Today we’d like to introduce you to Deuce Bennett.
Deuce, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started playing piano when I was four. I remember learning Bach pieces as a kid one hand at a time and then putting them together. As I got older, I got really into guitar. It started with pop-punk but quickly evolved into classic rock. I idolized Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who… I basically wanted to be a Rock Star since I was 13. Around that time, I got really into classical music too, so I was learning Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Debussy pieces, sometimes with the help of a teacher, sometimes on my own. I just loved music.
In middle school and early high school, I played guitar in the contemporary worship band at my church, so I was getting experience working with a band and gigging every weekend. As I got older, I started putting together my own bands, writing songs, and doing covers around my hometown of Toledo, OH. I would sell tickets to the shows and people would come. We always had a good turn out!
After high school, I went to Berklee College of Music. I graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2012. That year I played at SXSW with a trio I put together. I fell in love with Austin immediately. Every bar was a venue. It was exciting. I said to myself, “I can build a career in music here.”
In 2013, I started teaching at New School of Music and got a gig playing guitar in a party band. Every weekend we’d pile into a van and drive to gigs in Houston, Dallas, doing crazy hours, loading in and out all the sound gear ourselves, cramming into hotel rooms, hardly sleeping… often times we’d get back at 5 in the morning or so on Sunday and I’d have to power through a church gig. It was crazy times for sure, lol.
I got burnt out from that gig around 2016. I shifted gears and became a guitar for hire and was playing on 6th street for singer/songwriters and country acts. 3-4 nights a week 10PM-2AM for frankly not great pay. I don’t necessarily want to use this as a platform to talk about the state of the music industry and the poverty it often inflicts on those involved, but let’s just say it’s hard to make a living doing it. I remember back then if you went to Tyson’s Tacos, they’d let you play a Ukulele they had for free tacos. Some days it was the only time I ate!
After my 6th street days, I auditioned for a corporate event band and got the gig. Back to the Friday/Saturday grindstone but this time doing more weddings and private events. They paid better, which I was grateful for, and the music was fun. I’d call it Top 40 of the last 60 years. Motown through current. Good dance numbers. I eventually worked my way up to Music Director/Band leader, which meant I was running the show through a talkback mic while playing guitar keys, singing some numbers, even doing some choreographed dancing. It was a fun show and super-tight band!
Around this time, I started my own band with my friend Brody. We were called 1-2-Punch. It was rock, soul, and a little country. We got to play some great venues in town: Mohawk indoor, Sahara club. We are both songwriters, so we brought some original music to the table, but what was really fun was cowriting new tunes. I love to collaborate and work with artists. We recorded our album in my home studio, self-produced, and released all in house.
I didn’t mention musical theater! Throughout all that time, I was occasionally doing runs of shows, playing guitar in pit bands: Legally Blonde at the Georgetown Palace, Heathers at Southwestern University, Little Shop of Horrors at City Theater, and a run of Smokey Joe’s Cafe in the South East.
In 2019 I auditioned for a national tour of the show Xanadu. It was based out of NYC. I got the gig, set up my place for Airbnb, and moved. A few weeks into rehearsal, the show gets canceled. So I’m stuck in New York because my home is rented out. Luckily they paid us for the first leg of the tour, and I was able to get an apartment and start working into the theater scene up there. I eventually landed a gig as Music Assistant and Sub Guitar on the show Emojiland. It was a great experience working on that show and going to work in Times Square every day. I was doing more production work, helping the Music Director with whatever she needed, doing edits to the scores, some production work on the tracks. That show won New York Times Critics Pick in January of 2020.
We all know what happened two months later. Pandemic baby! Not much happening in music during that time. I spent most of it doing yoga and writing my own songs. I put out some music on Spotify. I’ve got more songs in the pipeline planned for release this year!
Flash forward to fall of 2021 and I get recommended for a gig in a polka band named Alpine Express. At first, I was like, “really, polka?” but I had no idea what the scene was like. We spent the fall traveling around the south playing these giant Oktoberfests. If you ever want to see 10,000 people dressed in Lederhosen and Dirndls, go check out one of these events. They’re super fun! My role in the band was to sing and play American Pop and Rock tunes, which was perfect given the years of experience I had doing just that.
By this time, I got hooked up with an original rock band run by my friend Jeff called The Soapboxers. We were doing gigs at Far Out Lounge and more indoor stuff as things opened up. The music is really fun and three of us sing, so we get to do great vocal harmonies. Jeff also gives me space to rip guitar solos, which I always enjoy winky face pew pew.
My friend Mike from the Polka band got me hooked up with an artist named Jon Muq. I started playing piano and guitar in his band. We did a BMI showcase during ACL and the Blackfret Ball at Moody Theater.
Jon Muq is producing an Album for an artist named McKenna Michels, and he recommended me to help her put together a band and do some MD work. She’s an incredibly talented artist and I’ve been having a great time hanging with her and helping her bring her vision to life. Her single Tired charted 28 on Adult Contemporary BillBoard Charts and Broken Like This reached 29 AC Billboard Charts after two weeks.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My life definitely has not been a smooth road. The biggest challenge for me was quitting drinking. Drinking was my favorite thing in the world besides music. I basically wanted to be in Motely Crue, and I acted like it. It was fun until it wasn’t. There were a couple of treatment centers in the timeline, last one was beginning of 2012. When I got better, I was really concerned about how I was going to work in music and not drink, all my gigs are in bars. But if you really do what they tell you to do, you can live a happy, joyous, and free life and do some really cool things. All this to say, if you are reading this and you’re struggling with something, there is a way out.
Something that has helped me stay grounded throughout my career is a consistent yoga practice. I found yoga in 2015, did my first teacher training in 2017, and been teaching on the side ever since. In yoga, I’ve felt some very uncomfortable feelings. Learning to sit with that stuff and breath through it and taking those lessons off the mat and into my life has been invaluable to my growth as a human and musician.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I play guitar, piano, bass, sing, can do production work, and I’m in love with the process of learning music and the space created on stage between musicians. When a band is working together well, listening to each other, and the crowd is loving it… there’s nothing in the world quite like it. I’ve always had this ability to remember music well. Once I write a chart for a song, it’s in my head.
I’m driven to be better at everything I do, all the time. I recently got asked to learn a bunch of music for a classic rock cover band for a few shows in Mexico. Ten days to learn like 40 songs. This happens from time to time. I get put in extreme situations. I rely on work ethic, faith, and trust in the universe to get me through the craziness and high-stress situations that make up my career.
The thing I’m most proud of right now is my single I released last month. It’s called You Got to Know, and I wrote the music lyrics, played all the instruments, recorded it in my home studio, and mixed the song. I did everything except master the audio (that’s the final process which basically prepares an audio file to be played on multiple platforms and devices). It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve written and people have been responding really well to it, which feels nice. I’ll be sure to include the link to my Spotify!
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Right now, I’m reading Dune. One of my favorite quotes from it is “Fear is the mind killer.” So True.
The Hindu text The Bhagavad-Gita was a profound read. If you’re into learning about spirituality, karma, yoga, and the nature of God, or the Universe, or whatever you want to call it, I highly recommend.
The podcast Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History is amazing. His 5 part series on World War One changed my life. Learning about what those people went through really puts my life in perspective. Like, my problems aren’t really as big as I can make them, you know?
For laughs, I like the It’s Always Sunny podcast, and Uhh Yeah Dude.
Contact Info:
- Email: deucebennett@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deucebennett/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deuce.bennett.1/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Z9opeMQqjW4jy1UMFj9sI
