Harlem Shakes Interview

The Ivy League isn’t exactly known for the rock stars that get their education there. But with musicians like Duncan Sheik of Spring Awakening fame, who has a degree from Brown, or Rivers Cuomo of Weezer fame, who has a degree from Harvard, we here at The Sun felt it was time to learn a little more about some up and coming Ivy League rock stars. Over a phone interview, I got the scoop from Lexy Benaim, the lead singer and Yale University graduate behind the Harlem Shakes on how New Haven rocks out.
The Harlem Shakes are a 5-member band, named after their favorite dance move, that is grounded on three recent Yale graduates (Class of 2006), who formed the band while still attending the University. But the Ivy League education far from intimidates the other two non-Ivy band members, guitarist Todd Goldstein and drummer Brent Katz. According to Lexy “They behave like the children of Greek Gods.” Apparently, Greek Gods and great minds are the perfect match for indie-pop music making. The Harlem Shakes currently have a six-song EP out, which is heavily defined by Benaim’s high-pitched voice over quick-to-lull, yet unexpectedly stimulating guitar melodies with the occasional addicting keyboard jingle here and there.
While Benaim’s high voice initially masks the lyrics, after a few listens, his degree in Literature and Writing is slowly exposed with chorus lines like “If there’s a bomb in your hand just throw it/If the road’s too hot just run.” But Benaim doesn’t give Yale much credit for his work. When asked if he thought Yale influenced his music he said, “Only in so far as, well, I went there.” He added, “We had these kind of pretty serious gigs and talked to record labels and stuff when I was in college. But, I don’t think we really became a professional band until I left.”
Although Benaim spent a great deal of time working on his own music project while at Yale, he didn’t miss out on the rest of the New Haven, Connecticut music scene. There was one venue in particular that Benaim seemed rather fond of, “a pizza restaurant and music joint” known as BAR. He told me that “every Sunday night they’d have a different indie band,” including other great Yale artists like Dave Longstreth of the Dirty Projectors (who recently played a Fanclub Collective show in Ithaca) or visiting bands like Animal Collective. His talk of BAR reminded me of our very own The Nines in Collegetown. But, like Ithaca’s music scene is hardly just The Nines, New Haven’s music scene isn’t comprised of just indie rock on Sunday nights at BAR, Benaim said that “the main music was traditional music of one kind or another, and their classical music was amazing at Yale.”
As I said earlier, the Ivy League isn’t really known for the rock stars that studied there. It’s a safe bet that not many people who study at Ivy League schools plan on becoming rock stars. Lexy Benaim was not one of those people who planned on professionally touring upon graduation. He said, “I kind of stumbled into professional success…. I was ambivalent about it and we got invited to go on these tours with Tapes n’ Tapes and Deerhoof. But you know, we planned on it when we started making our EP—it’s kind of when things started rolling. That’s when we knew.”
Since the men in The Harlem Shakes have the brains and the beat, it was interesting to learn that Lexy thinks people are less likely to listen to his band after learning that they graduated from Yale. He said “It’s not like we’re the seventh son of the seventh son of the Bush family…. We kind of made our own way… People who give us a hard time about it, I don’t think they are very soft.” But Lexy won’t give other musicians a hard time about where they went to school. He said, “If you’re in a good band, you’re probably pretty smart and thoughtful and it doesn’t really matter where you went to school.”
Like Lexy Benaim of The Harlem Shakes didn’t know that he’d become a professional musician upon graduation at Yale, most Cornellian’s don’t know what they’ll become upon g-day, whether they’re in the class of 2008 or 2011. So while you sit at your library of choice during study week, Lexy recommends checking out his track “Sickos” off of his Burning Birthdays EP. It’s not exactly the happiest song, but coming from a fellow Ivy Leaguer who said that during his time at Yale he “worked just a perverse amount, because that’s just how it goes”, listening to his song might help your mind along during Finals Week.