Meet four Charleston musicians who branched out of music

Hyperactive creativity

The grind never stops for Charleston musicians. Besides touring, gigging and recording, tons of artists are applying their enterprising minds to other interests.

Some of those musicians — including a pop artist writing crime novels, a Southern soul guitarist doubling as a carpenter, a vocalist launching a nonprofit and a recording artist compiling animated art — said their pursuits became a balancing force in their lives.

LaFaye

Paying it forward

As a singer, LaFaye Benton, known simply as LaFaye, encompasses rock ‘n’ roll, funk and soul in her performances with her ensemble LaFaye & the Fellas. So it’s not surprising her new community engagement organization, Auntie’s House, and hat design venture, Fine Line Brims, stem from varying interests.

The hat designing, which has since branched out into outerwear, is how the former Army vocalist puts her creative stamp on items that need a little love.

“I’ve learned that my community trusts that whatever I bring — whether it’s in a band or whether it’s me designing something for someone — there’s going to be something for everybody,” LaFaye said, who lives in Summerville.

When she took a position as a substitute teacher for Charleston and Berkeley county school districts last year, the job quickly turned into a passion for helping students see their potential, and her vision for Auntie’s House solidified. It doubles as both a community organization and a production company to benefit youth, bring together Charleston organizations and promote live music.

The Auntie’s House February launch event, in honor of Black History Month, showcased student performances and highlighted Black entrepreneurs and creatives locally and internationally.

“With my performing, I want everybody to feel like I’m singing the song to you,” LaFaye said. “I want you to feel that I care. I want everybody to feel that appreciation. So, I try to take that same type of love that I have for people and pour it into these kids with Auntie’s House.

“The production side,” she added, “is dedicated to helping artists to get themselves out there — to help them with their careers.”

LaFaye is currently planning an Auntie’s House back-to-school bash in the fall with live entertainment and kids activities, plus a backpack and school supply drive. She said she aims to secure nonprofit status by the fall.

“As cliched as it sounds, my family and friends are my motivation,” she said. “I realize how much they put into supporting me. People don’t have to share your stuff. People don’t have to show up to your shows. People don’t have to listen to your music. My family and friends … they truly keep me going.”

Campbell Brown

Picking up the pieces

Guitarist/vocalist Campbell Brown of James Island works with his hands not only as a musician, but also as a carpenter.

“I don’t think I could go without either one,” Brown said. “And you have to be careful, because you don’t want it to take over and become too much of a grind.”

Custom woodwork is his predilection because it requires considerable time and detail, he said. He also works in home construction jobs such as decking, patio design and remodeling with his business, Water Street Craftsman.

After playing in the rock band Live Oak for 10 years out of the College of Charleston, Campbell has been a member of local roots rock act Gaslight Street since 2011 and soul rock band Broken Speakers since 2020. He was introduced to the carpentry trade in 1998 as he helped to rebuild his family’s dock in Perdido Bay, Florida, after a hurricane knocked it down. (He would end up rebuilding that dock several times.)

In addition to custom furniture, Campbell enjoys building guitar amps with repurposed wood. Recent pieces include a Fender Hot Rod Deville amp and an old Fender Custom Vibrolux model from the 1950s. He researches the specs, designs the piece and chooses the wood. Usually, he sources material for his woodworking projects from houses he renovates.

“The Deville amp has heart pine from a house on Water Street. It’s 100-something-year-old flooring,” he said. “The Deluxe has this Brazilian hardwood I collected off of decks I’ve built on Isle of Palms. I definitely like to recycle, and reclaimed wood is the best way to do that. It’s also got a history.”

Ryan Lill

Writing what you know

Charleston singer-songwriter Ryan Lill’s saccharine pop and piano ballads are a world away from his fiction writing. With one cerebral, warped crime novel titled On A Wire under his belt, Lill will release another whodunit thriller, Into The Pines, on July 4.

“I don’t think I ever really imagined that I would write a book,” Lill said. “It does get harder as I get older to write music because I find that all the things that I’ve wanted to say — there’s an end to them. I feel like writing books is different because I get to change the story.”

The age-old adage is “write what you know,” Lill said. As someone who regularly watches murder documentaries and listens to crime podcasts, he wanted to write something that would be difficult for the reader to guess the twist.

Into The Pines has a “thriller, horror, cat-and-mouse in the woods of South Carolina kind of vibe,” he said. It’s about a podcast host, Eyvette, who goes looking for her childhood love interest, Charlene, who is the second woman to go missing in the woods in their hometown of Travelers Rest.

As he creates promotional posts for his music and fiction, Lill said he’s unearthing the adaptability to navigate an often hostile social media environment.

“It’s OK for me to live authentically. And if someone is hating on me — it’s about them not about me. It’s really hard to accept that when you’re the one that’s getting the bullshit dropped on you, but I think that it keeps me motivated to resonate with other people.”

This summer, Lill is also launching a line of wellness products, Brother Larry Apothecary, with his husband Chris Washington. The products are about finding calm in the chaos — something Lill taps into with his fiction writing.

“Life is not one beautiful thing after another on a personal level,” he said. “You’re always fighting to find some kind of comfort in everything bad that’s happened to you.”

Jack Powell

Collecting expression

Recording artist Jack Powell of instrumental act Hot Mustard is the visual artist behind the eclectic, vintage fabrications of Opus Thimble Studios on Johns Island. His digital assemblage graphics and animations range from event posters to music videos and short films.

Powell’s background in digital photography, web design and animation dovetails with his love for found-object art, which he replicates in the digital realm by assembling found images and videos, like a collage, from public domain archives. He’s been collecting material for more than a decade.

“I won’t have an idea until I find something — it’s the same as a sculpture artist who makes pieces out of metal and stuff that they find, it just occurs for me in the digital space,” Powell said. “It all happened organically and made sense.

“My art has an old, nostalgic vibe to it — it’s like the stuff you find in antique stores.”

At this point, he has a huge archive of things he hasn’t used. “There’s this ‘thrill of the hunt’ kind of thing,” he said, laughing.

But Powell said over the past few years he’s been intentional about revisiting his material he’s compiled.

“I force myself to stay in that space sometimes. It’s the same with the music — making yourself open to receive, being able to sit down and just say, ‘I’m going to spend the next couple hours seeing what happens.’ ”

He said finishing a project becomes easier each time, because he’s learned to recognize when a piece is saying what he wants it to say.

“I think that there’s also some level of fear when you’re doing creative work: Am I going to be able to replicate it? Can I do it again? It’s a lot of pressure, but you get used to it, and it becomes less discomforting and more like fun. That’s where I am now. It’s the best place I’ve ever been.”