Rewind: The Benny Blanco Episode [Patreon Exclusive]

the first time i met benny was going to his place in new york and i always joke with him that he lives in la now but he says that he just visits here even if he's here for more than half the year so he bought a house recently in hollywood and we went to his new place there are all kinds of people walking in and out of his place he's got artists he's got writers he's got producers he's got just friends all over the place and they're all very funny and they're all loud and fun and you'll hear in the background of this i'm sure a few people talking but that's the vibe with benny it's all about the community so when he said why don't you come over to my place we felt like that was a smarter move than having him come to his studio because if you want to be around benny you have to be in his domain that makes benny great anyway you this is the end of this video if you enjoyed it make sure to subscribe to my channel and hit the bell icon to get notified of new videos every time i post a new video and when i mean cool i mean classy i mean they say that there's that expression of money can't buy class but there's so much class in that guy one of the stories that i like to tell and i don't know if i said in this interview or not but when i used to go to his place in new york i noticed he had no platinum records on the wall except for one he had one that was given to him by a children's hospital and that always made me feel like i was a kid and i was like i'm going to go to his house and i'm going to that explained benny most i mean here's a guy who's had millions of records countless hits and all he has is a record from a children's hospital so without further ado here's the very first episode of and the writer is welcome to and the writer is i'm your host roscall and today's writer producer is one of my favorite humans he's been bmi songwriter of the year a few times sold over 100 million songs runs a record label has been recognized by the songwriter hall of fame and he just turned 28 straight from virginia by way of new york this writer has broken artists like katie perry and kesha and reinvigorated bands like maroon 5 i have mad love for this adorable little man and the writer is everyone's favorite matzo ball benny blanco hola hola what's up guys so um i usually start by saying we're uh asking what are like looking up how i met somebody okay and uh it turns out i sent you a song years before we actually met like there must have been some time where you gave me your email um and i actually think i think it was at some grammy event and i i you gave me like a friends or family kind of thing and you have really long hair okay and you gave me you gave me your email and i sent you a pretty like now when i listen to it i listen to it because i was like maybe this is good and i can show you and be like i show you in front of humans and then i was like no this isn't very good people must send you records constantly right i'd i'd say at least 10 to 15 records a day maybe more do you listen to them i try to listen to every song that someone sends me actually i do i listen it might not be like i'm pretty bad with email so it might be like two weeks later but i listen to everything everyone does or or i'm like uh or like if they don't send me a song i'm like oh well send me a song or if i meet someone out and they're like how can i get my music i listen to every single thing really yeah because you never know man what if it's like what if this person is the next fucking me or you you know i guess i worry that i'm gonna end up being that that's like the story of how you get sued and so like i tend to just be like no i don't even click on anything i'm just like yo i can't really not it depends where it comes from i mean if you sent me something i'd listen to it why and if it's like yeah well not because it's good but because like you want to laugh a little yeah exactly i mean no but it's where if a friend of a friend sends it that's one thing but if it's like if it's a random person who sends it i can't do it i listen to every single one wow have you ever found anybody where you're like oh my god no horrible no has anyone has anyone ever sent you something where you're like this is it this is the song this this guy i need to i need to work with this person a few times it's happened um like that uh but it didn't material it wasn't um no no it didn't turn into anything but amar was kind of like that yeah but didn't you guys grow up we yeah yeah we knew each other we knew each other but we didn't hang out that much david was the one who i hung out with david silberstein being david amar malik yeah yeah right so david and i met a jewish sleepaway camp we were like 10 right and we were like break dance and then like we went to like bar mitzvah together and then david and i lost communication from probably 14 to 15 or something right and i'm and i go down to visit my friends actually sorry okay so first i i met i met him again because my best friend lev this guy left they were going to school together sure and he was like hey i have this roommate man he's really cool his name is david like you should meet him when you come down and i'm like cool i'm like he's like he does music and stuff we come down i see david i'm like holy shit random like the synchronicity between that like he's just like two friends from childhood then yeah meeting like that and then i started listening to amar's stuff again and i would give him advice and shit and then um yeah but at that point okay so but they were sending me songs all the time and i wasn't like with them but how does this happen you're like 16 years old or whatever when you start you're in virginia and then you end up in in new york or you end up producing spank rock or how does this happen how do you go from being a jewish kid from the suburbs who's making music at home to like oh yeah all of a sudden