Meet the American sweetheart viral sensation who will support Lewis Capaldi in Glasgow
The man of the moment, Lewis Capaldi, is set to be joined by another man of another moment, Alec Benjamin.
Joining Lewis at his shows in The SSE Hydro, Alec is playing for the first time in Scotland. Starstruck though some may be, Alec is taking it in his stride – it’ll be like the summer holidays when it comes, he says.
“I can’t wait – I’m super excited to play Scotland” Alec told The Herald.
“I hate being on planes though. I will look forward to it more when I’m over the plane ride.
“I guess just play the show and I’ll figure it out when I get there. I’ve had a lot of stuff going on before the tour has even started so I’m taking it day by day.
“It’s how I used to feel about summer when I was in high school, I couldn’t look forward to summer until I had my finals done so I’m just waiting until I finish my album to properly get hyped up for the show.
Alec takes busy to a new level- recently surpassing 1.5billion streams globally, he will be playing Coachella this April after his tour with Lewis.
If you’re yet to hear him, he’s the male Billie Eilish of 2019 (and the real Billie Eilish is counted among his fans). Starting in music by playing to queues of fans outside gigs, he is now the one that thousands are queuing to see – but he insists that nothing has changed.
“Nothing has really changed. I still live at home with my parents. I’m more tired than I was maybe two years ago but that’s pretty much it.
“Sometimes I feel like I worked hard, but that the timing of my career was weird too. I feel like I’m writing hard but it’s not really moved as quickly as I’d have liked it to.”
Alec is making music that is easy to listen to whilst tugging at the heartstrings. Think gen-z, simple melody and heart-filled lyrical sentiment. It might be the music for now, but according to Alec, it could have been in the hits as long as six years ago if it wasn’t for a few frustrating mishaps.
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> “Sometimes the timing works out.
“I can’t speak for Lewis because I don’t know his story but I’m now on my third record deal.
“I have a song I wrote 6 years ago which should have been a hit but which I couldn’t release because I didn’t own the masters to it.
“I put it out and it got popular on Musicly, which was what TikTok was before TikTok, but I couldn’t do anything about it because I didn’t own the masters.
“It’s my third try but finally I’m owning the masters. I should have had this ages ago.
“I’m sick of having to fight for a song to be popular, that I know works, trying to beg people to work it and get it out there. To be honest, I’m getting frustrated. So I’m excited to play the songs.”
It’s been a tough beginning, but he’s finally here and joining the biggest star in the UK on the biggest stage in Glasgow. Is that enough to overcome the initial frustrations of starting out?
“I love making music so it’ll be fun” says Alec. And for those in the SSE Hydro crowds, he is not wrong.
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