Benson Boone

www.bensonboone.com/

For Benson Boone, Fireworks & Rollerblades contains numerous meanings. Not only does the title of his debut album come from one of his favorite lyrics on the record, but it also captures the 21-year-old’s meteoric rise.

“The last two years of my life, after writing music and releasing music, have happened so fast, and it’s so unexpected for me,” Boone says. “I never really thought this would be what my life would look like two years ago. It’s taken off really fast, and it just reminds me of fireworks tied to rollerblades, like a rocket ship taking off.”

Growing up in Monroe, Washington, Boone didn’t know what he wanted out of life besides having a job that felt as fun as it did fulfilling. After family dinners, his parents would play the “Hooked on a Feeling” Pandora station for him and his sisters, introducing the young boy to artists like Billy Joel, Aretha Franklin and Earth, Wind & Fire. As he would get older, he would be drawn to big-voiced modern artists like Adele and Sam Smith.

“The main similarity between all the artists that I grew up listening to was that their voice was the main instrument,” he explains. “I took that into consideration when I started writing my own music. It’s ingrained in me to have a big voice and go for notes that people don’t usually go for and make something that people don’t usually hear, because that’s what I grew up listening to.”

It wasn’t until his junior year of high school, in 2019, when he learned he could sing like his heroes. His friends asked him to perform in a battle of the bands competition, setting Boone on a path to eventually pursuing music full time. A few years later, Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds would take Boone under his wing, inviting the budding talent out to Las Vegas and eventually signing him to Night Street Records in partnership with Warner Records.

Boone has been in the studio for the last two years writing, recording and figuring out his musical identity. He has released two EPs and cracked the Hot 100 with his debut single “Ghost Town.” No session in the studio was done with the intention of an album, until he wrote “Hello Love” and the lyric, “I could try to save you but my mind ain’t safe/Like two fireworks tied to a rollerblade.” Once he had a name, Boone’s debut started to finally form.

“I wasn’t writing these songs to fit a certain sound or fit a certain thing, and that’s why I love it so much,” he says. “This album is a compilation of songs that feel the truest to me and songs that I love the most. That’s really all I wanted for this album. You only get one first album.”

Over half the songs were written with songwriter Jack LaFrantz, who has become one of Boone’s best friends. “He has made songwriting and being in the studio such a pleasure to me,” the singer says. Producers Jason Evigan, Evan Blair, Jason Suwito, Captain Cuts and Malay were also part of the process in creating this powerful set of music, that captures Boone’s astute pop ear and penchant for an in-your-face sonic gut-punch.

“Something that I truly do believe is that I can write a good song, but I know that with the people that are on this album, if I start an idea, or if I can’t think of something, I know that I can make something even better with them,” Boone praises his associates. “I’m grateful for everyone that was a part of this album.”

With LaFrantz and Blair, Boone wrote “Beautiful Things,” a single that has completely helped his rocket ship of a career go to the moon. Released in January, “Beautiful Things” has become a Number One hit around the globe, peaking at Number Two on the Billboard Hot 100 and spending several weeks at Number One on the Billboard Global 200 chart. Boone had been teasing the song on TikTok, and it debuted in the Top 20 its first week. At the time, that was already one big dream come true. He couldn’t even comprehend the song’s success until he recorded an acoustic version of the hit and listened back to it for the first time.

“It really is unfathomable for me…I can’t even begin to comprehend that 420 million people only on Spotify alone have streamed that song. I’m so honored to feel heard, and to feel like my emotions mean something to people, and that people are understanding what I’m saying.”

Though it was written with one person in mind, “Beautiful Things” now encompasses everything and everyone he’s grateful for at this point in his ascent. “Now it’s about my whole life and career and the song and the people that I’m singing it to and my family,” he says. “It helps me think of the people and the things that I’m most grateful for and that I could not live without.”

Boone followed up his breakthrough hit with another killer track, “Slow It Down.” The soulful song starts off mellow before picking up into a heavy rocker by the end. “I have a veryfast-paced mindset, and I’ve always been pretty impatient,” the songwriter says. Sometimes it benefits me and sometimes it definitely does not. ‘Slow It Down’ to me is about taking your time and not overthinking things, just being in the moment and being present. That’s very true to who I am, what I stand for and what I want to be.”

For him, the biggest single on the album may still be yet to come. “Cry” is an unusual song for Boone. The song is inspired by an experience he had with someone in LA, diverging from the love songs he usually pens. Like he did with “Beautiful Things,” Boone has been teasing the song on TikTok and it has quickly become a fan-favorite leading up to the album’s release.

One song that may end up being a live favorite is the simple piano ballad “Love of Mine”; it is one of the tracks he is proudest of. Boone penned the song in an hour and a half, describing the experience as so “natural.” He wrote it while imagining himself getting older and looking back on someone who loved him.

“I’m more proud of these songs than anything else,” says Boone, who is currently touring North America ahead of sold out dates around Europe and Australia. “There’s a lot people do not know about me and things that they never will know, but the things that they do know are in these songs.”