Benevento Russo Duo Interview

I’m a sickly conventional kid. I like PB&J on white and lollipops. Bands too often are straight forward - guitar, bass, and drums – and talent is an afterthought in today’s playing field.  Gone are the influences of post-bop acid jazz and classic rock often in favor of post-punk and grunge or just a simple squad of ladies in matching unitards.  But for two guys on the right side of the bridge and tunnel Jersey, it is all about making something unusual. Formed out of the model of necessity and creature comfort, Benevento Russo Duo is anything but conventional when Marco Benevento takes trust. And I can tell you that he is obsessed with two things – Thai and family.  Music may come in a distant third. 

That’s not to say the east coast based Benevento/Russo Duo is not without their melodic side.  My day spent with Benevento showed me both a band that is making headway into the indie spotlight and, at the same time, an artist who could quite possibly care less.  Unlike, say Trey Anastasio, who feeds off of music to make his universe intact, Marco doesn’t require all of this to survive. But like the aforementioned jam artist, Marco is somewhat of an improvisational whiz kid when it comes to both the studio and stage. Utilizing both standard instruments (really just a keyboard and drums) and the bizarre (sound manipulation devices that can just as easily be mistaken for a flux capacitor) the band has carved a niche following with its brand of ambient jams and harmonious blue sky tranquilities.  Before the show, Marco gestures toward a gizmo on stage that looks nothing more than a circa 50’s rustic tan television set, but to him it’s a new tool for harmonic ingenuity. Later that evening, he will use it to craft an anomalous, but pleasant sound in the middle of the song ‘Something For Rockets’ off their latest album Play Pause Stop. Just two studio albums into their career and the guys are finding themselves on the cusp of space jam recognition, removed from the smoke filled booze stained floors of coastal based bars and into the music theaters of the Midwest and beyond.  Too bad it’s also on the brink of collapse.    

Six hours earlier I find myself walking the streets of Chicago’s north side with Marco. Russo, Benevento, and I have just finished a formal sit down interview at a sidewalk café near the same location the two will be playing later that evening. At which, we successfully parry and joust the standard barrage of interrogation.  Russo gets a cell call from the band’s manager – he’s needed back at sound check and politely removes himself. Benevento admits he’s got a mean hankering for Thai and asks me to lead the way to the closest restaurant.  To my horror of horrors, I neither know where one is nor, due in part to a steady diet of meat and potatoes, do I even know if I like it. Karma is coming back at me for all those times I deliberately told tourists the incorrect directions to their points of interest, because now I can not form my east from my west and we end up wandering the greater portion of northern Chicago in search of noodles.  The Far East never seemed further.

Thankfully, Marco is seemingly un-phased by my lack of course.  We talk about everything from high priced fashion and its lack of necessity to growing up in polar opposite families (mine small – his large). As we pass a Borders bookstore, he says we need to slip inside because he’s looking for a baby book – apparently a mission set forth by his fiancé from a conversation earlier in the day. I’m not only lost in my own city, but now I’m shopping for a book on what a male’s role is to a newborn; I think.  This may just be my William Miller moment where I’m too easy going. Funny thing is, earlier in the day, I was told I was high maintenance by the guys.  Sitting down to interview I had ordered my PhD-necessary-to-comprehend staple espresso drink which often garners looks of disappointment and agony from the barista.  But when Joe Russo shot me a look of shock under his heavy black rimmed spectacles, I thought I had crossed the line of beverage particularity and decency.  “That’s pretty high maintenance there,” he said followed by a nod from Marco.  This coming from a guy whose band’s idea of improv includes lengthy exploration into sonic manipulation using circuit bending and painstaking loop feeds. If anyone was a stickler for perfection, it was these guys.

Marco and Joe met by their affiliation with trouble in a New Jersey middle school.  Often in the same school detentions, they quickly formed a bond out of nuisance that became a shared admiration of music. “One time we went over to Joe’s house and would just play some Led Zeppelin.” He pauses for a moment and slides in under his breath, “We still do it now actually.” And he’s not far from the truth.  The duo often works with Ween’s bassist Dave Driewitz for trio cover outfit Bustle in Your Hedgerow. But from the hallows of incarceration the boys dissolved when Marco attended Berkley to study piano and Joe escaped suburbia in favor of Colorado. Reformed years later in New York, they quickly rekindled their groove.  Improvising covers from Herbie Hancock to Nirvana, the sound leaned heavily toward jazz at first with simple single peddle manipulation and Russian rock drum sets.  Slowly, the band came full circle and found their rock derivation by trimming the fat off the jazz thanks in part to then emerging talents of Wilco, Radiohead and even some more obscure efforts like eccentric LA based I Am Robot. What has matriculated today is an obsession of substance.  To the naked eye, Marco is a keyboardist while Joe hammers away at the drums.  However, to the trained ear it is much more.  Benevento’s setup alone is daunting; besides the obvious keys, his foot acts as the baseline, the chords with his left hand and melody on his right. Not to mention the act of weaving loops throughout.  Russo also gets in on the sampling act by utilizing a drum pad aiding in the manipulation of sound above just percussion. Think keyboard/drum team Mates of State but without vocals and as Marco points out, “We aren’t married.” All of this gadgetry blurs a line of necessity and crave. But it’s never too complex for them. “I don’t think we’ll hit that point,” explains Marco. “If anything we’ll get simpler with chords but complex with layering.”

With their recent release of Play Pause Stop, they are already on that path.  Each piece is a layered affair of brilliance at times by juggling a fusion of sound comprehension and execution.  It also marks a move away from the electronic sounds they use to rely on and back to the basics of chords. But, Marco is an echelon of work within himself.  His bop influence is already creeping back.  Another facet is his obvious desire to grow even outside of music.  Whether or not is his family growing or the desire to play more of his Berkley roots is still to be decided, but my time with him opened a side of an artist not so much conflicted as he was concerned.  First off, he already feels like they are over-saturating certain markets.  Often times he’s found the Duo playing in the same venues a few months prior.  But, it’s more than that.  I got the feeling he doesn’t really need this. He’s a few months away from becoming a father for the first time and he often spoke of his family and how much he misses them – something I feel like I never hear from artists on the road with his type of sincerity. He cares about being a good father and starting an atomic family with something bigger down the road. He’s personable and creates no barriers between himself and reality.  Just moments before the Duo’s set was to start, Benevento sits with my wife and me in a booth at the venue just to chat.  A fan who was wearing a Phish shirt approached and holds a candid but seemingly easy going conversation.  Without missing a beat, Marco leans in and starts this banter on them being labeled as a jam band by the fans of Phish – who caught wind of the Duo when touring with Trey Anastasio.  But again, it all seems like normal pish-posh rather than conceded complaining coming from Marco.

In the end, though, it boils down to Marco Benevento and Joe Russo. The collapse I mentioned earlier is a feeling of reality creeping in.  Whether that is a sense of mortality or family is beside the point. Most bands take the better part of a decade to be at the level these two are at with little to no publicity other than word of mouth. Yet, the blasé air of dropping it all if it becomes a Peter Pan complex carries like a looming cloud. Individual talent poses another hitch. Their chemistry is undeniable, but it’s their side projects that tend to pull them in opposite directions – at times for months on end.  Of which, the two often times don’t meet up again until they hit the road together. “Despite our music being rather complex, Joe and I have really simple lives. We just try and keep things cool. There is nothing that needs to be said most of the time.” I never thought finding a Thai restaurant was complex either.