From the dark a son has risen
Tommy Benefield has turned his life around and has a vision for New Zealand.
Benefield, who grew up in Aro Valley, began taking drugs when he was 11 – “Our parents were hippies, everyone was taking drugs” - and says he underwent a complete personality change in the following four months, becoming a compulsive liar, stealing and skipping school. After his expulsions he joined a 12-step programme and has been totally alcohol and drug free since he was 17. He’s now 31, a successful musician, playing with his band Tommy and the Fallen Horses, and a youth drug counsellor for the police.
Music inspired him to get clean and after high school, he attended Whitireia Polytechnic to get his university entrance qualifications. But instead of pursuing a politics degree as planned, he joined Te Rakau, Jim Moriarty’s Maori theatre group, where he worked in rehab centres and high schools and learnt how to perform.
“I was very politically minded but I was more interested in music. After the theatre group I was ready to strike out on my own,” explains Benefield.
Now he’s combining politics and music on his new acoustic hip hop album called Parihaka, penned with the Fallen Horses. This one has a strong political theme, though, so they’re releasing it under a pseudonym – Sons of the Easter Rising – because it’s so musically different to what they’ve done before (the last album was 70s rock).
“I could never write a Noam Chomsky article but I could read it and make it into a song,” says Benefield, whose mother, a solo mum, was a union organiser, meaning he was involved in rallies, marches and pickets from a young age.
“I have a strong sense of social responsibility and a very strong moral compass,” Benefield explains.
He’s addressing a range of topical issues on Parihaka; everything from US policy in the Middle East to Maori land rights, New Zealand race relations and National party policies.
The personal is political, says Benefield, “It’s an old feminist saying and the main theme of the album. The lyrics aren’t dense lectures on policy. They’re personal stories that evoke discussion about political issues.”
New Zealanders can influence policy by the choices they make everyday, he says.
“You vote by spending. I’m conscientious not just to recycle; I reuse. I eat food grown locally. No meat, not much plastic, I wear second hand clothing. I boycott several corporations, I protest, I sign petitions.”
It’s clear he’s turned his life around, though his socially conscious roots were always there, dulled by drugs in his youth, when he was rebellious, but not in a socially-effective way.
“Drugs are not bad arse. Drugs pacified me and dulled my spirit. Music was the A1 motivation for me to get clean.”
Tommy and the Fallen Horses Waterfront World Cup Fanzone, Sept 30.
Southern Cross, October 7.
World Cup main stage, Courtenay Place, October 8.
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