Today we’d like to introduce you to Charles Benson.
Hi Charles, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am a musician and that’s really my story I’ve been playing guitar since 1992 when I was age 7. I’ve always known I wanted to play guitar since I was a little boy. I started playing the electric guitar in 1997 so I switched from acoustic to learning how to play heavier stuff because I started listening to metal around that time a band called Black Sabbath I’m sure you all know who that is. As early as age 13 I started writing instrumentals and well they weren’t recorded very well I would use two boomboxes to try to attempt dub tracking and it didn’t sound that great but hey when you’re 13 it’s fun.
I’ve been playing in bands on and off since the year 2001 I will admit I don’t think they were all that great in the past I was a teenager still learning how to be in a band I was better at playing by myself to be honest but I learned a lot and it made me into the musician that I am today and honestly my guitar playing drastically changed in the early 2000s when I met a friend of mine named John he was so much better than me that he literally helped me break my shred barrier so my plane drastically changed everything from me changing my technique cleaning it up using a pic and not finger-picking and learning how to do everything more proper that drastically improved my playing.
The main band I was in that really started getting traction was persecution complex which eventually became exalt the throne we were around with various lineup changes from 2011 to 2017 we were a mixed genre of melodic death metal and a little bit of operatic metal we started out with a male vocalist and then we eventually got a female singer in place of him and that’s when we went more operatic when we released our debut album and only album long live the king.
And then in 2017 the band broke up and I played in various projects since then.
2018 through 2022 I was in a band called benevolence and I am actually going to be on the upcoming album because I did record guitars for it you can find that band on Spotify. I was also in persecution complex again in 2020 with the original male singer and we were a bad for another 4 years we released an album called inquisitors bane.
My current band is called Benson it’s a solo project and we play instrumental Rock I’ve been doing this project since 2021 but really I’ve had all these instrumentals written on and off over the last probably 20 something years right now I have a really good light up and when the band started it was just me and backing tracks so things are growing so that’s kind of my story I’m a guitar player I’ve been playing guitar my whole life and my dad was the person that inspired me.
One side note the majority of the bands have been in were Christian themes because I take my faith very seriously.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s not been the smoothest road but you learn from experience and experience makes you a better performer a better band made etc.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I don’t want to talk about my boring day job I’ll just say it helps me pay the bills and I’m transitioning into the IT world I’ve been doing something else for the last 12 years.
But what I do and what I’m not at work is my music and writing on my books which I do plan to turn into podcast.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I’ve been reading the Left behind series well listening to it on audible.
I also enjoy Tower 4 and I enjoy the third threat and I also like listening to case 63 that’s a very cool sci-fi.
And I listen to Mr ballen’s stories because you never know what he’s going to talk about and of course the why files.
I neglected to mention that I listen to the entire 60 hour Lord of the rings audiobook that was incredible I don’t know how I forgot to mention that I know this is more than five sorry haha.
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