Benjamin McSherry is a Bay Area multi-instrumentalist who originally hailed from the soul-crushing doldrums of Dayton, Ohio. He started his music career in junior high as a percussionist in drumline and later learned to play bass, guitar and a variety of other instruments. He has performed in alternative rock, post-hardcore and metal bands such as Oceans in Silhouette, Haunted Ghost Town, Zero Fox Given and The Bum Rush.
He attended Bowling Green State University for Jazz Guitar Performance where he gained a wealth of knowledge in music theory and performance. He also performed in many music ensembles including Japanese Taiko, Indonesian Gamelan and a Ghanian nomadic drum and dance group. His training in orchestral jazz, symphonic and contemporary music is what has given his writing style such a wide breadth. It’s an amalgamation of rock, djent, prog, jazz and flamenco.
In the modern rock and metal genres, some of his favorite artists are Thrice, Periphery, TesseracT, Streetlight Manifesto, Circa Survive and Spiritbox but he also has an affinity for pioneering funk artists such as Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten and George Clinton. All these influences drive a broad and deep amalgamation of rock, djent, prog, jazz and flamenco in his style.
In addition to being a performing artist, he records and mixes for local bands and runs a YouTube channel that is dedicated to instrumental recreations of popular, modern metal releases. His theory and ear training allow him to recreate every aspect of an instrumental track from the guitar and bass layers to the string sections and synthesizers that characterize an entire commercially produced studio release.
With his studio work, he strives to give bands modern and competitive productions and mixes that are generally only available from larger recording studios.
“One of the most critical aspects of music, in my opinion, is that a true, passionate artist will never stop learning, experimenting and finding new influences. There is such an enormous array of music out there in the world that can speak the same emotion a thousand different ways. The way I want to convey that emotion today might be expressed in a different way tomorrow after I am influenced by something or someone else I encounter. I never want to reach a point where I am content where I am and my growth becomes stagnant.”
