label. And there was just a couple of songs that I wanted to salvage from that record. So, I put that as the last song because it’s like, that song I wrote when I was 18. So that song is like six years old. And I just felt like, you know, that’s where it should go.

Are there any other songs from that album on the mixtape?

Yeah – “Water Fountain.”

You refer to yourself as a narrator before pretty much anything else. Why does that feel like the most accurate title for you?

Just cause I tell stories with my music. And stories to me come first before anything else, so that’s why.

What is a typical writing session like for you? How do you approach a song?

I think it’s different every time. A lot of times I write by myself. But I usually like to start with a concept. And then like build from there. I feel like songs sometimes are like a Soduko puzzle. You know, they give you a couple of numbers to start out with and you kind of have to figure out what the common thread is. And sometimes it’s like that for me. Where I have a couple of words, and I’m like “I love these words, but what do they mean.” I kind of piece them together after that. That’s the way that makes most sense to me.

Right now you’re in the middle of a tour, which is sold out. First of all, congratulations.

Thanks.

How did that feel when you found out the tour was sold out?

I was pretty excited. I definitely didn’t expect it. And it’s something that I’m really grateful for. I was just really thrilled that people wanted to come to see me live. I’ve played outside of a lot of these venues on this street before for the lines of people trying to get into venues to see different artists. So it was really kind of a cool thing for me.

You really started out doing a lot of, you called them parking lot shows. Is that something you’d ever like to go back and do more of in the future?

Yeah. I’ll perform for people wherever, whenever. I really don’t mind.

After you finish up in North America, you’re hitting Europe next year. Do you think you’ll have any more shows in the US after you finish up in Europe?

Yeah. I have a plan to tour for next summer.

What’s your favorite think about being onstage?

My favorite thing about being onstage is I like that, it feels like in a time when everything is online. On a stage, it’s kind of different. There are production and all that kind of stuff. But it’s just one moment to really be kind of vulnerable, and you get to really show people who you actually are. And now, especially like today, that doesn’t happen a lot. I think it’s really cool.

I have a couple of quick, rapid-fire questions. Can we do a couple of those really quick?

Sure! Definitely.

What would you say your dream collaboration is?

I’d like to meet Chris Martin. That would be cool. But I actually have to tell you that a cooler collaboration would be one that is not with music. It would be one that’s with like technology or something like that. I feel like, I was talking about Elon Musk earlier today. I don’t know if there is some sort of music integration thing that I could do for his company, but that would be lit.

What would you say your biggest professional goal is?

I just want to be able to support myself making music. Like, at first, when you say it, it doesn’t really seem like crazy. But even that is quite a lofty goal. If I can do that then I’ll worry about what’s next.

What’s your favorite song to cover?

“Stan” by Eminem.

He’s one of your biggest inspirations right?

Yeah.

What would you say your favorite memory has been so far with everything that you’ve done?

My favorite memory is getting to – this is before I did any of this stuff. I was 17 or 18 and getting to perform when my Grandma was still alive. She would come to all my shows. And I remember one time she went to see me at a venue, like a really small venue in LA. And she was 90. And she walked up a whole flight of stairs to see me play. And that was really cool.

That’s so cute. I love that. You reference a couple superheroes in the lyrics for the mixtape. Do you have a favorite?

Favorite superhero? Probably Spider-Man.

When would you say you’re there most creative?

That’s a tough question for me. I’m not really sure. If I knew then I would be like, I don’t know. The whole songwriting process would be easier for me. Sometimes I push myself maybe when I’m not really in a creative space and I get frustrated. So, I feel like I’m still figuring that out.