Burgeoning singer/songwriter Benjamin Steer unpacks love, loneliness, and the chaos of your 20s in his debut EP ‘Figuring It Out,’ launched sizzling on the heels of sold-out exhibits, viral success, and a career-defining threat.
Stream: ‘Figuring It Out’ – Benjamin Steer
Benjamin Steer isn’t any stranger to uncertainty, having made a complete EP about it.
On his debut EP Figuring It Out, the fast-rising British-American singer/songwriter captures the emotional rollercoaster of your early 20s with uncooked vulnerability, restraint, and a sincerity that’s develop into his calling card. Launched August 15 through Artist Idea, the five-track undertaking marks the official arrival of an artist who appears to have struck a chord with a technology making an attempt to make sense of affection, function, and the mess in between.
“The EP is a hopeless romantic’s dream and downfall,” Steer says. “I wished to seize the helpless unknowns of being in your 20s, and hopefully create one thing individuals can relate to.”
Up to now, individuals are greater than relating; they’re displaying up. Figuring It Out lands off the again of Steer’s sold-out debut London headline present at The Grace, a collection of main assist slots with UK hitmaker Myles Smith and viral singer Arthur Hill, and a rising fanbase that now consists of practically a million month-to-month Spotify listeners and over 14 million international streams. On social media, his music continues to make waves, racking up over six million views on user-generated content material and greater than 3.8 million views throughout his personal platforms.
Initially from Washington D.C. and later relocated to Scotland for college, Steer’s journey into music wasn’t precisely deliberate. A former economics pupil at St. Andrews, he started writing songs throughout lengthy, isolating winters, processing every thing from existential angst to romantic infatuation. A type of early tracks, “Muted Colours,” caught the eye of label execs and shortly led to a report deal simply days earlier than he was on account of begin a flowery company job in New York. Steer selected music. And that leap of religion is now starting to bear fruit.

Steer’s appeal lies in each his humility and his emotional transparency.
Onstage, he’s quietly magnetic. In dialog, disarmingly honest. And in his music, he doesn’t faux to have the solutions.
“I’m nonetheless figuring it out,” he admits. “However I believe I’ve realized that discovering one thing you like — and somebody or one thing to like outdoors of your work — is the best key to happiness.”
Throughout the EP, Steer paints his world in muted colours and unfiltered truths: From the starry-eyed craving of “Oh Darling” to the aching readability of “No One Desires to Die Alone.” His songs is perhaps soft-spoken, however they converse loudly to anybody who’s ever felt caught between who they’re and who they’re turning into.
Atwood Journal caught up with the ever-charming Steer to speak emotional cycles, sold-out milestones, and the fragile dance of threat and reward.
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:: stream/buy Figuring It Out right here ::
:: join with Benjamin Steer right here ::
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A CONVERSATION WITH BENJAMIN STEER
Atwood Journal: You’ve referred to as Figuring It Out “a hopeless romantic’s dream and downfall.” How did writing these songs show you how to make sense of your individual experiences of affection and uncertainty?
Benjamin Steer: I believe love of any form comes hand in hand with a sense of function. And when you’re making an attempt to determine issues out in your twenties you fall out and in of affection with many individuals and issues, and also you undergo this emotional rollercoaster of feeling like you have got every thing one second after which the subsequent…you aren’t fairly certain what you’re doing. It’s an unsure time for everybody and that’s form of what I discover the simplest to jot down about… as a result of even now I do not know what I’m doing!
The EP feels prefer it strikes via phases of youth: infatuation, ache, readability. Did you got down to construct that arc, or did it emerge naturally because the songs got here collectively?
Benjamin Steer: My entire life is cycles of this, so it was not a tough factor to return naturally. I wish to really feel issues… of their highs and lows and in between. One factor {that a} good friend as soon as mentioned to me that actually caught with me – it was proper after I went via a extremely unusual situationship, and I used to be extremely down dangerous… felt arduous to select myself up. I used to be speaking to them about how tough and low I used to be feeling… And so they checked out me and mentioned “good.” If I really feel love or feelings deeply it solely makes the existence of being a human extra saturated, extra significant – maybe within the good and the dangerous.

