About
When singer-songwriter Jake Benjamin was just 12 years old, he drew a rainbow on his face for Halloween and went to school. He didn’t give the innocent cosmetic gesture a second thought. Sadly, being queer in the 2000s was very taboo, especially if you were in middle school or high school, and he endured some humiliation.
Society has progressed considerably in 20 years. Today, queer culture thrives in most big cities, supported by strong communities and bustling nightlife. As a proud queer and neurodivergent person, Jake thought he would be safe and at home in NYC’s queer community. And while he did experience many welcoming and beautiful moments, he also encountered ostracism, darkness, and trauma—experiences that ultimately sidelined him from writing and performing music for 2 years.
Healthy, focused, and buzzing with creativity, Jake now returns with his sophomore album, crowned with cinders past. The 10-song album is a walk-through-the-fire artistic feat, marked by diary-like candor, fearless indie-alternative musicality, and highly expressive vocals.
“This is my rising-out-of-the-ashes album. I found an inner power through the trauma,” he reveals. “It’s ultimately a self-affirming album, but it goes through a hard path and a lot of struggles.”
Back in 2024, Jake looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize the person staring back. He was underweight, pallid, and felt lost. The partying culture he had encountered within the queer community had taken its toll in many nefarious ways. Its fickleness also came as a surprise. Jake felt like he always was constantly struggling to fit in, while the marginalization of trans and non-binary people within parts of the community left him disillusioned. “There are certain things in the queer community that people don’t talk about. I would be remiss not to be honest in my music about what I’ve been through,” he says.
As he endured a painfully complex series of events both within and outside the community—including losing some foundational friendships—Jake was simultaneously working on what would be this album. At time, it was a light-hearted magic-themed album, but he just wasn’t feeling it. That August he stopped recording and performing.
“It felt like the earth I stood on was dissolving,” he says. “I took the time to look at who I was since coming out and to search for a spiritual connection to who I am today. Once I found this, the album just flowed out of me.”
crowned with cinders past chronicles Jake’s caterpillar-to-butterfly metamorphosis. The songs are rawly emotive, recalling the sprawling emotionality of albums by Elliot Smith, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead, and Phoebe Bridgers. They exhibit an immersive soundscape quality crafted from organic instrumentation, including strings, horns, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar.
The dreamy “do you really want to know” opens the album, inviting listeners to its painful but redemptive narrative. The R&B-tinged “monarch” with its charging horns, jazzy chord changes, and seductive vocals is an upbeat jam built on desperation. Jake sings: I’m hanging by a thread/Brushes break my path/I’m wilting on the ground/Held down by the rain and/friends who use my name/they’re coming for my crown. Its title invokes the monarch butterfly, a stunning creature whose beauty and survival are tied to an arduous journey of transformation.
“There is an inner royalty displayed in this song that speaks to the sacrifices we make to become adults,” Jake says. “Like the monarch butterfly, some of us have to get through having a lot of stuff thrown at us to evolve. That’s why I wanted those horns—they’re triumphant.”
“villain edit” is a groovy soul-folk track recalling both Bill Withers and the Beatles before climaxing in a symphonically chaotic ending. The song documents the end of a friendship with a close confidant. In the powerful closing passage,
Jake dramatically embodies all of the lies he’s being accused of, complete with maniacal laughter. If you listen past the ending, you can actually hear him crying.
In the disquieting “bedhead,” quirky beats and eerie ambience underscore the pain Jake experienced while trying to fit into the queer community. “That is the most raw and emotionally catastrophic pinnacle of the record. It represents the lowest part of my life, and that last note I scream out is me wringing all the emotion out. I couldn’t sing for two days after that,” Jake reveals.
The closing track, “the boy i knew,” is an atmospheric jazzy pop tune that provides the album a strong narrational foundation. It explores Jake’s boyhood, presenting a portrait of a sensitive, sweetly innocent child. The song’s final lines connect his difficult middle-school experience with the self-assured queer person he is today. He sings: Maybe you’ll be proud/Looking at who I am right now/I’ll paint a rainbow on my cheek/for the boy I used to be.
A rainbow of colors appears on Jake’s face on the cover of crowned with cinders past, with makeup serving as a fresh addition to his aesthetic. The cover art also features Jake in soulful repose, wearing his grandmother’s jewelry, his grandfather’s army jacket, and a luxurious 10-foot, red iridescent train. The image makes a glamorously anthemic statement. “This album taught me I can be an introvert; I can be queer; and I can wear whatever I want,” Jake says. “Being queer is beautiful and there are many sides to it that are valid.”