“Rap artists have become the rock stars. There aren’t any rock stars left in our business. I can’t think of any. I can’t think of anybody like Kurt Cobain, people like that who really command a huge part of the arena, you know? It’s just not out there. I can’t think of any of them.” (Crusher Magazine, November 2004)
How much is Howard Benson worth?
| Net Worth: | $20 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Music Producer |
| Date of Birth: | 1956 |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | Unknown |
About Howard Benson
A multi-instrumentalist and music producer from the United States named Howard Benson is thought to be worth $20 million. Rock bands with a polished, popular sound are his specialty as a producer. Although Benson first gained fame in the 1980s and 1990s by creating music for metal and punk icons like Motorhead and TSOL, he has now turned his attention to pop-rock bands like Papa Roach, Hoobastank, and Theory of a Deadman. It’s uncommon for one of Benson’s albums to not contain vocals front and center in the mix because he believes that they’re the most important factor in a record’s success.
“I was, like, a math guy and everything, but I was always in a band. My little something to do was always to play in a band.” (Crusher Magazine, November 2004)
With the double-platinum title single from Hoobastank’s breakout 2003 album, The Reason, Howard Benson showcased his talent for writing radio-friendly rock tunes. On The Reason and the band’s later releases, like For(n)ever, Benson balanced rock ferocity with pop accessibility to create unmistakably accessible music with a slight edge. Hoobastank, like many of the bands Benson created in the twenty-first century, received criticism for their allegedly diluted music, but this hasn’t prevented them from finding success.
With the release of the 2004 album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, Howard Benson contributed to the success of the modern-rock band My Chemical Romance. Three Cheers marked a simplification of the band’s melodramatic love songs, making them appealing to a bigger audience, propelled by the gold-selling hit “I’m Not Okay (I Promise),”
“I was on a panel with producers at SXSW … and out of five of us, I was the only one who stepped out and said, ‘Hey, when I do a record, I’m assuming I’m going to go platinum and that’s what I’m doing it for.'” (Mix, February 1, 2007)
With Infest and the single “Last Resort,” Papa Roach had found popularity as a rap-rock band in the early years of the twenty-first century, but by 2004, they were attempting to steer clear of the backlash against that fashionable genre. In order to create the most obviously rock-focused albums for Papa Roach, Getting Away With Murder and its follow-up The Paramour Sessions from 2006, they hired Benson. Although Murder was able to achieve platinum status, Paramour Sessions’ sales suffered due to the band’s waning fame.
There was hardly any assurance that Chris Daughtry’s 2006 debut album would be a success because well-liked American Idol competitors don’t always make the transition to becoming famous recording artists. But that’s exactly what Daughtry came to be, in large part because of Benson’s straightforward production approach, which underlined Daughtry’s appeal as an average guy and his sincere feelings. Daughtry went quadruple-platinum, making it one of the most profitable albums from an American Idol graduate at a period when rock albums weren’t often bestsellers.
“I love meeting somebody who is brand new, who nobody has ever heard of, and I say, ‘That guy’s a star.’ And then you just have to produce him. That’s really what you look for in your whole career, and you find it maybe three or four times, but you don’t find it that often.” (Mix, February 1, 2007)
For Producer of the Year at the Grammys, Howard Benson has received two nominations. He is an engineer with a degree in materials. Sparky Dark Studios is the name of his home studio. “Long Gone” from Chris Cornell’s Scream was remixed by Howard Benson and made available as a single.
Benson produced and took part in the 2016 documentary Attack of Life: The Bang Tango Movie, which was helmed by Drew Fortier. It talks about Bang Tango, a hard rock band from the 1980s with which Benson worked on two albums.
Howard Benson’s net worth is projected to reach $20 million as of 2023. At Giant Records, Elektra Records, and Warner Bros. Records, Benson has served as an A&R consultant.
“The main focus for me, you know, is on the songs, and the lyrics and the vocals. I don’t let anybody in the studio when I’m doing vocals. I do them myself. No one’s allowed in. That’s, like, to me, where I really get the impact of the record across. That’s something that I didn’t really pay attention to early on. I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get this great guitar sound, that’s important.’ It is important, but what’s really important is the singing, the performance of the singer.” (Crusher Magazine, November 2004)
