4 QUESTIONS WITH LIAM BENAYON [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]
BY BRENESSA ROACH | APRIL 4 2023
On March 31st, Liam Benayon released his single “Don’t Call Me at a Party”. Following the release of this single, Liam hosted a release party on April 1st at the Cameron House in Toronto where I had the opportunity to interview him on stage in front of a crowd of over 60 people. The party started off with a performance from Jack Dean where he performed 3 songs. I then joined Liam on stage to ask him 4 questions and here is the interview.
Where did your musical journey start?
I started at four on the piano, we had a piano in our family room, and I was so reluctant to do classical piano, I fought my mom like crazy, so I was like “I can just do it by ear, I just want to make pop music!”. So, when I was 11, I discovered GarageBand on the family computer and I was like, “Roar by Katy Perry, how am I hearing Roar by Katy Perry? Like how are the sounds arranged how does this work? Like what how am I getting all these sounds into my ears.” So I started playing around with guitar, piano drums and I just started putting in MIDI instruments and like reproducing the karaokes with different songs and that’s how I taught myself to produce and from there I started writing my own songs.
I got my heartbroken for the first time at 15 and I was like “omg I can feel things now and I have words to say” so, I put them together and I started making demos like crazy and sending them off to people on Twitter and being like “these are pop songs I made!”. Actually one of the first people that give me a chance was Jordan Alexander and we made a bunch of songs together.
You're a singer, but you're also a producer for other people. How do you find inspiration for yourself versus for other people?
Well, I love taking other people’s visions and just kind of like extrapolating on them when I’m producing like we co-produce together and I’ll think about how can I like transform this and how can I you know, as a writer, tell your story and share your emotions by putting words together. And so it’s I wouldn’t say it’s similar because sometimes when I write for myself a lot of these songs i’m just like “oh, I’m not a singer I would I would never sing so I’m just gonna write this in my head for somebody else”.
Can you describe the overall vibe of “Don’t Call Me At A Party” (production process, inspiration etc)?
My friend Jackie went to a party during COVID and it was at HOEM when you could only sign up to two people. So she sent me this voicemail [the one at the beginning of the song] and I said, “you’re blocked bye”. Then, I wrote the song from like three to eight in the morning and kept producing weeks after and just like hammering away at it and was working really hard. And then, I was so proud when I finished it, I was like, “this is something in my life”.
How did Jackie react to you using her voice note?
She’s not here tonight, she’s in Calgary, but she wanted me to share a little message with her side of the story.
Jackie: “hi everybody this is Jackie, basically I’m here to tell you that I’m right. I was with my childhood friends, we were hanging around trying to see what we’re gonna do that night. And so my friends found out that we can go to this party and I’m like, “cool let me actually see if Liam can come.” We get there and this dorm could only scan up two people, so I told Liam that we can only scan up two people, it’s pretty simple. And I did in the middle of this party after saying that I could only scan up two people, I did call him and I just met a friend I thought he would like and I called him clearly drunk and I was like, “hey, there’s this friend and I think you’d like him.” And I think Liam just started crying after that.
Liam then ended off the interview by saying “F*** you Jackie, but I love you. Most of that is true I would say. Thank you for inspiring the song.”
Followed by this interview, Liam took the stage to perform a 30 minute set. He’s such an amazing performer and so energetic on stage. He was dancing and thriving and it was amazing to see him so happy that everyone was yelling and jumping around to his songs, especially when he performed “Don’t Call Me at a Party”.
Check out Liam Benayon on Instagram: @liambenayon
Also check out his Spotify page:
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