MUSIC

Beni Brosh is an Americana Singer-Songwriter based out of Rhode Island. His songs are honest and heartfelt, cleverly crafted and musically rich. Utilizing his guitar case as a kick drum, Beni's one-man-band set up showcases his original songs based in Laurel Canyon Rock & Roll, Troubadour Folksong, and Unsuccessful Country music. His influences range from classics like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, John Prine, John Hyatt and The Band to more modern, absent-from-the-radio Folk/Americana artists such as Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile and Nathaniel Rateliff. Beni's versatile set-up and diverse influences allow him to fit into any setting, whether it is providing ambiance during dinner service, energizing an afternoon brewery crowd, captivating a listening room or rocking a festival stage. Beni captures audiences with his salt of the earth performances, his quick wit and quippy banter, and his meticulously polished songs that are sure to make you laugh, cry, and contemplate this crazy world we live in.

Over the last decade, Beni has performed at venues and festivals in 46 states, and shared stages with musical acts such as Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, The War and Treaty, Sierra Hull and The Ghost of Paul Revere. During a recent two year hiatus from live performance (i.e., Global Pandemic), Beni taught Songwriting at the Berklee College of Music and participated in Brown University's BAI Songwriting Workshop. During this time, he advanced his skills in music production, independently releasing a 5 song EP of home recordings and the single, 1GNR8NT (IGNORANT) co-written and produced with collaborator Erin Bonnie. He also contributed in the studio efforts of the artist SIOO, playing guitar on their tracks “Onion Boy” and “Time”, both produced by Space Cowboy Newt. In 2024, Beni Brosh is looking forward to returning to the stage as a solo artist and with his other projects, Two Lilies and Hawkweed, to share his latest arts.

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Born in West Orange, New Jersey, just fourteen miles outside of New York City, the world and all its inhabitants appeared to be a mere skyline away. Music and art of all genres and varieties flowed over the Hudson into the ears of a speckle-faced kid listening to Strawberry Fields Forever on repeat. Picking up his first guitar at age 8, Beni has been making up songs and stories since he can remember. Upon receiving his first paycheck, from his very first after-school job he went straight to guitar center and bought an acoustic guitar.

Though music was integral to his childhood, teenage years and early adulthood, it wasn't until after graduating college and getting that “grown-up” job in Manhattan that Beni acknowledged he was living someone else's life.

In 2013, Beni helped found the folk-rock trio, The Coteries, and quickly realized that writing and performing music was what he wanted to do. He quit his daytime job and began touring the country with the band. The Coteries played in 46 states over four years and shared the stage with artists like Sierra Hull, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, The War and Treaty, and The Black Lillies.

"I never really planned on being a musician. All I knew growing up was that I couldn't work in a cubicle or live in a box in NYC... I still somehow wound up living in a Brooklyn apartment-sized tour van with two roommates", Beni jokes.

In 2017, Beni left The Coteries to pursue his solo career. He settled in Fort Collins, CO and began writing down the songs that had been brewing in his head over the years of living on the road.  Beni released his first solo EP, Hole Hearted, in May 2019. Since the release of Hole Hearted, Beni has toured the album throughout the West and the Pacific Northwest.

In 2020, Beni moved back to the East Coast to be closer to family. In the time away from touring and performing, he has completed the build of Evangeline, his converted RAM Promaster, put together a modest home studio and has been learning music production, bass guitar, and the drums, as well as video editing and production. Recent releases such as All The Little Things, Josephine, and Plymouth Girl were recorded in his bedroom closet.

Like many, the pandemic years forced Beni to take a step back and recalibrate his music career. By sheer dumb luck, Beni stumbled into a glassblowing apprenticeship in 2021. He fell in love with the intensity, spontaneity, and physical nature of glassblowing. He has developed a style and proficiency for creating utilitarian works such as cups and vases while maintaining a wild and ever-growing inventiveness.

Creating art with glass has influenced Beni’s song writing in ways he could never have imagined. While some songs may take years to take shape and require countless hours spent finding the perfect words and phrases, glassblowing is immediate and unmerciful. More recent songs like, Mary Annette, showcase this newfound sense of immediacy, stream of consciousness creation, and acceptance of “it is what it is” within the song structure and lyrics.

All photographs by Briana May