[00:00] Speaker 1: (music plays) This is Bringing the Darkness to the Light with Katherine Nadal, professional psychic medium.

[00:12] Speaker 2: Today's guest is René Benton. He is a vocalist and guitarist. It is a pleasure to have you on, René.

[00:18] Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

[00:19] Speaker 2: Ah. Thank you so much. I know, thank you to Munsey Rissi from Skateboard Marketing. I have the opportunity to meet you and to chat with you about your really impressive, really impressive bio and your whole career. It looks like you started out your life similar to me, like in the military.

[00:38] Speaker 3: Really? Okay, yeah. Yup, uh, I was, I was in the Marines. I did that. The few, the proud, and the crazy, 'cause you have to be crazy to go in the Marine Corps voluntarily. So, there is that. I've always kind of been involved with music, but I didn't get serious about it until a little later on when people said, "Hey, you need to get out of the Marine Corps and you need to do something with music." I had no idea what they were talking about and, uh, just one thing leading to another and got into being a side guy, touring guy. I still do that. And then the solo thing kind of developed itself over time, and that's kind of why I'm talking to you.

[01:13] Speaker 2: Wow. So when you were younger, before the military, were you always a guitarist?

[01:19] Speaker 3: Yeah. I started playing guitar when I was maybe seven years old. Never had an awkward moment with a guitar. Meaning, the moment they gone through my hands, I knew what to do with it, and that's because one of my influences I used to watch on TV playing guitar, which was Roy Clark from Hee Haw. So I studied his hands, so I knew what to do with a guitar before I knew, even what the strings were on a guitar, and that started the journey right there. And just went from there and just playing, uh, TV theme songs and playing songs on the radio and then playing my siblings' records or parents' records, whatever was around, and I just kinda built it from there.

[02:00] Speaker 2: Wow. That's so interesting. Yeah. I remember Hee Haw. (laughs)

[02:03] Speaker 3: Do you? Do you remember that? (laughs)

[02:04] Speaker 2: I remember it. Yes, I do. I do. I do. And, you know, that's when I find that things in life are almost like meant to be, because I've interviewed quite a lot of guitarists. There's very few of them that describe the experience like you, but there's more often they really had to take lessons or that they really had to follow a sibling or they really had to figure out what they were doing, you know? So when I hear a story like yours, it's almost like it's meant to be, that you were really meant to play.

[02:38] Speaker 3: Yeah. It was, uh, a combination. Meant to be, and then it was nurtured pretty heavily. You had to kind of put your hands to the plow, so to speak, and learn things the hard way, school of hard knocks. I lived right across the alley, not the street, across the alley from an actual music studio, they taught piano, guitar, and voice. I'm talking three steps away from my back door. Never took lessons. The reason I didn't take lesson is because I thought they would ruin me with the formal training. That was silly of me, but that's what I thought at the time because unlike nowadays, they didn't have all these cool guitar instructors. They didn't have that then. I mean, they had Clementine, Mary Had a Little Lamb, E-A-D-G. That's what they had back in the day. Music instructors got cooler over time. That was not happening when I was younger, so therefore, even though my parents said, "Look, there's... You can see it right there.

[03:32] Speaker 3: You just could walk across." I didn't wanna do it, so I just learned the way I knew how to learn. Later on, I, I learned some theory and things of that nature, but early on, I did not.

[03:43] Speaker 2: Wow. That's so interesting. So with that description, would you consider yourself someone who kind of plays by ear?

[03:49] Speaker 3: I would say most of the time, yes. Every now and again, I'll, I'll look at a piece of music and say, "Oh, that's what that note is." But for the most part, it's by ear, but I need something written out, uh, I'll tap into someone else and say, "Hey, can you write this out for me?" A few years back, 2018, I wro- I wrote a string section for this artist I know out of Sweden, and I had a string quartet out of Belarus record it. And one of the, I guess, uh, the cello player, whatever she wa- was, she wrote the music out and gave it to me. She said, "This is what your music looks like." I said, "Oh. That looks pretty complicated." Uh, (laughs) so, so that's, that's the extent of it. I, yeah, I don't do it all the time, but yeah.

[04:33] Speaker 2: So getting back to when you kind of feel like you said, "Okay. I'm gonna probably do music for a career," how did you get involved and who did you start working with, like, right out the gate?

