Said Sara

San Francisco singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Said Sara (aka David Benson) is coming full-circle.

The alt-folk acoustic Said Sara is a genuine extension of singer-songwriter David Benson’s musical and psychological essence. Its music is as all-encompassing as it is personal. As a child of the 70’s, he grew up on the singer-songwriters of that era: Stevens, Croce, Taylor, Buckingham. But Benson was/is a metalhead and a punk (yes, both) in the 80s, 90s and beyond. Benson wrote dark, stripped-down hymns in the early-mid 90s, which never saw the light of day until Said Sara’s self-titled EP was released in 2020. With a reignited interest in songwriting, the singles I Star as You, Bleedways and Sea were released in the two years following. Same is Benson’s most intimate (and catchiest) release to date.

David is the drummer of San Francisco-based crust punk-turned-death metal veterans Acephalix, whose triumphant Theothanatology album (engineered by Grammy-winner Greg Wilkinson) topped many a year-end list.

There is a 2-way passage between the poppy but somber, acoustic-rooted Said Sara and the aforementioned strain of sonic extremity: Transition. David spent 15 years as guitarist/vocalist-turned vocalist of this genre-obscuring, ahead-of-its-time clique, whose sole full-length, 1994’s Spine, was released by the ultra-legendary SST Records.

Said Sara is a true passion-project which has become a compulsory infatuation. From its inception, Said Sara has been driven by unrestricted instinct. It is formed of true heart and avidity, and its confinements are few.

David lives with his family in San Francisco, where he was born and raised. He is a Special Education teacher at a public high school in San Francisco.