i mean are you sending out your songs first before i mean how does how do people hear you all right let's do the short let's do the short thing that oh this is also why because i wonder like they're sending you records like you know better this at this point this which is crazy because you kind of did this is the main reason why i listened to all those records because that's how i was discovered i was discovered completely randomly so what happened was uh you know all we all did the same exact thing when we were younger we were in bands fucking thespians like we were in like we were fucking losers um no but uh i was doing all the normal things that kids do you know if you're like artistic and i was uh i was making music making songs like i used to i used to like i i didn't have like my parents didn't buy me like equipment so like we had like two boom boxes and i would like record everything into one then record it all into that one then record it back so i like made like my own a track and everything was horribly out of time and my beats sucked and my songs were awful right so then i was like you know what i'm gonna be like eminem like i was like i'm gonna be eminem was like 99 i'm like i was already rapping at the that point um long story short i get my brother hooks me up with this guy named sam who starts recording all my early demos taught me how to make music taught me how to produce taught me pro tools like he was like he was like the guy who like really got my foot so did you buy all right i didn't have anything right i was just using i would go i would travel to him he was in jersey and i was in virginia and then would you drive or take a train or what yeah yeah however i could yeah like i used there was like a china bus like that you could you could take and so i would do whatever i could i was like 13 at this point and then like my parents stopped going with me like i would just get to go on my own at this 13 yeah 13 14 and then crazy wait but you didn't and you didn't play any instruments you're just like mom and dad i'm gonna be a rapper i was a rapper and i made all the beats right at this point at this point i was really into like playing i used actually be okay at guitar i just fucking lost it like yeah i i now i'm like now i'm not so great at anything but um it seems like almost everybody in the industry is either educated and they went through the process of going through you know high school college touring did the whole thing that way play you know virtuosic instruments or they're these like or they're you know prodigies where they're 13 years old and they're like yeah i'm gonna rap or you know like what julia does or you know these people who can somehow write hit songs when they're kind of born i mean how do you go from 13 years old you're now you're you're going and rapping were the songs good did you know they were good or did you feel like you had to learn i was was sam teaching you everything i started beatboxing first like before anything because i thought that's how you had to make your beats sure i thought like everyone i was like why can't don't i was like why doesn't my mouth sound like the things on the radio i didn't understand it like and i thought like whenever there was like scratching records that it like there's a song the world is yours by naz and like there's like scratch solos in it and i'm like damn they're so good at doing it with their mouth I thought they did I didn't even put two and two together that like you you like played an instrument on a on a on a song like I thought you did it all with your mouth so then so I was working I was I was I was just trying to figure out how to get it all done and I got the attention of this guy named Jonathan Schechter who started Source magazine and he was the first person to put out Eminem he was instrumental in 50 Cent's career and and he had his own label on Columbia and he had uh he he also had this thing called Hip Hop Honeys and what that was was like a soft core porn type of thing so what it was like so listen is it a website or is it a magazine or it's a it's a it's a dvd series it was like the biggest selling soft core dvd of all time it was like a dvd series it was like the biggest selling soft core dvd of all time and what it was was it it was like all the video girls from like all the videos dancing like with their tops off to like rap beats yeah and I was like I was like yo man and he was like he was trying to sign me to Columbia and I was like and then like but you're you're 15 or 16 I'm 14 13 or 14 so you're still like kind of turned on and kind of not sure what to do with like yeah exactly like I remember like he took me to meet um like the first time I like went to go hang out with him it was him and uh Tara Patrick I don't know if you remember who that is but she was like a really famous like porn star back in the day and I was like and it was like the first time and I'm like hi like and I'm like I'm like I'm like actually I'm not like hi I'm like hi how are you um so I kind of sound exactly like how I do now sure right um so I uh you know uh long story short we um he started helping develop me and then somewhere along the line I'd like that will like jive record a bunch of labels were into it like they all I remember they flew down to see me perform at my homecoming when I was like 14 or something oh that's cool they all flew in from New York to see me and at this point were you cool in high school because like you know you're saying that you I you started by kind of saying how we were all dorks which I know I was but like to go from that to then being a rapper that you know has a positive impact on your life and you record deal I can imagine that there's like a line around the block in high school to be like oh I want to be friends with that guy I mean it was like this I was cool because of my brother my brother was like the coolest kid at school he was so everyone was