[04:45] Speaker 3: Well, th- the whole thing, I didn't know I was gonna do it for a career. It was literally people kept encouraging me to do so. I didn't have the inspiration to do it. I just, I... It wasn't on my radar. But as fate would have it, it was a childhood friend of mine moved to Atlanta. He was g- going down there to join people he was in the Army with. They had a band when he was in the Army, and he said he was going down there. He says, "You need to come with me." He said, "If you don't, you'll regret it for the rest of your life." That was what he said. Now, at this time, I'm fresh out of the Marine Corps, maybe, gosh, three years, maybe, something like that. And I was working, uh, I was working in the field of psychology. Let, let us say a psychiatric hospital. That was my field. I, I love psy- psychology and psychiatry. I love psychiatry because I remember watching the, uh, Charlie Brown Peanuts and Lucy had the little booth that said, "Psychiatrist 5 cents." (laughs) So.

[05:43] Speaker 3: (laughs)

[05:43] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[05:43] Speaker 3: So, so that's how I learned how to spell the word, and then as fate would have it, I took a real interest in, in that field. So, I was starting my journey with that, and they were gonna send me back to school and all this good stuff, and my buddy says he's going to Atlanta, and I went back to my apartment that day and I stared at the ceiling and said...... okay, I think I'm going to do this. Gave a two-week notice at my job, and that started the journey. It was like that. And then from there, I learned about the touring musician circuit. So I was one of those guys. I did the hotel circuit, Ramada, Ramada Inn, Holiday Inn, that type of thing there. So I played in all the top 40 bands with the matching outfits and doing the dance steps. I did that. So that progressed over time to getting other gigs with sort of folks who were a little more known. That led into me... someone asking me two questions. They asked do I teach guitar, and do I have any music of my own?

[06:45] Speaker 3: And I said, "Well, I can teach, and, uh, no, I don't have any music of my own." And they said, "You really need to have something of your own." I started recording demos. I just sent them out. I'm going way back when I'm talking about sending out demos, obviously. And I started hearing from record companies. Now, back then, so we're talking early '90s, back then if you heard from a record company, it was quite a big deal. And so, I started hearing from major record labels, and I remember I heard from Metal Blade Records, which is the leading metal label, to this day, one of the leading metal labels. I still have the postcard they sent me. And I heard from Epic Records, the label Michael Jackson was on, and they just thought I was interesting, right, just, just off a demo tape. And I just put that away 'cause I was still a working musician and stuff, just getting hired by whomever needed a guitar player at the time.

[07:36] Speaker 3: And that's how I ended up touring to over 70 countries is by playing with a lot of different people. But always kind of kept abreast on my solo or original side because they say if you don't express that side of you, you'll eventually just let it die. I didn't want that to happen, and so I just kind of kept up with it here and there. I recorded but never released anything. I recorded something, say, '96, '97, didn't release that recording until 2016. I waited that long because other things were happening that it took that amount of time for me to even understand what was going on. I wasn't really striving to be a solo artist or anything. I didn't really... I'm a band guy. I'm more tied into that whole thing. So being a solo guy had always made me feel very awkward. It always made me feel awkward to this day where it's just my name as opposed to a band name. I had to kind of grow into those boots, so to speak.

[08:33] Speaker 3: One thing kind of led to another, and to another, and to another, and to another, and I've only released three records to this day. I've recorded with a lot of other folks, but for me, only three records. And the last one was 2023, which was a live record. That's what kind of led me with knowing Moncey for about 10 years, Moncey leads me to you, and so, that's somewhat part of the journey. That's how it started, just really doing hotel gigs, traveling around, led to one thing to another.

[09:03] Speaker 2: Wow. And it's so exciting though when you think about it 'cause you really reflected on making the decision by yourself, you know, like you still have that memory of looking up at the ceiling thinking, you know, "Well, if I do this, what will my life look like?" And it looks like you made the right decision.

[09:21] Speaker 3: (laughs) Yeah, one can say that. (laughs) So, one can say that for sure. Uh-

[09:29] Speaker 2: I would have to say so. I mean, I'm looking at your bio, and it says you've played in 42 states and over 70 countries to date.

[09:35] Speaker 3: All over the place, yes indeed.

[09:36] Speaker 2: And some of the names that are in this bio of people that you've been either friends with, or affiliated with, or played with, you've done a lot of work. Tell me some stories about some of the times when they had asked you to join their band or play with them.

