Benee is fresh off the release of her debut album, Hey U X, which came out on Friday. It’s a diverse effort, featuring everything from off-kilter pop to more guitar-based indie rock. Album opener “Happen To Me” falls in the latter category, and that’s the song she chose to perform for her appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night. Joined by her band, Benee took to a dimly-lit stage to perform the alternative-leaning tune, which doesn’t sound unlike Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes (Arpeggi)” (a parallel that Stereogum also independently drew).
For most artists, late-night TV is a rare opportunity to play live in any capacity nowadays, but Benee just finished a tour of her native New Zealand. She said in a recent interview of playing live, “I knew I would miss playing shows, but not to the level that I friggin’ didn’t know what to do with myself. It was just crazy to see the new energy that everyone was bringing to each show. Everyone is so happy to watch live music again.”
Benee also recently told Uproxx of her new album, “I think with this album, I haven’t really held back on experimenting with genres and even lyrics. Maybe I would have been more hesitant to do some of the things that I’ve done on this album in my previous bodies of work.”
Watch Benee perform “Happen To Me” above, and check out our recent interview with her here.