Description: Ben Goldsmith
Singer-songwriter and multidimensional artist Ben Goldsmith would like to tell you he “never could’ve imagined” this for himself, but he’s quick to note that – call it confidence or a preternatural headstrongness years in the making – it’d just not be true. “In a way, I’ve been working towards this since I was 3 or 4,” he says on a Zoom call from his Long Island bedroom. “I’ve never strayed. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.”
That “thing” Ben’s referring to is making music – more than music, really, it’s lyrically-driven art free from genre, with a sharp point of view and melodies as strong as some of the teen’s many influences. Ben was born and bred on acts like Aerosmith, Dave Mathews Band, Elton John, Queen, Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, and Bob Dylan. Modern artists like Zach Bryan, Maggie Rogers, Steve Lacy, and Sam Fender helped round out his style and his sonic influences, drawing inspiration from the sort of iconoclasts who
The singer (who started playing instruments at 4) wrote his first song after accompanying his father, a criminal defense attorney, to court at age 6. “It was called ‘Criminal Disguise,’ and I made it on GarageBand by just strumming my guitar into my iPad’s microphone,” he says. The guitar he used was the one he’d asked for Hanukkah after Hanukkah after spotting the model in a catalogue sent to his doorstep; he’d been taking lessons by that point, dedicating himself to the craft; eventually, he took up jazz