like oh you're Jeremy's little brother and he was like four or five years older so he was like always like a school above me so it was like oh you're so I was like automatically cool like right like because of him like because of me probably no chance right and then like I mean I was I mean I'm pretty sure you know who I was I was friends with all all the crowds you know I was like friends with all the hip-hop kid you know I went to a very diverse school so I was like friends with all the hip-hop kids I was friends with all the white kids I was friends with all the Spanish kids like I was in every group and I was like the class clown you know I was like the teacher would be like Ben like shut up like right you know I was like the kid like I was getting kicked out of class for like talking too much and like making and then these guys and then then all of a sudden like porn star people are coming to your home coming to see you no no they didn't come to my old dudes came to my home with probably saggy testicles like so yeah yeah so I'm in yeah no but uh no what happened was they all came and stuff and then I wound up signing like this like production deal with I don't know if you know who Gamble and Huff is yeah of course they like wrote like all those old songs back in the day and they kind of they them and their kids like kind of like helped mentor me along the way and then how did they hear you my brother met one of them at it my brother is like got me everything at the beginning he met one of them at like why didn't he manage you he wasn't thinking about that he didn't know what that was I mean he was essentially your manager yeah like he didn't know what that was and I had we know managers who do a whole lot less than that I had like a weird manager thing like I don't know like guy at the time you did yeah when I was like 13 14 I forget I forget who it was um I think his name was like jay or something some guy I met online was like my manager right and then this is like myspace era probably this is before myspace so so your myspace plays a big role in this so okay so you know let's let's get forward so I I tell my friend I'm probably like 14 15 now and I'm like I'm like man I'm like let me make one of those beats for the hip-hop honeys things I want to make I want to make some money for it and I'm like let me make one of those beats for the hip-hop like I want to like I want to I want my name out there and I want because I didn't have any money and I wanted to get my own setup I didn't have any money to get my own setup I had like whack keyboards and I had like the little casios that like I wound up using on every record later in my life like all the cash stuff like but I didn't know what any of I didn't know that was going to come into play like because like back in the day like little weird casio sounds weren't really cool right like and I was that was much later that those became cool exactly exactly so I uh I was just trying to get in and I made I made a beat and he was like whoa this isn't bad he was like you know what he's like I'm gonna give you 200 bucks for this and I was like whoa I was like my life is made I'm like dude I can like buy pot and as much pizza as I want like that was like 200 bucks for a 14 year old is I was like I was like holy shit that's serious money so then I started making beats locally for like everyone like because my name got out that I did like that and I started making beats for everyone locally so I was getting like you know like like 200 bucks here 300 bucks there so I started like making some making some money so like I got I got a little bit better system and but like a lot of stupid shit happened like I got like my mom's house got robbed twice because I was just I just wasn't in with like the right kids I was like it was like I was just selling beats to anyone it was like very brown paper bag money type of thing then fast forward I'm like I'm like 16 or 17 yeah and my space is a thing yeah and I'm writing everyone on my space like like I'm and somehow I got a lot of friends on my space like like somehow I got like way more like the normal person had like I don't know like how many friends did you have I I don't remember like maybe a thousand or something like sure like and like that was like a big deal you were like man I got a lot of friends and I was like I got a lot of friends and I was like I got like a thousand I had like a lot more than that like I had like you're just clicking on everybody who's trying to email everybody not email what did what was it called wasn't friending was it friending on people on my message it was just like a message right I can't remember when labels were always say to like to bands I'm sure they said it you know to everybody was just like you know what you should do is you should make more friends on my space friend people on my space you're like what yeah spend spend days trying to friend people so you can develop your profile what is that what they told you yes so they told that's what they tell people now they're like go put up covers on YouTube don't do that yeah don't do that so so I started like and I would like hit people and I would get like meetings at labels and I would like and I would I would meet like some guy who like I didn't know at this point who was like a guy getting like the coffee yeah but it was so cool because you're meeting like a guy from Columbia records yeah yeah and I was like oh my god this is insane like and like a guy who had no power to do anything like that and I was just like oh my god and you're all nervous and excited yeah I was so nervous like probably just as nervous as he was yeah like and and I started doing stuff like that and I would reach out to tons of producers like guys that I'm friends with now like like Emile Haney like tons and I was reaching out to everyone in the music business like I was reaching out to to anyone you knew anyone you knew and then