[**GAUNTLETT CHENG**](https://gauntlettcheng.com/collections/all) shirt and [**LINDER**](https://linder.nyc/collections/all) pants.
For Liam Benzvi, memories are not as straight-forward to recall as the stages of the creative process that went into his newest EP, [_Amnesia, USA_,](https://soundcloud.com/terrible-records/sets/amnesia-usa) which is out today from [Terrible Records](https://terriblerecords.com/). It all started when the born-and-bred New Yorker had a moment of confabulation, an amnesic moment three years ago, whereby he misread a road sign and accidentally allowed his mind to construct a whole new town. This is where Benzvi pinpoints both the start of _Amnesia, USA,_ and his interest in the psychology of memories; primarily in the form of cryptomnesia (the memory error whereby individuals misinterpret others’ memories as their own).
His own fabrication of a road sign kick-started the thought process that began his realizations of all that he had confabulated as a child. He combined this with the accessibility music gave him to access his imagination to create his first formal release as a solo artist.
Benzvi welcomed _Flaunt_ to talk his new EP, his inspirations, the ironies, and memories! (and a very fitting displacement of thought in conversation)…
[**JIMIN LEE**](https://www.instagram.com/jiminleeresults/) jacket and pants [**LINDER**](https://linder.nyc/collections/all) top and leggings, [**CARLA COLOUR**](http://www.carlacolour.com) glasses.
**_Your music is very imaginative and your sound is unique – how do you describe your music to people who ask?_**
I really respond to melody, so I want everything I do to sound, for lack of a better word, pretty. I want it to be soothing and modern. I always tell people its fundamentally pop music – it’s structure and melody. It makes me feel sentimental when I listen to it because there are different kinds of emotion coordinates to every song. I heard Bjork say that once in an interview and thought it was really spot on.
**_Developing a song from start to finish – through melody, lyrics and performance – must be a very emotional thing. I can understand that. Is the emotion behind_ Amnesia, USA _to do with memory?_**
It is based on a street sign that I misread while I was in a car. I thought it was the name of a town. I was very excited that I had caught this very unique name of a town but when I searched it on my maps I couldn’t find it. It was clear I had just misread it. I just started thinking about the irony of it – there is no town called Amnesia, USA – which is ironic because it’s kind of a joke on itself. It cancels itself out. That’s kind of my brand of humour anyway. I knew from that moment that I would have to call something that I made that.
[**ECKHAUS LATTA**](https://eckhauslatta.com) shirt, [**GIAMI**](http://giami-01.com/shop) tanktop and [**UGGx ECKHAUS LATTA**](https://www.ugg.com/collaboration-eckhaus-latta/) shoes.
**_How long ago was that?_**
Oh, around 3 years ago.
**_So you kind of kept it in your back pocket for the correct time or song?_**
I had it in the back of my head and I just wrote around it. In therapy, which everyone should go to, I was going through these times in my life where I would consciously take peoples stories of what happened to them and slowly embed them into my own memory. I think it’s something we do as kids a lot because we want to make our lives more interesting. I find that psychology really fascinating. It didn’t happen all the time – I’m not a compulsive liar. But it’s been really interesting to track the times in my life where I did do that. I just thought it was an interesting access point into that record.
[**ECKHAUS LATTA**](https://eckhauslatta.com) jacket and [**GAUNTLETT CHENG**](https://gauntlettcheng.com/collections/all) hoodie.
**_How did you incorporate the realisation of these events into your song, like “The Morning”?_**
So it’s about things that are true, but then aren’t true because I made them up. It’s the pillars of songwriting I think. You have the opportunity to blend things that are true and things that are not true into one over-arching narrative. That’s what I really like about making music.
[**GAUNTLETT CHENG**](https://gauntlettcheng.com/collections/all) shirt and vintage jacket from Scout.
**_Is all your music inspired by similar life events? What is your inspiration?_**
I feel like every song is a fantasy that I have. I feel like we all have fantasies and I feel like I over analyse my fantasies to the point where I don’t really get to enjoy them. With music, there’s so much to it – it feels so much freer, it’s a lot less mathematical.
Every song is a fantasy – it’s not necessarily about my life. I’m going to go back to that Björk interview because it really resonated in me when she said that every song has emotional coordinates. One verse can be able something that happened in your life, the next can be about something you saw in a movie and then the third could be about something entirely different – but somehow, all these things hit you in the same way and can create one story.
[JIMIN LEE](https://www.instagram.com/jiminleeresults/) pants and vest and stylist’s own jacket, shirt, boots, and tie.
**_And then this song in comparison to your other work, or let’s say in comparison to your most recent release before this – what’s changed or what do you like to keep the same?_**
I often write about the subject of my songs in the way of taking the point of view of someone else talking to me. So it’s this weird mirror that I build. My most recent song, “The Morning,” is the song that I would say is the most about me. Just about how I have the most energy in the morning but that isn’t the most practical time. Not even meaning I’m awake in the morning but more that I am more myself.
**_Other than music, what do you put that energy into?_**
Mainly music, but I guess being kind to other people.
**Stream Benzvi’s EP, _Amnesia, USA,_** [**here.**](https://terriblerecords.com/)
* * *
Photographed by [Ryan Duffin](https://www.instagram.com/ryanduffin/)
Styled by [Chapman Newnum](https://www.instagram.com/chapmannewnum/)
