It’s hard to deny that actor Ben Levin isn’t a good-looking guy. Having been a lead in two CW series, Legacies and Kung Fu – a network known for its pretty people – is proof enough.
But, the 37-year-old Chinese-Jewish American actor, who graduated from the prestigious NYU Tisch School of the Arts, has been living a double life – a musician/artist by the name of Grasshapa.
As Grasshapa, a play on the 1970s television series Kung Fu’s novice nickname “Grasshopper” and “Hapa,” the slang for being mixed Asian descent, he isn’t tied down to being the “pretty boy.”
“I’ve shied away from attaching my visuals to this, not out of fear, but out of freedom to feel anonymous with it,” Grasshapa says over Zoom from his Los Angeles home. “It’s been hard to make it a whole package in my mind [as one does with acting.] Grasshapa is my inner voice – someone who is learning, growing, and changing, and who one day may take on a greater form. It’s a rap persona, but I love the idea that it can also include pop, punk, emo, and folk roots that really started my musical journey. I really hope it’s going to be an inclusive and eclectic place to put my experimentations with music.”
It’s no secret that he’s been working on music, having released two EPs and two studio albums – his most recent one, Low Tide, came out two weeks ago.
A blend of pop and hip-hop, Low Tide shares Grasshapa’s somber feelings about getting older, but sometimes in a humorous and light-hearted way. His pre-release single, “Til 8 pm,” was all about partying until 8 pm, and sleeping at a decent hour, because as we get older, it gets harder to stay up and out late. The album explores oceanic themes, representing how he navigates life’s flow in his artistic journey and creativity.
“I initially told you Low Tide was about how I’m making waves in this low tide,” he says. “Even when my inspiration is low, and my journey has been in still waters, there are times I’m still wading in water. That was a visual theme for me with this. It’s also about time. It’s been five years, and some of these songs represent this tumultuous sea.”
Grasshapa’s Low Tide
Cameron K. Lewis
The 11-track album has been a long time coming, as he worked closely with his longtime music collaborator, Grammy Award-winning engineer David Pizzimenti, and musicians Rich Gonzalez and Joe Rudd. Of the 11, he has four featuring close friends and fellow artists – Chris Lee, Morgan Jay, Dominique Toney, and Leah Lewis.
“That was really cool,” he explains. “We all worked off each other well. That’s been a cool development, just evolving [this album] by adding other people. It’s a credit to my music team. We’ve got an incredible guitarist, trumpet player, and my producing partner, Dave. All of us together have definitely found a more cohesive fusion on this project.”
Grasshapa discusses his music, collaborations, and the difference between his music life and acting.
Laura Sirikul: You released your EP, Over the Hill, in 2016, and your first full-length album, Green, in 2019. What have you learned as an artist that prepped you for Low Tide?
Grasshapa: Overall, the thing I’ve learned is that one has to pull the trigger faster on releasing music. That has been the greatest learning lesson here. I learned to delve deeper into myself in terms of what I want to say, take more risks, and connect with more artists. It’s a risk at first to involve people in the project, but it ultimately turned out to be great.
Sirikul: From the instrumentals and beats, the sounds and ambiance you have in this are so different in each song. What kind of sounds did you want to have?
Grasshapa: [I was] being really eclectic with it. I’m into that ’90s R&B. I also love pop punk. I love all that. [I was] trying to be open with how these songs evolved. That’s always how it goes. We might start with just one simple guitar part that we’ve looped in, and realized, ‘This is kind of a groove.’ It’s going to be a much more anthemic, joyful ‘sunshine raining down on you’ type of song. We are big on making sure the production became as elevated and evolved as it could be. There wasn’t really a plan for it. I hope there comes a time when I am more conceptual about a project and give myself those stipulations on the journey, and we’re staying in this lane. Many great artists do that. This was certainly more of an exploration of how we let these songs take on a life of their own. When we’re looking at the color and choosing songs and the finishing touches, that’s when you can figure out the overall color [of the album].
Sirikul: How do you find inspiration for your songwriting? Is there a song that really resonated with you the most?
Grasshapa: “Fantasy,” the song that I closed the album out on, which is really about taking what you need and being happy with what you have. It’s about family. That one is like J. Cole’s “Love Yours.” Love what you got. If there was any wisdom to impart from the project’s journey, I like the idea of leaving people with the sense of ‘take what you take.’ As the second song, “Take,” says, “Take what is yours, but leave what’s not.” You can be ambitious without hanging your whole life on wanting and needing things. I want to indulge in the simple life. We’re here for such a short time on this planet. I would hate to spend my whole life aggressively pursuing my career. Acting has been an inspiration in terms of that perspective. I’ve been acting for over 20 years. I’ve been auditioning for over 20 years. I’ve seen a handful of rejections and awesome wins. How do I continue it? I simply move forward. I don’t let it define my worth. That is key. Many actors burn out because they’re trying so hard to succeed. They want to be validated by something out of our control. It’s hard to digest it. That’s something that has been a key theme, especially in this project.