[09:53] Speaker 3: Let me think. I have some... Uh, let me see, the ones I could say out loud. The one of... One of the opportunities came to me, uh, I was with this band, and I don't say the band, but they were playing in San Antonio, Texas. This was early '90s. And I... my name was on a Rolodex at this agency out of Minneapolis, and, um, apparently, this guitar player, incredible guitar player, he was playing, doing his thing, I guess standing on a ledge or whatever, and he... I guess he made a... uh, either he winked at this woman or made some eyes or whatever, this... and it was this woman's husband or boyfriend jumped up, punched him in his jaw, and broke his jaw. I get a call.

[10:38] Speaker 3: (laughs) They said, "We need a guitar player ASAP." I said, "What happened to the other one?" They said, "Oh, a guy broke his jaw." (laughs) So I literally had no real time to pack up and, and get my stuff together and get to the airport, which at the time was an hour away, and they just flew me first class to San Antonio, and I jump on the stage, and, and there we go.

[11:02] Speaker 2: Wow.

[11:02] Speaker 3: That's one of the... Yeah. Yep.

[11:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, so that, that-

[11:05] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[11:05] Speaker 2: ... that's a testimony to your skill and your talent because not just being able to jump up and run over there, you know, with very little notice, but to then think, "Oh, what is their setlist gonna look like? Like, do I know how to play their songs?"

[11:21] Speaker 3: (laughs)

[11:21] Speaker 2: I mean, the amount of pressure to that is just insane.

[11:25] Speaker 3: I had hours, right? Because keep in mind, we didn't, didn't have computers. There are no computers. There's no-

[11:30] Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah.

[11:32] Speaker 3: ... "Hey, I'm gonna send you this and do that."

[11:32] Speaker 2: You didn't have the internet, yep. (laughs)

[11:34] Speaker 3: No internet, right? So they're giving me the songs over the phone, and it's not as if I can go to the internet and learn them, right? So that's the thing. I was doing things off of sight and memory as if, "Oh, I heard that song before. Oh, I heard that song before." It was literally like that.

[11:51] Speaker 2: Yes.

[11:52] Speaker 3: It, yeah, it took me some time.

[11:52] Speaker 2: So that's why playing by ear is part of your journey, because someone who can't play by ear could not be able to pull that off most likely.

[12:02] Speaker 3: Unless they just kind of had a repertoire stored up in their head somewhere.

[12:06] Speaker 2: (laughs) Yeah. It's probably not very likely, exactly. (laughs)

[12:11] Speaker 3: (laughs)

[12:11] Speaker 2: Yeah. But for the younger audience, you know, they can't picture a world without YouTube, you know.

[12:17] Speaker 3: Right.

[12:17] Speaker 2: And there are so many resources now, you know. Someone could say, "Where did you hear this song?" And someone will say, "Spotify," you know, or the, or Apple, or YouTube, or whatever. Like, there's so many places to find music now-

[12:30] Speaker 3: Yes.

[12:30] Speaker 2: ... that you could learn a song if you really wanted to, you know. There's actually guys on YouTube that tell you how to actually play that song. I mean, it's a-

[12:38] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[12:38] Speaker 2: ... it's a full tutorial right there in front of you, so.

[12:42] Speaker 3: Thank you.

[12:42] Speaker 2: But, you know, in the days we were living, in the '80s and '90s, that was not happening, so wow.

[12:48] Speaker 3: Not at all.

[12:48] Speaker 2: So you probably made a really big splash with that band. They were probably very impressed with you.

[12:54] Speaker 3: We're friends to this day. (laughs) We're friends to this day-

[12:58] Speaker 2: That is so great.

[12:58] Speaker 3: ... because of that. And I did the Vegas circuit. I played with a one-hit wonder in Vegas, and I played with a variety of bands doing that. In Vegas, what people don't really understand is that when you're in Vegas, they're trying to duplicate as close as they can to a recording. That's why you have all the tribute acts and you have this, that, and the other. Well, as a lowly guitar player, what your job is to, is to sound like the recording. I'm not talking about notes. I'm talking about the sound itself. A band I was with in Atlanta, a young lady really got me tuned into the sound that you hear on the record, duplicating what you hear, not just the notes. And in Vegas, I got a lot of opportunities because I was the guy that had the ability to sound like a record, sitting there and tweaking sounds and all that stuff. Most guitar players don't do that.

[13:50] Speaker 3: They play the song correctly, but they're not gonna spend all that time to try and sound like all the stuff that's going on on a record. And I always took a great pride and joy-

[14:02] Speaker 2: Sure.

[14:02] Speaker 3: ... in being able to do that, so my Vegas run was incredible.

[14:07] Speaker 2: Wow. That's so impressive. I wanna start talking about your own music. I'm kind of really interested in this. The first song that we've selected to discuss is called Love is Pain, so tell me how that song kind of came about.

