Sophomore Santa Barbara-native Tyler Benko may just be another student at LMU, but off campus his band is starting to make waves. False Puppet, a band he started with his brother and one of their friends, is definitely making a name for themselves in Southern California, though Tyler would never let you know it. His laid-back, SoCal attitude and down to earth demeanor contradicts any stereotype we’ve ever heard about typical rock stars. Some of their recent successes include a show at the Troubadour, thousands of Instagram followers and YouTube video views, and even a spot at the Ventura Warped Tour show last summer. The reason they got to play the Ernie Ball stage at the Warped Tour Ventura show? They won a Battle of the Bands contest, where people could vote for which local band they wanted to see play. Tyler is so humble, that we basically had to drag that “small” piece of info out of him. Clearly, we aren’t the only ones loving their high-energy songs and cool-yet-bada** vibe. This is only the beginning, and we can’t wait to see where False Puppet goes in the future. Until then, here’s what Tyler had to say about what it’s like to play guitar and sing in a band.
When did you first become interested in music and learn to play guitar/ start singing?
“I started taking guitar lessons in third grade because my homeroom teacher was offering free guitar lessons, so I decided to take advantage of that. Those free guitar lessons kind of got me into music.”
How did False Puppet start?
“One of the guys in my homeroom class in third grade starting taking guitar lessons, and we became best friends through that. We started jamming then, and all throughout middle school and high school. Then my brother started taking drum lessons – he’s a year younger than me – and we started jamming freshman year of high school. And from that, we just kind of decided to form a band.”
Who came up with the band name? Does it have a special meaning to you?
“No, it’s the dumbest band name. It’s so stupid and it doesn’t make any sense. It was actually the bass player: he was just trying to think of stupid weird words to combine, I guess. It kind of started out as a joke because we thought it was so bad, but then we just started calling ourselves that and somehow it stuck. So now we’re stuck with that name.”
How would you describe the type of music you create?
“Alternative rock.”
Who writes your songs? Is it a collaborative effort?
“Mostly collaborative, but it usually starts with me on a guitar riff or whatever, and I show it to the guys. Then we just kind of build a song around that collaboratively.”
Do you have an artist that you are really inspired by?
“Not one particular artist – I have a ton. It’s mostly early 90’s stuff, like early 90’s alternative rock. I love like REM, Oasis, early Pearl Jam, and Nirvana.”
What is the biggest obstacle you’ve faced so far?
“I guess the biggest obstacle is trying to keep evolving your sound. After a while, like a year, you kind of get sick of the songs you wrote that year, and you want to write a new style of song. So it’s like kind of still having respect for what you’ve already written, but also keep moving forward. I have a bad habit of looking back on the songs I wrote in a year, and am like “Oh, this sucks. You have to write new ones!” You have to remember people who happen to like your music have been listening to the old ones, so you can’t just abandon your stuff. So for me, it’s kind of keeping respect for where you’ve come from and started, but also moving forward and continuing from that.”
What has been your biggest “wow” moment with False Puppet?
“A month ago, we were stoked to find out we got 12 dates on Warped Tour for this coming summer.”
What is your favorite show you’ve played so far?
“There’s a local festival in Santa Barbara every summer called “Fiesta.” It’s a big party in the town, like the whole downtown, all the clubs are going 24/7 for a weekend. It’s kind of just a huge party, and there’s this big grass plaza in the downtown Santa Barbara area that they have bands play on. We got to play that this summer, and it just ended up being huge because the whole town is there. There are also tourists and kids from UCSB. So there was a few thousand people there in this plaza, and it was sick. We were stoked to be a part of that.”
Do you ever get nervous before you go onstage?
“No, not really. I actually get nervous for smaller shows than I do for bigger shows, which is funny. Small shows are more intimidating because they’re more close and personal. If you mess up, everyone is going to see it right there. If it’s a big show, you can do whatever the hell you want; nobody is going to notice. And it’s a lot harder to put on a good show when there’s five people there than when there’s five thousand people there. Everyone is just a face in a crowd, but at an intimate show people are right there in front of you, and you have to connect, which is a lot harder to do.”
Do you hope to make music a career?
“I mean, that’d be the dream. I’m not counting on it, that’s why I’m here doing English. But that’s the dream- if that would happen – but we’ll see.”
What does it feel like to know that people who you don’t even know are out there listening to and enjoying the music you’ve created?
“It think it’s cool. I don’t know, it’s cool feeling like something you made and created is influencing somebody else. When you write a song, it’s almost like you’re saying something. It’s like, okay this is what I have to say, and if someone else is listening to that, and vibing with that, awesome. That’s the goal of the song: to reach somebody and to have someone identify with what you’re trying to say. That’s the ultimate form of success with music, if even one person can identify with that. That’s the whole point of writing a song: to connect with people.”
What is your biggest goal?
“There’s not one specific goal. Our goal last year was to get on Warped Tour because we’ve been trying for the past year. So that was our goal, now we got that, now the next goal is to do more dates on Warped Tour next summer. After that, do the whole tour. So there’s not one specific goal. I guess for me, the major ultimate goal is to get to a point where I could somehow make my living off playing music. I guess that’s the ultimate goal.”
Make sure to check out Tyler’s band below!