A biography for Benjamin Clementinehasn’t been written yet.
“I'm actually doing what I like doing, which is mixing opera music and classical music with soul and folk. And I was writing and talking about what I've actually experienced, and I don't think that's very common.”
“People want a beautiful story. Hopefully my life story is still beautiful, but that metro stuff doesn't make it much more pitiful.”
“I've learned my lessons, but I'm also still learning them.”
“When I first started singing in Paris, I sounded horrible: I was just singing to get some money to eat. And I wasn't singing my own songs: it was Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix. Eventually, when I wrote my own music, my style just came out of my own place.”
“I was on the train; I did play, but I also played in bars, in the streets, at birthday parties for people who discovered me on the train.”
“Personally, I wouldn't mind going on stage naked, totally naked.”
“I found it quite pleasing to be alone from a very young age. The piano became my source of release.”
“My music isn't mainstream music.”
“People say my world is dark. No, there's a lot of lightness in my world. But I know very well that I'm not normal when I'm performing.”
“I accept the fact that angels are great heavenly beings, and I think some people give me the feeling that I'm with an angel.”
“It's amazing how people believe you if you use long words.”
“I like black a lot because I can't really see colors - so I wear a lot of dark-colored clothes. You've got to be aware of what you're wearing because you might become that.”
“People don't always realize that as a performer, you've got to relive those moments. Memories crash through your brains, and you've got to think about your past and the reason why you wrote the song. All that emotion comes back.”
“Where I'm staying, near Lafayette Street, Bowery, and Houston, you get different people with different spirits, and that's what I like.”
“In this life, I've learned to be patient. And I'm still learning... Even now, I wish things would go quicker.”
“I personally wouldn't want my second album to sound like my first; it might sound very rocky or hard rock - and that wouldn't be melancholy. So if people think my music is melancholic, then so be it. It's meant to be uplifting, and I'm just basically saying what needs to be said.”
“I got into a lot of trouble. Maybe that's why my parents didn't really like me and I didn't blend in with my family. I was always the naughty one.”
“When I lived in Paris, I would shop at antique shops and buy these huge coats because I was very cold. And then I started performing in them because I felt safe. I never stopped doing that.”
“I grew up as a man because I was by myself.”
“I personally don't know what nerves are. I don't get scared when I'm going to play music. But I think something, maybe my fears, are buried into my songs. Because I'm singing them.”