I started getting meetings with people and I was meeting with like I was me like one of my first meet I met with Fenster when I was like 17 16 crazy and I I started doing and like a lot of people would be like oh yeah meet up with me and then they'd be like oh like I have to cancel and I was like like I didn't want to make them I wanted to act like I was like oh yeah I have a bunch of meetings yeah it's all good don't worry about it I literally drove up just for that and I was like and I used to like sleep in the McDonald's and stuff because you could like you could um where which McDonald's there was there was a bunch of them there was uh anyone that was in Times Square like stays open like forever and it's um and it's like multiple levels so like you can like switch around and stuff so I would just like wait until the next morning like I would have my meeting at like 8 a.m. and how old are you at this point probably 17 16 so I'm going with my friends would you you'd go with your friends like who also wanted to try to miss school or would you be trying to meet people on weekends I would what I would do is did you actually ditch what I did ditch a lot but would you graduate I did I did I did I graduated high school but I would I would ditch a lot and I would or I would like miss my last class and I would meet someone in New York for like their last meeting of the day right like seven yeah but sometimes they'd be like oh can we just reschedule the like Saturday morning and then I'd be fucked yeah right where am I gonna sleep it's like before I knew people like that in New York and if I did like I didn't want to like like because they were like people I was like trying to work with so I don't want to be like hey can I sleep on your couch with three of my friends who are waiting in the car like yeah I and we smell Do you think all that development of going up there and sleeping there random nights and being with friends up there that that's part of your love of New York is like that's where you had your struggle as a kid yeah and both my parents are from there and I always that was like the place where I was going like it's not like I was going you were gonna go there anyway no matter what yeah it's not like I was going to LA like I've been to LA and I lived in we lived in LA for like a year and a half when I was a kid but like I wasn't New York was the closest place I could go where music was happening I already had the DC thing so like I already had I was already working with all the biggest guys in DC at the point but they weren't like big like DC is not like a huge or at that time wasn't a huge music scene like there was but no one was making it like Wale hadn't made it yet like Wale was like just getting on like he was like just starting to like get on like they had this thing it was like hot or not like and it was like it would be like the local artists and you decide if they were they had a hot song or not he had this song called like Nike Boots and it was like blowing up like locally and that was like you this is like 13 years ago something like that this is before you got any label or anything so so then I so then at this point I go and I'm and I'm emailing everyone and I email this guy named Disco D he's like I was listening to the 50 cent album so much like and I was like both albums um because there had only been two albums out at that point and I was like this was when he was like supreme and I was like holy shit I was like this is so good because I was I was in that scene because like all those guys I forgot like at this point I knew I knew like um I knew like uh uh like Theo Saddlemeyer Paul Rosenberg like I knew these guys because of uh Jonathan Schecter like he he was very in that scene because he worked with all those guys do you still keep in touch with Jonathan yeah talk to him all the time and Paul all those guys they must all think this is crazy yeah yeah yeah like like because they just knew you from being this little kid who would come up to New York and shit but everyone Fenster all these guys I knew all these guys because you you gotta I got my first record deal when I was right before I was 18 yeah so it's like so like so what happened was so now we're at like I'm like I'm like 16 17 going up and I hit this guy Disco D and I'm like yo I want to intern for you and he's like I don't tell him I live in Virginia I'm like he's like or I did I was like I live in Virginia but I'm moving to New York I didn't I had no idea when I was moving I was still in school I was in my senior year so I was like 17 maybe 16 17 17 probably and then I he's like come here tomorrow so I'm like alright but really what I want to do is like play on my beats and like do so like I come there and he's like it was a Friday and I was with one of my friends James and he's like it was in Brooklyn he goes I'm leaving to go to Brazil tomorrow I'll be back on Sunday if you can film my studio the whole time I'm gone he was like and get like two or three sessions and make me money he was like you can keep the studio he's like you can be my intern and I was like what and I was like I don't even know this many right so you're like a studio manager and he just let me stay at his house like the first time ever meeting me and I did it I called everyone I knew I called kids from Virginia DC like I filled his studio up and like I got like I got like two or three sessions so like I had like and like two of them were on Sunday and I made him money and he was like alright you got the job now get the fuck out of here and I was like and so like I started coming up every week and you know he was a loony dude he was a very loony dude and started coming up and I would work for him every week and I was like I'm I was like I have to find a way to move to New York so I like at this point like everyone's applying for colleges and I'm like man I don't want to do this college thing so like I find some like