Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Hanvy
Hi Ben, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Looking back, our journey has been a series of exciting discoveries, starting with our dating and love for creativity. Together, we formed Turbo Widget (www.benhanvy.com and www.turbowidget.com) and started to truly define our artistic vision. Through years of dedicated work and experimentation, we’ve reached a point where we can share our unique blend of music and art with the world.
Reigniting the flame for creativity in our late 30’s, (after the kids were teens) we started by teaching ourselves to play instruments (guitar, bass, piano and drums), setup a garage recording studio, practiced recording with local bands off Craigslist, and hosted weekly open jam sessions. In 2019, we wrote and produced, recorded and released a song-per-month across all streaming platforms. Each song had an accompanying (self produced) video released to our youtube channel(https://www.youtube.com/@turbowidgetmusic). We have since been writing, honing our musical skills and have a clearer vision who we are (musically) and what we want to say.
After having been so consumed by music for a year, it led us to explore other creative outlets, including visual arts. We both had done large paintings for our high schools and loved to paint murals. In 2014, working with the St. Louis Urban Beautification project, we painted a long recycling container mural. In 2020 we painted a 26′ mural in our garage studio. But the biggest mural came in 2024 with the ARPA for the arts’ “St. Louis Mural Project” grant, (https://stlouisarts.org/stlmp-benjamin-hanvy/) facilitated by RAC St. Louis, where we painted a 250′ long mural welcoming people to the city. The mural is located on the retaining wall on Southwest Ave. near McCausland, a few blocks from Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood. This amazing opportunity has led us to apply for more public art projects around the country.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was definitely not a smooth road. We struggled to book shows anywhere and were too inexperienced to be confident about our musical abilities in our presentation. We had good and bad collaborations but the biggest setback was on Christmas eve 2022. We we awakened by police telling us our garage studio was on fire. It was materially and emotionally catastrophic. Not only did we lose all of our equipment, we lost years of working song material and all of our master recordings.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Our Mission is to spread joy and inspire others. We spread joy in the form of visual arts and music. Whether it’s a song that touches your heart or the feeling you get when you see a bright and cheerful mural. We also spread joy by riding our bicycles that are covered with colorful lights which we ride around at night, garnering lots of honks and joyful “I love your bike!” shouts from vehicles. We own and live in a four family home that has a flower and veggie garden that encompasses the entire front yard, which also illicits honks and shouts of “I love your garden” from local traffic.
We inspire others by self-learning and demonstration of new skills. We believe that everyone is capable of so much more than they think they are. Some of the skills (some creative and some life skills) we have demonstrated is learning a new instrument, audio and video production, writing grants and proposals, starting an LLC, as well as plumbing, electrical and carpentry skills.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
We have been fortunate in many areas of our life. We have had some things that felt like bad luck at the time but turned out to be beneficial later. For example, we purchased a property in southeast MO with a geodesic dome after the garage fire which will be an art retreat for us in the future. We just try to stay open minded and flexible around adversity to keep our perspective.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.turbowidget.com
- Instagram: @turbowidget
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/turbowidget
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@turbowidgetmusic
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/Dgod5AWAprUv4b176
- Other: https://www.benhanvy.com
