Marco Benevento Chats With COjam En Route To Colorado [Interview]
Benevento is a different kind of piano-man
By Eric Frank
March 29, 2017
Fresh off his set at Treefort Music Festival in Boise, ID, the incomparable Marco Benevento took time from his grueling schedule to chat with COjam, discussing his current tour, his new live-release Woodstock Sessions, and a touch of what makes life soooo good. His West Coast tour begins this week, kicking off with four consecutive nights in Colorado. So git out n’ git funky!
COjam: How was the tour been going?
Marco Benevento (MB): Really good, really good! We did an East Coast tour in February promoting the new live record we have out and it went great. Actually, it was our best East Coast tour yet, I've gotta say.
COjam: From the first time we saw you in roughly 2005 right up until now, we've always noticed and appreciated the musical toys you've got on stage. As far as gear goes, what are you currently traveling with?
MB: Well, I've got my $100 Craig's List board, which is a piano that I'm currently touring with. It's a 64-note acoustic piano that they made in like the 1920's. They made them sort of half-sized for train cars and bars and stuff. It's pretty crazy. So I have this piano that we literally bring in and out of the trailer every night. The piano is hot-rodded with guitar pickups which then go through various pedals like distortion and delay and tremolo and the piano is amplified through a small Silvertone amp. Then I have a bunch of samples that I made myself from my own keyboards in my own studio that I trigger with a MIDI controller via laptop. Then I also have a bunch of drum machine samples that I trigger with my feet. [We've got] Casio drum machines and Mellotron loops and various other synth loops that happen here and there.
COjam: So the new album, Woodstock Sessions, was released in February of this year. It was recorded live and features a lot of material, both brand new and tunes from your back catalogue. Can you tell us a bit about it?
MB: So side A is newer tunes, basically 'The Story of Fred Short', and that's a lot of the new stuff. And then side B is older stuff going all the way back to our first record. [The Story of Fred Short] is sorta seven songs that go into each other. The first three sort of loop into each other and then four and five are together and then six and seven... they're like three clumps that are like seven songs total. It all stems from an improvisation I did at the studio that lasted about an hour and a half long and I scaled it down to about twenty minutes which is pretty much "The Story of Fred Short".
COjam: This is a bit of personal question because I'm such a gigantic fan... But listening to your style and also considering you've covered his tune, "Jump Into The Fire," has Harry Nilsson been an influence of yours?
MB: Oh absolutely! I love The Point! I have it on vinyl and I have a bunch of his records on vinyl. He's absolutely a big influence. I love his singing and songwriting. There's so much music out there and we're able to just melt it all together into one quote unquote "genre". All my favorite influences obviously leak into my songwriting process. You know, there's crosses of Harry Nilsson with LCD Soundsystem and disco and dance music. Maybe it was because my mom was all into jazzercise when I was a kid. She used to take me to all these [classes] with people dancing. I just like the disco-dance element of things. That's basically what it's all about!
COjam: There's a ton of music available in today's information-sharing world. What does Marco Benevento listen to, be it current bands or those of yesteryear?
MB: Well I'm a big vinyl junkie so I collect 45's and LP's. You know, I go backward to gospel stuff and to funk stuff. I like The Meters a lot. [As far as] newer stuff I like this band called Foxygen and I like The Arcs a lot, Dan Auerbach's new project. I had a chance to sub for their keyboard player because he was having a kid, so I went on the road with Dan Auerbach and company and played with them for about a week down in Texas and New Orleans and Memphis, TN. I really am inspired by the current badasses that are out there making records. I just got into The Lemon Twigs, those guys are freakin' me out right now. But I go backwards more than forwards, which I feel most musicians do. You know they discover certain bands from the 70's they never heard of before. And I make a lot of mixes just because we go on the road a lot and they're good for long drives.
COjam: From an outsider looking in, what do you see in Colorado and its music scene that makes it stand out?
MB: Man, a lot of the musicians I meet from Colorado are incredible and can get around and play really well. Be it rock or jazz, even, I'm just totally impressed with the knowledge and the skill set that a lot of musicians have out in Colorado. It's really incredible. I grew up with Garrett Sayers (bass player in The Motet). We're super tight, I've known him since like 1995. We went through some serious shit when we were you know, 18-21. He's a badass on the upright bass as well as the electric, of course. I've known Jans (Ingber) for a long time and I really like Joey Porter. And obviously being friends with Joe Russo, you know the Fat Mama guys are awesome, from Boulder. There's incredible talent out there, I've gotta say.
COjam: Our last question comes from a fan. Morgan Elliot asks, "Besides making music, what is your happy place?"
MB: Oh man being at home on the farm with my wife and my two kids and our animals. We have two peacocks, a boy and a girl, George McFly and Loraine (laughs). We have goats and chickens and bees and I love [it]. I live in Woodstock, NY and there are so many great musicians that live up there still. I see John Medeski frequently and Jack DeJohnette's up there. Levon Helm still has his barn goin' on and I play at the barn frequently with his daughter. I love being in Woodstock, man. If I'm not on the road in that happy place playing music then I'm at home in my happy place just hanging out with the goats and my kids and just chillin' on the farm.
MARCO BENEVENTO COLORADO TOUR
Thursday, 3/30 @ The Aggie Theatre (Fort Collins)
Friday, 3/31 @ Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom (Denver)
Saturday, 4/01 @ The Fox Theatre (Boulder)
Sunday, 4/02 @ Agave (Avon)