trade school in New York and I'm like I apply to that and like I go there what was it I think it was called Institute of Audio Research oh so but you you were gonna do music somehow yeah yeah yeah it wasn't like you went to go add TT Tech no no no no it's like it's called like Institute of Audio Research it's like an engineering school like a music and it's like full sale yeah but for the East Coast and I was like alright I'm gonna go here so cause I needed like an apartment and my mom was like if you go to school she was like I'll pay for one year right and I was like and I was like cool so like I go pretty amazing yeah it's hard like you know parental support well I'm always so impressed if somebody can make it without parental support I don't know how they do it but I know it happens but that's like that's pretty incredible she was like I'll pay I'll pay for I'll pay for one year so they recognize at least that you had talent at that point yeah or they recognize that other people recognize you have talent yeah they didn't they didn't they were like what's your backup plan they were like what are you gonna do I have Jewish parents I'm the only person in my entire like bloodline that didn't go to college so it's like so I think they believed my mom was like just give it a shot if you mess up you can go back to school and she was like she was like just promise me you're gonna go to that school which I didn't but I did at the beginning so basically I get into the school I'm like I'm so jazzed it's my last day I'm graduating I'm about to walk down the thing it's my last day my friend goes yo I need you to make me a music page for one of my artists for my space and this was like just when the I didn't know this is like when you could make your own music page and I didn't really know how to do it like making a music page like using the player and stuff and I was like I was like dude I don't know how to do that he was like well if you don't do that and read this book he gave me this book called like the Tao De Shen it's like this like like mantras and poems and he was like if you don't read this book by tomorrow and make that he was like don't even bother coming up he was like I won't hire you and I was like fuck somehow I figured out how to do it I moved the next day to New York I didn't have a place yet because my place didn't start until after the summer so I'm crashing on his floor and just like the limited people I know like like starting to make connects in New York and I'm like staying uh my brother and what is this 2000 2000 2006 this is so and I'm I'm living and I'm like my brother lived in New York kinda so I'm like living in Hoboken for a little bit and I'm just like crashing in everyone's couch that will let me sit on a couch so then I get my place and it's in Brooklyn and I'm working with this guy and and he at the same time I used to cold call record labels and I would like I would pretend like so say like say it's like who's someone on Atlantic like Bruno Mars let's just say that I was doing it right now right I'd be like hey I'd be like this is Bruno Mars lawyer and I would like look and then like I'd get in I'd get through to like Craig and I'd be like and I'd be like I'd be like hey Craig this isn't really him I just really need to play you my music and like they would hang up and like that's how I met like a lot of assistants that became something big and I used to do that and one of the guys I would call was this guy named Andrew Luffman and then and then I was doing that and then at the same time Andrew was partially managing Disco D and stuff and Andrew was just he was Craig Kalman's assistant at that point so it's like so he's Craig Kalman's assistant then I meet a guy who later becomes my manager that I started off by selling drugs for him to make money because I didn't have any money 2006 what kind of drugs? Just pot and I was like selling pot and like that's how I started meeting a lot of people in the music business because he would deal to like tons of people in the music business and like it's not like he's dealing like coke was he your dealer and then you were like oh you should manage me? No he lived in the same he lived in the same building as Disco D and like he would Disco D was one of his clients and like a lot of people were his clients and then he goes he goes to me he says what are you doing down there? or up there he's like I got a few keyboards and stuff he's like you want to come down and make music like at my place? Like we started making music and then he's like somehow he didn't know what it was either he's like should I like be your manager? and he was like a cool guy around Brooklyn he was like this drug dealer he threw parties that were great everything and this is like when Williamsburg was like not a thing yet like it was just starting you know this was this is like 11 years ago 10-11 years ago so it's like it's like just starting to become a thing and I start making music I'm making a lot of music and I'm interning and like this is when people like weren't even signed yet so like Santi Gold would come over to Disco D's house and like make music and like and she was like trying to get a record deal and all these people like tons of people that became that became big big artists like and and tons of people were interning with me that became huge people that are in the music business now like just tons of people that like I know now that are like big songwriters big producers artists like and uh Thank you for listening to And The Writer Is. If you want to hear the rest of this Rewind episode, make sure to join our Patreon, where you can find our entire library of archived episodes with legends like Babyface, Shania Twain, Sabrina Carpenter, Benny Blanco, and so, so many more. You'll also get access to our monthly writer's room on Zoom, where we play your demos and answer your biggest industry questions. We'll see you over there.