BENJAMIN CLEMENTINE

Raised in a strict religious household in the tough Edmonton section of London, singer, songwriter and pianist Benjamin Clementine started to teach himself the keyboard at age 11, stumbling upon classical rather than contemporary pop; a sparse piano solo by Erik Satie in particular transformed the way he played. At 16 years old, in a rare moment of permitted TV watching, he caught New York avant-gardists Antony and the Johnsons performing the disarmingly naked “Hope There’s Someone” on the BBC. “I was confused, scared…it was another world,” says Clementine. “When it finished, I went back upstairs to my piano and started playing chords.”

Inspired by figures like Leonard Cohen—and with no emotional or employment ties to keep him in London—Benjamin left for Paris at age 20; sleeping rough, working in kitchens and busking out of economic necessity. First in the corridors of the Place de Clichy station and then on the metro, he built his voice and refined his craft as he made enough money to move first to a hostel and then into a room of his own. Having eventually returned to his hometown of London, word spread from across the continent to the point where Benjamin Clementine’s U.K. live debut took place on national TV when he played two songs on Later…With Jools Holland. At 6’3”, dressed in his now-trademark overcoat and bare-feet, Clementine cut an extraordinary, puzzling presence, causing a small storm on Twitter, and Paul McCartney amongst the first to congratulate Clementine on an “amazing” performance.

On the heels of his triumphant album release concert at Carnegie Hall, Mercury-Prize winning artist Benjamin Clementine will tour North America in support of his sophomore album, I Tell A Fly (Capitol Records) in 2018. The tour includes an appearance in The New York Times’ prestigious live interview series, TimesTalks (February 2 at the TheTimesCenter)—whose upcoming and recent guests include Tom Hanks, Ai Wei Wei, Julianne Moore & Todd Haynes, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, to name a few—Clementine will perform songs from his critically lauded sophomore album, I Tell a Fly, and discuss our changing world and our ancient struggles, in addition to providing a lens into his singular artistry.

I Tell a Fly finds Clementine exploring new musical territory on the heels of his Mercury Prize-winning debut, At Least for Now (2015). At Least for Now stretched itself across a series of piano ballads with unorthodox structures; I Tell a Fly brings a sense of theatricality and power by using whirling, interwoven instruments throughout. While At Least for Now looked inward and backward, Clementine’s follow-up looks outward and forward.

The origin of I Tell a Fly lies in a disarmingly strange line Clementine found in his American visa: “an alien of extraordinary abilities.” He explains, “I was baffled for about ten minutes when I first saw that visa. But then I thought to myself, I am an alien. I’m a wanderer. In most places I’ve been, I’ve always been different. And so I began to think about the story of a couple of birds, who are in love: one is afraid to go further, and the other is taking a risk, to see what happens.” On I Tell a Fly, Clementine uses his personal history as a prism through which to view the world around him (and attempt to make sense of both), musically exploring unknown territories while maintaining a lifeblood that could not be mistaken for the work of anyone other than him. His latest single and video, “Jupiter,” finds Clementine exploring questions of identity, both personal and universal.

Clementine’s 2015 debut, At Least for Now, garnered immense international acclaim and awards including the Mercury Prize, British music’s most internationally prestigious accolade, and the Best New Act honor at Les Victoires de la Musique, the French equivalent of the GRAMMYs. To date, it’s sold over 230,000 adjusted albums worldwide. In the U.S., he performed on both on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” The New York Times’ T Magazine featured him on the cover, and David Byrne, both a hero and an admirer of Clementine, wrote the profile, accompanying him back to the tough Edmonton section of London where Clementine grew up. The New York Times called At Least for Now Clementine’s “declaration of selfhood,” and has described Clementine’s voice as a “frequently stunning instrument, a bladelike tenor that can swoop into either a clarion cry or a guttural scowl.” Earlier this year, Benjamin collaborated with Damon Albarn on “Hallelujah Money” for the latest Gorillaz album.

Last Updated: January 22, 2018