Sirikul: Tell me about your collaborators. How did you decide which artist fit the story you wanted to tell in that song?
Morgan Jay is how I met my collaborating partner, Dave, about ten years ago. Moragn went to NYU with me, that’s how I met him back in the day. Dave was looking for rappers to work with, and Morgan recommended me. Dave and I hit it off, and now he’s one of my best friends. We’ve been sampling Morgan’s voice for years. He’s in my first song, “No Warning,” off Green. We’ve loved his silky voice long before he became an international superstar. “High” was my attempt at a sexier love song, so Morgan was a logical choice for that. [For “Old Habits,”] we were going for an R&B powerhouse, and Chris Lee is an incredibly talented person. I sang with him throughout the entire time on Legacies.
We really jived together. He is someone I’ve been wanting to [record] with for a while. [For “Fake Love,”] Dominique Tony is one of my oldest friends, too. She’s really been an OG collaborator. She was featured on my first EP, and I was on her recent single, “Called Up.” She’s really a great friend. She did background vocals in six out of the 11 songs. Then, with “Crush,” which was made most recently, I sang with Leah Lewis. I met her while filming Kung Fu. We were doing laser tag with the gang out [in Vancouver], and she was on The CW’s Nancy Drew. That’s how I met her about two and a half or three years ago. She mentioned that she played guitar and sang, so I brought her to Dave’s studio and we organically built that song. We spent a couple of sessions just talking about the song as a duet. I love Leah’s voice. She’s super soulful. We were looking for someone who has that kind of grit and soulfulness, and she brings that.
Sirikul: How do you balance your acting life and music life?
Grasshapa: I always look at music as my treat. Acting is what I have to do. Music is my dessert, something I get to enjoy if I’m in a great mood, because I just came off a fun week on set. I might bust out a more joyous and confident verse because I’ve just done what I had to do. It’s not necessarily because I am obligated to act, but that’s the calling that has spoken to me more clearly over the years, whereas music really ebbs and flows. There were days I could not [deal with things], I had to pick up my guitar every day, and I loved it. I was enamored by singing and loved creating things. Then, I might go months without playing anything. If I had been gigging more and performing on more music stages, where I could tap into that good energy, that might have changed the trajectory here. On the one hand, I would have produced more work with music and felt more like it was a job.
Sirikul: Do you feel like it will ever come to a point where, like, you know, your acting is something like, is your craft, is your career, but that you would like to take the risk of doing music?
Grasshapa: The dream is to do both in a really successful way. Most actors long to have choices, so we’re not just accepting what we get. I’m still lucky enough to audition for a lot of things. I’m always on the hunt for the next thing. That’s always a challenge. Any actor will tell you that auditioning is the worst part of this. It’s so fun to play, but it takes a lot to get those moments of play, whereas in music, in a matter of moments, I can pick up my guitar and be there by myself and hone in on what I want to do. I’m able to control the narrative. I do think the fusion of it all. I would love to showcase [both acting and] music and be all over the soundtrack as well as audiences see the artistic journey, because it’d be true to me.
Sirikul: What is the difference between Actor Ben Levin and GRASSHAPA?
Grasshapa: When you talk about alter egos, MF DOOM was a good example of this. That guy was a hidden gem of an underground hip-hop artist. He really hid away. You couldn’t see his face. It’s always been about being organic with music. I love jamming. I’m a huge fan of being free and not feeling pressure to be the whole package, which is not just challenging as an actor, but also to be categorized as the leading man or given the hero role. With Grasshapa, it started with me being a skater and a New York City urban adventure person. As I get older, I want it to be more about my wisdom, growth, struggles, and my feelings of coming into myself. The best thing I ever did with music was simply messing around and being extremely free, without fear of making wild choices. Often, those wild choices end up being the deepest, truest, and most organic. I’ve always loved making songs. Writing a song and trying to create its structure is freer than diagnosing someone else’s script or writing your own feature-length film. It’s shorter and freer. That’s what I’ve loved about writing and creating, especially lyrics, is letting a verse lead to a chorus.
Grasshapa’s Low Tide is available on all streaming platforms.
This interview has been edited for length, brevity, and clarity.