Beno Had Never Been to a Festival. So he opened Lollapalooza
By the time I sat down with Beno in the Lollapalooza press lounge, he had already taken his shirt off onstage and ran into the crowd. It was barely noon. The festival was still waking up around him—people drifting through Grant Park with fanny-packs, sunscreen, and the buzzing excitement of someone trying to figure out which stage to walk toward next—but Beno’s set had started to pull people in. What began as a modest crowd kept growing as the songs went on.
This was Beno’s first festival, period. His parents and siblings were there, too, watching from the crowd as he played “Butterfly,” the song that has become his breakout, now past 300,000 streams. There is something slightly surreal about seeing a song you made with your friends become a thing a crowd of strangers know by heart, and even more so when your family is standing ten feet away while it happens.
The Miami-born singer is still figuring out exactly where his music wants to go. That uncertainty is part of what makes the set interesting: the songs move around sonically, borrowing from indie pop, R&B, and something a little more restless, without settling into one obvious version of Beno. Onstage, though, there is less hesitation. He knows how to work a crowd, when to let the band take over, and when a song needs a little more from him. By the end of the set, people were still wandering over from other parts of the festival.
Afterward, we sat down to talk about moving to New York, making “Butterfly” from a guitar loop and a situationship with a girl who talked to too many guys, and what it feels like when a song you made with your friends starts belonging to everyone else.
THE NEXT CHAPTER: NEW YORK, NEW MUSIC
Glenn: So you’re part of the Berkeley music program. Did you just graduate?
Beno: Just graduated in May.
Glenn: Congratulations. What’s next now that you’re a full-time artist?
Beno: I just moved to New York. We’re recording, we’re getting a few projects.
Glenn: Exciting.
Beno: I’ll be in LA next few weeks, and hopefully touring next year. Very exciting. We have a song coming out August 7th.
Glenn: Dolls?
Beno: Yes, sir.
Glenn: What other more, besides “Dolls”, anything exciting you’ve been working on or like any releases that the fans can kind of…
Beno: I mean, we have a whole project ready, so hopefully by October, it’ll be out. That’s what I’m wishing for. But, you know how this shit goes.
BENO LIKES HIS GIRLS TALKING TO OTHER DUDES ON THE INTERNET
Glenn: I want to talk about your song “Butterfly”. It has kind of taken on a life of its own. How’s it felt like to perform a song that has kind of blown up like that?
Beno: Yeah, great. I mean, it’s so cool to see the way that people reacted to it online. I think, um, when I teased it for the first time, I started this fresh TikTok account with like 0 followers. I posted one video, that shit got like a few thousand likes, zero followers. It was just like, “Oh, the people fuck with this. All right, cool.” And, I mean, we kind of knew it was a special song since the day we made it.
My homies just asked me this — Like, yo, what do you mean you like when she talks to other dudes on the internet? I was like, “Oh, I’ll tell you the story.” So I pull up to the studio, my homies Jonah and Jack are my producers, and they were like, “Yo, like, we just recorded this guitar loop, whatever.”
I’m sitting down, we’re chopping it up. And I’m like, “Yo, I need to leave by like 8 o’clock and I have to do a project with this girl.” And they’re like, all right, cool, whatever.
Like, who? And I tell them the girl’s name. Or just say, fuck it, we’re using Claire for every girl’s name and every song now? Let’s just say Claire, but it was not Claire. For the record.
But they’re like, “Yeah, she talks to a ton of dudes, though, yo. Like, I’d be careful.” Like, then I’m like, I kind of like that shit.
Like, what? *Sings* “I like when you talk to other dudes on the internet” And they’re like, “Record that.” And then we just made that song and so performing it has been just like super fucking dope, seeing people react to it. I feel like the song really builds as we go. So like exploding on that last course, it’s just been fucking amazing.
ON PERFORMING AT LOLLAPALOOZA
Glenn: What was the highlight this morning from performing for the first time at Lolla?
Beno: Well it’s my first time, first time at a music festival. I’ve never been to a festival, so this is our…
Glenn: First time you had a festival, you’re performing it.
Beno: Performing, yeah. I tried to wait before going to a festival because I knew I was going to perform one day.
Glenn. What was the highlight of performing this morning?
Beno: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, seeing my family was super nice to be honest with you. My parents were here, my siblings were here, so that was crazy. I was singing “Butterfly”, and I looked at my mom, I almost cried. So I had to stop for a second. I was like, I started laughing. I was like, “Oh, that was good.” But I liked [performing] Cold Shoulder, it was really fun at the end. The energy felt good. I think as the set progressed, more people were just like flooding in, which was dope to see. But the whole thing was just fucking sick.
Glenn: Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Has there been a song online, a moment in this festival that you kind of want to recreate for your future performances, like something that really worked or you think you’re gonna do again?
Beno: Rock that bitch every time, energy. That’s what I want to do again. We do it every time. I think my band is just so tight and laced. Like they’re all my best friends, so if we can continue doing this for the rest of our lives, I think we’d all be very happy.
Glenn: Okay, cool, yeah. All right, last question. If there’s anyone on the lineup you want to collab with?
Beno: Oh, your next big project. Collab. I love Balu Brigatta, love Chezile, actually. I like Love Spells. Olivia Dean. Shit.
Check him out here.
Photos by Glenn Paul