“No One Desires To Die Alone” resonates with so many individuals. What truths about loneliness and connection have been you making an attempt to seize in that track?
Benjamin Steer: I all the time describe this track after I play it dwell as “Simply what it says on the tin” I believe at occasions I generally is a straight-to-the-point-writer, and this can be a prime instance of that. I don’t need to die alone… which sounds fairly heavy however what I believe I’ve present in the previous couple of years is that I crave companionship and a larger function in issues outdoors of the obsession in my skilled life.
Life might be fairly lonely in your early 20s and discovering somebody that you would be able to share your highs lows and in-betweens with might be some of the worthwhile issues I’ve discovered and makes you a greater particular person. I believe significantly within the music trade your private {and professional} form of mix collectively and so extra so than ever I want somebody or one thing to care about and love outdoors of the work. I need to promote out the 02 however I additionally desire a farmhouse with my spouse and youngsters and some canine.
You started writing in the course of the lengthy winters at St. Andrews. How did isolation, and that individual setting, form the way in which you strategy songwriting even now?
Benjamin Steer: My time at college was definitely not one which I want to return to in some ways. It was a particularly aggressive setting and there have been little to no retailers. It was very isolating, and I felt, although I used to be surrounded by nice pals… it was lonely. I typically suppose that if my time at college was superb, I might have by no means picked up a guitar and I might have by no means began songwriting.
The primary track that I ever launched was a commentary on the numbness and isolation I felt throughout my time there however form of disguised within the feeling that you just all the time had put on a facade like life was nice and that you just had every thing discovered… when in actuality I had no concept what I actually wished to do and what made me excited and blissful.
You have been standing on the point of an economics profession earlier than a report deal shifted your path. What did selecting music over that future train you about threat, function, and belief in your self?
Benjamin Steer: I believe it was a giant threat, nevertheless it was one which I by no means actually thought twice about. I all the time wished to really feel like I used to be in charge of my future and that my success could be on account of the work that I had executed purely off my very own again.
I believe I’ve all the time tried to embody a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirt and I believe the music trade is form of the proper place to make that occur. You’ll be able to get up one morning and write a track or publish a video that may truly utterly change your life trajectory. You aren’t working with commodities which might be owned by anybody else, you’re the commodity, and the eye is the demand. It’s an interesting dynamic and the truth that your inherent creativity in songwriting which was already one thing I did as a passion and fervour – goes to be the explanation behind your success it makes it all of the extra thrilling.

“Muted Colours” turned your breakthrough. Whenever you take heed to it now, does it really feel like a reminder of who you have been then, or does it reveal new which means as your profession evolves?
Benjamin Steer: I believe “Muted Colours” was the unexpectedly excellent first track to place out. It served its excellent function within the time that it was written for me personally but in addition to point out an viewers the kind of music and messaging I wished to pursue.
I look again positively on it now for certain, however I don’t maintain a lot emotional attachment to my music as soon as it’s launched. It was the primary steppingstone in a protracted row to cross the river, and I’m so grateful that I might have even had the possibility to start out or embark on that journey.
I believe it labored as a result of it was simply trustworthy, it was one of many first songs I had ever written, and I didn’t actually have a reference level as to what was okay and what was not. I believe I do naturally cringe just a little bit listening again to it now as a result of I believe my type and tone has modified a bit, nevertheless it definitely was a incredible first step!
Your sold-out present at The Grace was a milestone second. Past the thrill, did it change the way in which you see your self as an artist?
Benjamin Steer: Oh completely! I believe it was one in all my biggest accomplishments in my profession but in addition personally to date… It is vitally arduous to tangibly quantify your success in music and to have individuals standing in entrance of me, singing songs that I’ve written in my bed room is among the most weird however superb experiences in my life to date.
I believe I all the time battle a bit with imposter syndrome – I’m actually only a man who writes songs about what he sees on the planet. It isn’t significantly groundbreaking stuff, however the truth that individuals hook up with it on the identical degree I do is unbelievable. I really feel unworthy.
You’ve shared phases with artists like Myles Smith and shortly Arthur Hill. How do these experiences affect the way in which you concentrate on your individual dwell presence and storytelling?
Benjamin Steer: Oh completely, they’re unimaginable individuals to be round. Very proficient however very pushed. They need to the most effective and they’re the most effective, and their medium is their music and private experiences. It’s superb to look at and shapes how I view myself within the trade – creatively but in addition in a enterprise and a hit context.


Your listeners typically describe your music as quietly cinematic. Do you see your self portray scenes with sound, or are you extra involved with emotional fact over imagery?
Benjamin Steer: I don’t actually are inclined to overly analyze my sound or messaging. Finally, I need individuals to connect with it and it may be lyrical or only a feeling. The track is a winner if it takes its personal form and kind out of my management – to be interpreted and shared by the listener in their very own private context.
The EP known as Figuring It Out. After writing and releasing it, what do you’re feeling you’ve discovered, and what questions are you continue to making an attempt to determine?
Benjamin Steer: Effectively not a lot I might say… I very a lot am nonetheless figuring it out. All I’ve discovered is that discovering one thing you like and one thing purposeful in life is the best key to happiness. I’m nonetheless looking, however I believe that I’m.
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:: join with Benjamin Steer right here ::
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© Andy Broadhurst
an EP by Benjamin Steer