[14:23] Speaker 3: Okay. So, Love is Pain is an interesting song for this reason. It's not written from personal experience. It's just third-person type of stuff. And I wanna say the late '90s is when I wrote that. A buddy of mine was going through a divorce. Generally, when it comes to divorce, you never really... Guys don't really talk about how they feel. It's usually women. So I just happened to just hear, just here and there, of what he was going through. He never said it directly to me, but I heard it. And so, I was just... I'd take what he's saying, and I, I kinda made it more poetic, is what I did. When the song was assembled, I never wanted it for myself. There are two people I had in mind when I wrote this song because I wanted the voice to be a certain way. It was Glenn Danzig and Peter Steele, rest in peace. Those are the two people I wrote that song for. I just never got it to them. So, the only thing I could do was play the song and use my voice as a demo for how it should be.

[15:26] Speaker 3: I didn't really know how to reach out to people at that time, and so it just never worked out. So I just held onto the song. And, uh, never released it, recorded it, just kind of kept it, kept it, kept it. When it came time for me to do something musically again, I said, "I wanna do a live record, and I wanna do it in my home state and home city." I hadn't performed in many, many years in that area. So, when this, when I did the song, I said, "I gotta s- try and emulate those guys 'cause it really won't work any other way, but I wanna fuse myself in there as well." And so that's how Love is Pain came to be. It's not written in a normal song format. There's no chorus. The hook itself is just the "Love is pain," just saying that word over and over again. It's one of the very few songs in existence that has no hook.

[16:15] Speaker 2: Wow. So how would you consider that in all of your music? Is that song something that you would say is, like, one of your best works? Or was it something that you felt that you stepped out of, you know, your normal way of songwriting?

[16:32] Speaker 3: I don't know if it's my best work 'cause I don't know if I've done my best work yet, but I, I can say this much. It is the most poetic to date because I had to write something that had no hook, turn it into a song, and just make some part of it catchy, right? 'Cause you have... Something's gotta be catchy about the song, right? So, I'd say it's my most poetic thing to date. I can't think of anything else I've ever even touched that had that level of, if you take the music away and just read it, it sounds like a, a dirge or something like that. That, I will say.

[17:05] Speaker 2: Okay, great. So we're gonna play Love is Pain now.

[17:14] Speaker 4: (Rock music playing)

[17:15] Speaker 3: Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! (Rock music playing) My love is pain. A bloody valentine. No sun, just black rain. Joy is no friend of mine. A castrated feeling. A feeling I cannot hide.

[18:15] Speaker 1: My eyes are seeing pictures of you and me. This love, this pain. A cloudy and dreary day. Blind closed on my windows. I wanna just run away. These memories just haunt me. Don't let me escape my reel. No light, oh, no hope, babe. I wonder how do you feel. Are there any figures in your book any figures in... ? I keep a picture of you in my head. Hand in hand in the park. Waking up from this is what I dread. I'd rather stay in the dark. (guitar solo) . This love, all of this pain. Nothing to lose, nothing to gain. I keep a picture in my head. This love, this pain. Oh. Oh.

[20:42] Speaker 1: (instrumental music plays)

[21:41] Speaker 2: When I really review your career, there's a lot of names that are in this bio. Uh, from Chubby Checker to, (laughs) I mean, Nuno Bettencourt. I mean, there's so many names here that are popping up off the page. Do you have any particular artists that you worked with that really took you by surprise? Like, sometimes you have, like, an idea of someone, and then you go and you spend time with them, and you're like, "Oh, I didn't realize this about them." Do you have one of those experiences?

[22:13] Speaker 3: No surprises yet. Everybody that I've encountered in a six degree of separation type of way, I haven't, hadn't been surprised yet. They were exactly what I thought they were. Exactly who I thought they were. (laughs) No surprises at all. (laughs) So-

[22:26] Speaker 2: That's, that's good sometimes, right? (laughs) You don't want the surprise.

[22:31] Speaker 3: Yeah. Yes.

[22:31] Speaker 2: Was there also an artist that may have showed you something, or enhanced your playing in a way that you didn't imagine going into the situation?

[22:41] Speaker 3: Oh. You, you had me thinking now. Uh-

[22:43] Speaker 2: It's an interesting question, you know-

[22:45] Speaker 3: Uh, it is, it is.

[22:45] Speaker 2: ... because a lot of times we kind of fall into what we're used to. And then we see someone doing something, and then, "Oh, you know, I never thought of trying it that way," you know? Sometimes it's just the way someone talks through something that gives you, like, an idea of something.

