Hailed by TIME Magazine as a “storyteller for the next generation”, singer-songwriter Alec Benjamin recently released his debut album These Two Windows, which include fan favorite songs such as “Oh My God” and “Demons.”
Known for his honest storytelling woven seamlessly into the mellow instrumentals, the 26-year old Arizona native uses his words to grab people’s attention and speak volumes about his feelings and experiences. His debut album, These Two Windows, showcases his knack for storytelling as he navigates through life and the world he lives in through his own eyes.
“There’s not that many different stories that you can tell,” he confessed during an online interview, “but what differentiates one movie from another movie or a book from another book is the perspective. So I feel that what differentiates my record from another singer-songwriter’s record is my perspective on things.”
Inspired by artists who “tell stories” such as John Mayer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jason Mraz, Alec was drawn to music at age 17 when he realized how much studying he had to do for a different career.
“Out of all the things that I could do for a career, this is probably like the best,” he admitted, “I guess I decided that this was what I wanted to do when I realized how much school I would have to go to do anything else.”
Alec first made a splash in the music scene with his mixtape Narrated for You in 2018 which garnered over a million sales worldwide and cracked Billboard’s Top 200 album chart. Seven songs including the big hits “If We Have Each Other” and “Let Me Down Slowly,” also released as a duet featuring Alessia Cara.
“Let Me Down Slowly” earned over 2 million cumulative streams in its first week. As of July 2020, has over 617 cumulative million streams. On YouTube, the combined lyric and music videos for the songs has generated over 400 million views to date.
Armed with a whole new perspective in songwriting, he followed it up with These Two Windows, a 2020 release that charted higher in the album chart and for the first time, introduced him to the UK market. The album again yielded seven singles including the popular streaming favorites, “Must Have Been The Wind” and “Oh, My God.”.
“Instead of telling stories, I took a look at myself. I thought about how I feel inside of my head. The songs are more on-the-nose. You’ll know what I’m thinking. There was stress.
There was pressure. I thought about giving up. I didn’t stop though. I’m glad I didn’t. I knew the message was too important to me,” he said.
The album was worked on “sporadically” for over a year during his tour. Alec initially moved the record’s release back in hopes of refining it as soon as he returned from touring. However, the COVID-19 pandemic struck as soon as he returned home, forcing him to release the finished recordings.
“I would have liked to have spent a little longer on it, but that’s okay. I can always add more music,” he stated.
Perhaps it was for the best. The minimalist, lo-fi like melody provides an almost cinematic landscape for each of the songs, practically transporting you into his shoes. You feel everything and anything he was feeling in the song, the album’s cool tones and vocals providing a short yet immersive look into what it is like in that situation.
“I feel like I’m not in control of a lot of things happening in my life,” he says about the things he writes about. “So I just try to pick the best experiences, when big things happen in your life, I don’t know, I’m trying to figure it out right now.”
Alec Benjamin’s These Two Windows is now available on all streaming platforms worldwide.