“The goal with this project,” says singer-songwriter Ben Goldsmith, “was to have the most eclectic body of work I could produce, to show all the different musical angles and avenues I want to explore. I love so many different types of music—I love Ray Charles and I love Sam Fender and I love Led Zeppelin, so I just wanted to go for whatever I was feeling that day.”

With his new album The Start of Something Beautiful, the 18-year-old New York native steps onto the national stage with an impressive range of styles and influences and a mature sense of pop songcraft. He created the LP with some of the leading songwriters and producers in the world, including Rick Nowels (Lana Del Rey), Alex Hope (Troye Sivan, Alec Benjamin), and Peter Fenn (Deyaz, Lily Fitts), as well as playing multiple instruments—guitar, piano, lap steel, organ, mellotron, and bass—throughout the project.

“I wanted to challenge myself as much as I possibly could,” says Goldsmith. “These different writers all have different tastes and different methods, and I've picked up so many things from each one of them.”

It all comes together for Goldsmith on stage, with dynamic performances that see him switching up instruments with his “best buds” in his touring trio. “There's nothing better than playing live, whether it’s a packed show or a show to three people,” he says. “It’s even more natural for me as a live performer than it is a songwriter, because I've been doing it a lot longer—I started out playing street fairs and bars as a little kid. On tour right now, we’re having the time of our life. We’re having as much fun now as I did playing in my garage when I was 12.”

Born and raised on Long Island to a musical family, he begged his parents for a guitar after the Suzuki violin method didn’t lead him to follow his mother’s footsteps as a classical violinist. Starting at age 6, the instrument became Goldsmith’s obsession; “I wouldn't hang out with my friends at night, I’d listen to records and play along with them.” He took weekly lessons at the Manhattan School of Music and then moved on to Mannes Prep at The New School where he studied jazz guitar.

Goldsmith played in “tons of terrible garage bands,” did a summer camp at Berklee, and toured cross-country with the School of Rock all-stars program. He was introduced to acclaimed instructor Tomo Fujita, who had been John Mayer’s guitar teacher, and for the next three years, his parents drove him to Boston and back every week for lessons.

Then came 2020, and we all know what that meant. Goldsmith adjusted to making music in lockdown. “I started learning how to produce music in my room,” he says. “I taught myself Logic, and I wrote a song a day, just grinding towards trying to be a better songwriter.” When industry veteran Mike Crowley heard some of Goldsmith’s music, he took an interest. Crowley shared the music with Nashville producer Brad Jones (Hayes Carll, Patty Griffin, Jill Sobule), who became a mentor for the young artist. “Brad basically let me use his studio as a workshop,” says Goldsmith. “I spent two years going back and forth to Nashville, producing stuff with him. He was literally like a sensei.”

Though he isn’t a country artist—"I'd say I'm a singer-songwriter, a little indie, little rock & roll, folk”—he accepted an invitation to play Whiskey Jam, a country showcase in Nashville. “I was playing bars and pizzerias,” he says, “so I was like, ‘I'll take anything.’ The dude who runs it is a country tastemaker, and he put me on his Instagram and the next morning, I woke up to DMs from a bunch of different record labels.”

Signing with Free Flight Records/Sony Music, the results of Goldsmith’s initial work with Jones came out as the 2023 album The World Between My Ears. “The first album, I was finding my songwriting voice,” says Goldsmith. “I’d go into the writes with melodies ready to go, but it was my first time working with writers who are, first and foremost, storytellers. These co-writes prepared me for what was to come.”

As he began preparing for the next project, the teams at Universal Publishing and Free Flight were spreading the word with writers in Los Angeles as well. Soon, Goldsmith found himself working with some of the most accomplished names in the business.

Early in the process, he cooked up a song called “Love Again” with Hope. “It’s a pop-rock song, kind of a heartbreak-y, angsty lyric,” says Goldsmith. “But once we wrote that song, I felt like I was on the cusp of something, and I was just going to keep digging and keep writing because I knew there would be more songs coming out.”

In addition to the input from new collaborators, he grew excited as he sensed that The Start of Something Beautiful could display a broader musical scope. “I wanted to show all sides of myself as an artist in this music,” he says. “I was listening to a lot of Royal Blood, Phoenix, Jack White and I wanted something people could pump their fists to at a festival, so there's a song called ‘Wish We Never Met’ that’s a rock song. And then there's something like “Treetops’ because I love Paul Simon and Bob Dylan and Billy Joel, classic songwriters.”

Obviously wary of picking a favorite, Goldsmith does allow that writing “Crazy” was a special experience. “I always wanted to write a show opener,” he says, “something that started out with choirs and pianos and orchestration, and then completely switch up the tempo, turn it into a completely different song. I gave Peter Fenn this idea of doing something almost operatic for the first 30 seconds and then we go into a soul song. He was super into it and we just ran with it, and that was probably the most fun I've ever had writing a song.”

He also notes that this new set of songs presented a serious work-out for him as a singer. “With the first batch of tunes I put out, everything was pretty much in my safe zone,” he says. “Some of these songs are really hard—I sing in falsetto or sometimes I have to stand on my tiptoes to hit the high notes.”

Goldsmith recognizes that as a teenager, his life experience is still developing as source material for songs (though he explains with a laugh that “Love Again” came from a real-life experience). “I'll pull from my childhood,” he says, “hanging out with my friends and stupid stories, but I also dream up stuff, create stories and set them out almost like writing a book.”

Writing, singing, playing, producing—every element of The Start of Something Beautiful reveals the dazzling growth in Ben Goldsmith’s work and the arrival of a major new talent. He may be advanced for his age, but he takes the most pride in the dedication and discipline that have gotten him this far this fast.

“Everyone talks about putting in their 10,000 hours,” says Goldsmith. “I don't know if I'm 100% there yet, but for years, it was the only thing I was focused on, I wanted to be the best songwriter I could be, and I still do. I’ve learned so much from all the talented people I’ve collaborated with on this project and am growing and evolving as an artist.”