[23:04] Speaker 3: So, I guess there's one young lady I worked with. She's out of Sweden, her name is GG Hamilton. I met her while I was in Japan, over there for six months, had a house gig over there, and it was one of those stories where you hear about these stories but they never happen to you, where you're playing in a club and somebody discovers you. We've all heard that story, and that's essentially what happened to me. I'm playing this club in Japan. This woman comes in there, she's just sitting, looking very ordinary. And a couple other guys in the band, somehow she contacted them. Well, then she con- somehow got in contact with me, and I went to her house. At the time, her children were very young. And she sends me back to her room, her music room where she's recording and stuff. And I look up, and all I see are gold and platinum records lined up along this, kind of near the ceiling. And I said, "Who is this person?" I didn't know who she was.

[23:57] Speaker 3: And so, when working with her, I've always put an emphasis on song. I always have. I put song before shop, so to speak. With her, it was 100% about music, where every chord had to match a mood. I never went that deeply, I just played chords. I said, "Well, theoretically this works here, this works here, this works here." I never thought about it... Until I met her...... where I thought about how important one chord could be for a song, so I... That's probably my biggest takeaway as far as working with another individual, or something that has gone on with me for a long time now.

[24:40] Speaker 2: Wow, that's really an incredible story, though, because what I heard in that was that she had a way of bringing out something powerful in you, and tapping into something that is almost unrelated to music, how you, like, were very involved in psychology, and by playing like that, it's almost going into the emotions of those chords, in a way. That's how I heard. (laughs) I don't know if that makes sense to you, but it's really going to, like, the emotions of it by kind of y- your description.

[25:17] Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. It tapped into another nerve, for sure, thinking of it in those terms, because as I said, most musicians, we just think of, "Well, this chord goes with this chord. This chord goes with this chord." At no point have we thought, at least not me, where I thought how much a chord can alter a mood. Never. I just played-

[25:40] Speaker 2: Wow.

[25:40] Speaker 3: ... took that away from her, a- and it works.

[25:42] Speaker 2: Wow.

[25:42] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[25:43] Speaker 2: That's really next-level stuff. So-

[25:45] Speaker 3: It is.

[25:45] Speaker 2: ... I wanted to bring up another song that you had done called Push Pull. Tell me about that song.

[25:51] Speaker 3: Yeah. So Push Pull, I wrote that, particularly that music, that song was for film or TV. That's what it was originally done for, and so (laughs) I ended up actually putting the song together, spoke with the company, and I didn't like the contract that they offered me 'cause they, they told me exactly what they wanted. They said, "We need a song that's kind of a hard charging song, uh, very upfront and everything like that," and so that's in- initially what it was for. The idea of it came from, have you ever seen, um, by accident, The World's Strongest Man competition type of stuff?

[26:39] Speaker 2: Yes, I have. (laughs)

[26:39] Speaker 3: Where guys are doing these-

[26:42] Speaker 2: Yes, I have. Yes.

[26:43] Speaker 3: ... really crazy, crazy things.

[26:44] Speaker 2: Yes.

[26:44] Speaker 3: And so I was watching, I just happened to be watching. The volume was down, and I was watching this guy, I think he was lifting a car. It was something like that. And I'm going, "He's pushing, and he's pulling. He's pushing and pulling. Pushing, pulling," and it just somehow got, that got stuck in my head. And so what I'm watching, I put music to me watching The World's Strongest Man competition. It was my musical interpretation of what they're doing. That's how it came to be.

[27:14] Speaker 2: Wow, that's cool. So was it picked up for a movie or anything like that?

[27:19] Speaker 3: It never got used for that. (laughs) It n- never did. But I said-

[27:24] Speaker 2: It was a good motivator.

[27:24] Speaker 3: ... it's a really good song. I didn't want it to go to waste.

[27:26] Speaker 2: Exactly, exactly. It's, sometimes-

[27:27] Speaker 3: I didn't want it to go to waste. (laughs)

[27:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, but sometimes it's just the motivation 'cause if you didn't-

[27:32] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[27:32] Speaker 2: ... have that assignment in some sort of a way, you wouldn't have even found that song, so that's cool.

[27:38] Speaker 3: Very true.

[27:38] Speaker 2: Wow.

[27:39] Speaker 3: Very true.

[27:39] Speaker 2: Very good.

[27:39] Speaker 3: There, yes.

[27:39] Speaker 2: So we're gonna, we're gonna play Push Pull now by René Benton.

