I started posting a few covers on SoundCloud in 2017, and that got me into contact with my producer who I still work with, Josh Fountain.
Benee
I wrote 'Evil Spider' about wanting someone that's already taken. I guess it was based on a personal experience, but I went a lil extreme on the theme... me being a spider trying to snare someone. In real life, I was just observing!
I call everything Steve. Since I was little, I'd go on, like, holiday and call hermit crabs Steve. And I still do. I'll name a snail Steve. Everything is called Steve in my world. My car is also called Steve.
Taking risks is the best thing ever, and that's what gets you anywhere.
I'm not a naturally funny person, and I also can't dance, so I feel like I'm lacking the key things that you need to make a good Tik Tok video.
I played around with GarageBand before, but I'd never actually made a proper song. So it was getting into the studio with him where I made my first proper song. I've always loved creative writing, so I had done that as well.
I'm inspired by Jackson Pollock; splashing layer upon layer, using different materials, experimenting with new methods to produce something fresh. I'd love to be able to create in this way!
I want everything to build and create a massive artwork composed of different songs, colors, physical art and visuals.
I like the idea of experimenting with all sorts of themes and just feeling free creatively.
I think it's nice to have New Zealand as a base for me... it's this little island on the bottom of the Earth. It's this nice, quiet place.
I think that BENEE definitely has this newfound confidence in me where I love to do whatever I want and have fun making art.
I like the idea of blending genres.
I think the States is a huge part of the music industry worldwide. There are so many other artists and music industry people here, so I think to be working my audience here is definitely a go.
I love to play around and have fun with my lyrics, but sometimes the messages are raw, and I also like to get emotional with them.
There's always space for me to grow and I think that experimenting and making mistakes is gonna get me to this position where I'm trying to be is always changing.
I always take notes on my phone of lyric ideas.
There are songs from dreams that I had. Relationships, I get a lot of inspo from those. I mean, I've written a song about a spider. It comes from everywhere.
I don't eat eggs.
Honestly, I'm the worst storyteller ever. Like, I just take so long.
Being able to chuck ideas around and bounce ideas off each other with anyone I'm working with is just something I love to do, that's how most of these ideas are formed.
I love making videos for my music, you can literally do anything. It's like you can write a song about anything; you can also write a video that is the weirdest thing you can relate to the song, and I find that quite cool.
People often reach out and comment on how they relate to my lyrics, which makes me feel very warm inside.
I think some songs on the EP, especially one called 'Blu', I've allowed myself to become vulnerable and express more of my sadder emotions.
