Five Minutes With: Indie-Pop Musician Cooper Benaiah -

Cooper Benaiah is 16 and writes songs. Lots of songs. Pop, rock, acoustic, folksy stuff, rap — he’s still figuring out which fits, and that’s the fun part. This year he won Canadian High School Songwriter of the Year for “Falling” and released his debut album, CRUSH.

Inspired by the kids he watched write, record, and promote videos at home, Cooper wrote all the songs, played all the instruments, and recorded CRUSH in his parents’ basement.

“The hard part wasn’t coming up with enough songs; it was picking my favourites. Once I listened to those, I realized that this would be my first-ever album. I listened to it all night. But that first moment… sitting on the floor at midnight with my headphones on was one of the best of my life.”

You don’t expect songs like “Left Me at the Altar” from a 16-year-old. And you don’t expect violin crescendos that make it ironically upbeat. Most songs come from experiences, and Cooper doesn’t have many. Not yet, anyway. So his come from his head, and from vaguely connected TV-show fragments — which explains why CRUSH sounds like a kid writing about the next part of his life.

Because, right now, when Cooper is not writing, singing, or recording music, you can find him in a park doing backflips or hanging out with friends playing NBA 2K. And no one wants to hear a rap about trading picks.

Name:

Cooper Benaiah

Genre:

Indie Pop

Founded:

2025

# of Albums:

Latest Album:

CRUSH

Latest Single:

Before You Go

Latest Video:

Favourite musician growing up:

South Arcade

Favourite musician now:

South Arcade

Guilty pleasure song:

Hit Me Baby One More Time

Live show ritual:

Do a Benson Boone backflip

Favourite local musician:

Shawn Mendes

EP or LP?

I prefer EPs because it is much easier on my attention span. Once it gets past 25-30 minutes, I have to listen to the rest another time. For EPs, I get to listen to every song all at once, which keeps it fresh in my mind and is just much better than stopping at the halfway mark.

Early bird or night owl?

Night owl for sure. I go to sleep at 3 am and wake up at 1 pm. I stay up all night watching TV, going through Instagram, and occasionally getting some work done. In the morning, once I wake up, nothing happens until at least 6 pm.

Road or studio?

Studio. My favourite thing in the whole world is going to my basement, turning on Logic, and producing 10 songs. Road is great too, though. I love to perform for people and show them some of my songs.

Any shows or albums coming up?

I wrote songs for my next album. Murray Foster (Great Big Sea, Moxy Früvous) will produce it and play bass. Mike Sleath (tour drummer for Shawn Mendes) is handing the drums. We’re going to be in studio August 25, 26, 27th and hope to get this album ready for the Fall.

Where can we follow you?

Instagram | YouTube | Spotify | Website

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