[27:44] Speaker 3: All right. (heavy metal music plays) (audience cheers) (audience applauds) (whistle blows)

[30:28] Speaker 2: You know, it's, it's so amazing to review your career, and to listen to the way you talk about your stories, because I can just tell, you're not just talented but you're probably a really fun person to work with.

[30:42] Speaker 3: I have yet to have any complaints. (laughs)

[30:46] Speaker 2: (laughs) That's ... And especially with touring now.

[30:49] Speaker 3: (laughs)

[30:49] Speaker 2: I have many friends that have toured for years, and they-

[30:53] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

[30:53] Speaker 2: ... always say, you know, you really have to have the right personalities, because just the touring can break people down, you know?

[31:01] Speaker 3: It definitely can, 100%, because you're dealing with personalities. Uh, sometimes people don't understand, you spend more time, uh, if, if you're touring on a certain level, you spend more time with your band mates and crew than you do with your own family. So you, you have to get along.

[31:16] Speaker 2: Correct.

[31:16] Speaker 3: It's a chemistry thing, for sure.

[31:18] Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.

[31:19] Speaker 3: Um, so-

[31:20] Speaker 2: Yes.

[31:20] Speaker 3: ... people say I'm very easy to get along with and stuff like that, so, uh-

[31:23] Speaker 2: Yes.

[31:24] Speaker 3: ... that's the type of things I can do.

[31:24] Speaker 2: Well, you sound like you're fun. (laughs)

[31:27] Speaker 3: (laughs)

[31:27] Speaker 2: You sound like you're fun.

[31:28] Speaker 3: (laughs)

[31:28] Speaker 2: So talking about touring, your next song-

[31:31] Speaker 3: Awesome.

[31:31] Speaker 2: ... that we were gonna discuss is called East Meets West. So does that have to do with touring, or what is that?

[31:39] Speaker 3: Um ...

[31:39] Speaker 2: It's intriguing.

[31:41] Speaker 3: Okay. So 2013, I was touring north- Northern Europe. I met a young lady. We ended up getting together. She was my fiancée. She, she, she ended the relationship, not me. But anyway, (laughs) I met her over in, in Northern Europe, and, uh, we just kind of exchanged information and we hit it off. She's originally from New Delhi, India, but she was living in Chicago. I'm living in Arizona. I was fond of her. She was fond of me. This is around the same time where I was putting this music together, uh, for this TV and film stuff, just trying to build that. So I thought of her Eastern culture and my Western culture, and I wrote the song from that perspective. That's why I use a certain, uh, instrumentation, certain rhythm patterns, and, uh, even certain samples to really push that about. Uh, but that's not just, just Eastern with not India, but just all of East, East, Far East. I wanted that, and I wanted the real Western influence to kick in.

[32:44] Speaker 3: And so that was the inspiration behind that song.

[32:49] Speaker 5: (East Meets West by The Scissors playing)

[35:52] Speaker 5: .

[35:52] Speaker 2: So that song probably has a lot of meaning for you, because it's based on memories.

[35:57] Speaker 3: Absolutely. That never would have happened if, if I had met her, never would have happened. That song never would have came to be, 'cause I wouldn't have pulled from that area of my brain.

[36:05] Speaker 2: Who in the music industry that you thought, "Maybe I could play with," and you didn't get to play with, but now you often think back that it would have been great to play with?

[36:18] Speaker 3: I don't think there's ever been anyone I wanted to play with, that I could think of. There's just people who inspired me to want to emulate parts of what they do. Um-

[36:28] Speaker 2: Yeah, who are they?

[36:30] Speaker 3: Well, one of my guitar influences is Roy Clarke, I, I touched on that earlier, because he was always smiling when he was playing. And he's the only guitar player that I ever saw on TV on a regular basis that I knew by name. And I wanted to take the bits and pieces from him. I found out later on he smiled be- because he was nervous. So, I found myself smiling when I get nervous- (laughs)

[36:54] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[36:54] Speaker 3: ... (laughs) so, when I'm playing.

[36:56] Speaker 2: Ah.

[36:56] Speaker 3: So I just took those bits and pieces from him and those, those types of things there e- and, and, and that list is so broad where I just borrow bits and pieces from different people who I look up to and say, "Okay, I'm gonna take a piece of this, I'm gonna take a piece of that, I'm gonna take a piece of this, piece of that," and you just sort of make a gumbo and make it yours. So, that's been my angle, I guess, borrowing bits and pieces from people I admire.

[37:24] Speaker 2: Wow. That's great. Tell me about the song Nation of Struggle.

[37:28] Speaker 3: I started going in and out of Haiti in the '90s. I was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As they say, it's the, it's the poorest country in the Western hemisphere per capita or something like that. It was the first time that I could think of where I saw a lot of people walking around with no shoes on. I've seen people when you're younger and you're at home and people can just kind of come outside with no shoes on, but I've never seen people walk distances with no shoes on. And so, I just kind of was looking around and stuff like that, and I'd never seen that level of poverty. Being where ... I'm just from the United States, of course we have poverty, but I'd never seen that level of poverty. And so, I was just looking around, looking around, looking around. Come upon this older guy. I think he's just playing guitar. I don't even think the guitar had all the strings on it. And he was just playing this, this, just whatever he was playing, and I just sat there and I watched and I listened.

[38:25] Speaker 3: I said, "I have no idea what he's playing, but he seemed to be very much into it." So between me listening to this guy, being in Haiti, I w- well use the song, the original title was called Haitian Nation. I changed it to Nation of Struggle because it has a more universal name to it, because any nation can be struggling. That's how I wrote that song and that is why it has a brass medal vibe, it has a, a reggae island vibe, it has a country vibe, it has the kind of a fusion jazz vibe. And it's a song I, not forcefully, but I just naturally segueway into these different realms of music to create one cohesive song. And so, being in that country and listen to a guy just playing on a guitar with no... all... with missing strings inspired that song.

[39:19] Speaker 2: Wow. That is really incredible. And what brought you to Haiti? I know you said that you had made several trips there, but why were you there?

[39:28] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Touring.

[39:29] Speaker 2: Oh, okay, good. Yeah. That's right. So, it's the 70 countries, Haiti was just one of them. So, was that like... I know you said, like, you saw the real struggle there, but in-

[39:42] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[39:42] Speaker 2: ... seeing so many different countries, that was probably the one that left the lasting impact with you. Is that correct?

[39:50] Speaker 3: Yes. Uh, I remember when I went there in, I think, 2001 I went to Dubai, and I, I remember telling my dad, I said, "I never saw real poverty till I went to Haiti, and I never saw real wealth until I went to Dubai."

[40:03] Speaker 2: Yes. That I understand.

[40:04] Speaker 3: Never. Never.

[40:05] Speaker 2: Yes.

[40:06] Speaker 3: Never. We have the Forbes list of riches. They have that list because they can calculate people's wealth. Over there you can't calculate the wealth because it's too much. You can't calculate.

[40:17] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

[40:17] Speaker 3: You can't calculate biblical level wealth. You can't. There's no way to put numbers with it. So, I was over there for five months and I had a gig at this place called the Royal Mirage Hotel. I think it's still there. I remember we're in this van, one of those slim Euro type vans, really skinny, and we're passing by this palace, and I remember it was a palace, either it was gold, gold plate type of palaces, kinda the same thing they do over in Russia. I remember we were going about 40 miles an hour. It took five minutes to get past this palace. Now, ask yourself this question. How long does it take you to drive past a house?

[40:55] Speaker 2: Yes. I under-

[40:55] Speaker 3: Any house.

[40:56] Speaker 2: ... I understand that concept. Yes.

[40:58] Speaker 3: Seconds.

[40:59] Speaker 2: Yes.

[41:00] Speaker 3: M-

[41:00] Speaker 2: Yes.

[41:01] Speaker 3: Five minutes to get past this palace. It was just... I couldn't believe the driver was saying, "This is the Sheik's palace." And apparently, the way these palaces get so big is that in America we have what we call, w- "Oh, we're gonna add an addition." Well, they do the same concept, but their addition is not like our addition. Their additions go for centuries. We just have a few years on ours. So, (laughs) so, (laughs) so, (laughs) I'm looking at this five... going past this place in five minutes and, and it was just land, and it was just emptiness, and you could kinda see the ocean, and before I knew it, we were kinda at the hotel. I said, "Okay, that's...

[41:39] Speaker 3: that's a level of wealth that I can't really understand." So-

[41:43] Speaker 2: Wow.

[41:43] Speaker 3: ... Dubai and Haiti, different parts of the world, different circumstances, but yeah, so, but anyway, yeah, Nation of Struggle was definitely inspired by, uh, Haiti.

[41:52] Speaker 2: So we are gonna play Nation of Struggle now. (upbeat music)

[42:40] Speaker 6: (instrumental music plays)

[49:56] Speaker 2: Before we finish the interview-

[49:59] Speaker 3: Okay.

[49:59] Speaker 2: ... tell me about what the plans are for your next year. What do you have coming up in the near future?

[50:06] Speaker 3: Well, April 10th, um, kicks off the, uh, Three Shredders Tour. It is myself, another guitarist named Matt Miller, and another one named Manuel. First date is April 10th, uh, in Dallas. And Distilled Entertainment, we're all under the same umbrella, they put that together for us. So that's the next immediate thing right now. I'm sort of getting ready for that. So that should be great because this record was recorded in 2023, released at the end of 2024, and promoted pretty much halfway through 2025. So it's only fitting to get out here and see what it can really do. So that's what's going on in the very, very near future.

[50:45] Speaker 2: Very exciting. So tell me about the song Inner City Blues.

[50:50] Speaker 3: I, I grew up listening a lot of R&B and soul, and Marvin Gaye is one of my favorite soul singers, always has been. There was a bit of social unrest in the '90s. I'm not a political guy at all, but there was a little bit of social unrest. And we didn't have the internet again, so I would just every now and again turn on the TV and I'd see a lot of different stuff going on. Marvin Gaye wrote this song called Inner City Blues, and it's such a prophetic song lyrically, and it always stood out to me. And I said, "I'd like to do that song, but I want to rearrange it, give it a modern approach." Not only that, but totally change the genre with it too. And that's what the motivation was. It was just, it had to do with what was going on during a certain period of time, and the song just fit and I just made it fit me.

[51:39] Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah. You really have, um, not just talent and skill, but you... From what I can tell from your conversations and how you approach songs, you really have a message that you've been following in your life. It touches on so much humanity that it is really, you know, something to note. You know, a lot of people do not have that, and that comes from people that are very soulful.

[52:05] Speaker 3: I try to lead a right by Holy Spirit type of life, you know. I just go- I'm out here just doing whatever, so that could have a lot to do with it. Hopefully, I ended up in the right places at the right time.

[52:17] Speaker 2: I want you to plug your social media. Tell people where they can find your music, what social media platforms you're on.

[52:25] Speaker 3: I am everywhere, okay. First things first, go to reneebenton.net. That's a hub there. That way you'll see all those different links to where you can stream or download the music. On the socials, go to reneebenton.net for that. Go to Facebook, Instagram, or just Google me and just buy up everything of mine. Everything. Everything.

[52:48] Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah. Well, I'm definitely checking out all your music, which is really great.

[52:53] Speaker 3: Thanks so much.

[52:53] Speaker 2: It has been a pleasure to have you on. Thank you again. I look forward to seeing you-

[52:58] Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.

[52:58] Speaker 2: ... with your shredding, uh, tour in-

[53:01] Speaker 3: (laughs) Thank you.

[53:01] Speaker 2: ... uh, Texas, and we're gonna roll out now with Inner City Blues. Thank you again, Rene.

[53:07] Speaker 3: Thank you, Kathlyn.

[53:08] Speaker 2: Thank you.

[53:10] Speaker 7: (Instrumental music playing)

[53:33] Speaker 3: A hardened steel. Too painful to stop now. Take aim at nothing so I shoot everything in sight. A hardened steel. Too painful to stop now. Take aim at nothing so I shoot everything in sight. Hit the club on the night shift. Rockets, moon shots. Split it all, but have nots. Money, we make it. Before we see it, you take it. Oh, makes me wanna holler the way they took my life. Makes me wanna holler the way they took my life. No, no, baby.

[54:57] Speaker 8: (singing) You gave me one chance to increase finance. Built my luck sky high. Sent it all to die. Oh, maybe one harp, throw up both my hands. Maybe one harp, throw up both my hands. Crime increasing. Trigger happy policing. Panic is spreading. God knows where we're headed. (instrumental music plays) (radio noise plays) (singing) Drop its boot shots. Spit it all to have much. One day, we'd make it. Before we see it, you take it. Oh, maybe one harp, throw up both my hands. Maybe one harp, throw up both my hands. Maybe one harp, throw up both my hands. Maybe one harp, throw up both, throw up both, throw up both my hands. (instrumental music plays) Hit me!

[57:54] Speaker 8: (instrumental music plays)

[58:11] Speaker 9: You have been listening to Bringing the Darkness to the Light with Katherine Nadal, professional psychic medium, Dream Central Station, LLC. My audio editor is Al Hemberger at the Loft Recording Studios in Bronxville, New York. This is WNEW 102.7 FM Radio.