Story & Lesson Highlights with Ben Elder of Summerhill

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Ben Elder. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning Ben, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Sharing the art. This artist project has long existed in my head, and to me it’s a whole universe with a million interesting nooks and crannies. The sound I’ve been crafting and the lineage my medium exists in are things I take very seriously. But sometimes, you become the perfectionist you swear you aren’t. It’s part of being any sort of creative – being nose-to-canvas while everyone else is behind the guardrails. You get obsessive.

My challenge to myself has been to unlearn that cycle and build a low-stakes, modular system I could follow without feeling restricted. That’s the SNACKPACK series’ mission statement, essentially – growing in my artistry, doing things scared, and letting people who vibe with it fall in and grow alongside me. I’m trying to make room for fun and imperfection, which is a lot more sustainable for me, and honestly, it’s truer to the real person I am outside of my art.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Ben Elder AKA Snacktime! and I am a multi-disciplinary artist based out of Atlanta, Georgia. My main project right now is Snacktime! – a sample-based dance project that stitches together house, soul, funk, disco, and jazz. It’s both a love letter to groove-based music and a collage-style exploration of the ideas pioneered by the sampling greats. I release all my work under the umbrella of NONSTOP SNACKS, which has become both a brand identity and a creative world for this new era.

Beyond production and engineering, I’ve expanded into visual work to build out this world. I taught myself 3D modeling, animation, and coding, and with help from a close collaborator created a series of animated visualizers starring my mascot, Crunch – a worker at NONSTOP SNACKS INC., where Snack Pax! flavor varieties are mass-produced. It’s a playful way to let people engage with the music beyond just audio, and like the EPs themselves, the visuals will keep evolving as the series grows.

Since dropping my record Chex Mix! in 2023, I’ve been out trying to gather new experiences and just exist. I had a brief stint interning at a recording studio here in Atlanta, which I learned a lot of useful things from. It sort of rejuvenated my “just drop it” mentality. I’ve been playing more DJ sets, sharpening my chops on the turntables and controllers. I even started working on a game, just for fun. I’m really into the whole PSX horror revival, and I’m trying to blend that with a southern gothic aesthetic inspired by the natural wonder of Georgia and the quirkiness of growing up here.

At the heart of it all, what I’m building is 100% indie. It’s either just me, or me and my friends, creating everything you see and hear. I think supporting indie artists is more urgent than ever. Art reminds us that we’re more than what we do every day, more than where we work or who we know. We need community, and I try to inject that spirit of connection into everything I make.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My fiancée, Katie, has been on this journey with me since day one. We’re coming up on eight years together. I started really doing this seriously around 2020, but she was even around for the attempts before that. And even though it hasn’t been easy, Katie has always been a mirror to me and my fears. The pursuit of an artistic life hasn’t come without a lot of sacrifices. I’ve had to deal with a lot of shady sorts, exploitation, financial worries and more. I wanted to give up so many times, but she was always there to pick up the pieces, which I’m deeply grateful for. I’m very lucky to have a partner who pushes me to pursue what I love, even when it seems a bit crazy.

What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
I don’t know if I’d necessarily call anything I’ve done a “failure,” but I’ve definitely had moments where things didn’t go the way I thought they would. For a while, I was hung up on the idea that if my work didn’t hit a certain commercial metric, it meant I was failing. If I didn’t get editorial support, I was failing. But I realized the way I was framing it for myself was the bigger issue.

Failure isn’t just not getting on a playlist, or not getting that call back from the A&R who said you’re next. I feel like most of the time, it’s just an expectation you built in your own head. And chasing those expectations is what was actually leading to me feeling so stuck.

What I’ve come around to believing is that success doesn’t have anything to do with numbers. It’s having amazing people around me, friends I get to make art with, my fiancée, my cat, the hydrangeas blooming in the backyard every spring. That doesn’t mean I don’t care if people hear my music, of course I want it to stretch as wide as it can, but I don’t attach my worth to that validation. So if “failing” has taught me anything, it’s that I should redefine what success looks like on my own terms.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
Absolutely, it has to be Snacktime! and building out NONSTOP SNACKS as a brand and sound. My music is constantly shifting and growing, just like I try to do as an individual. The SNACKPACK series is built to serve this ideology, a modular world that I’m exploring just as much as everyone else.

When I released the first Snacktime! project, Ritz Mix, back in 2020, I was really enamored by the works of J Dilla, Pete Rock, Madlib. That love for golden era hip-hop was really reflected on that record, and even my singer-songwriter project. All the money I made off of those projects, I pretty much spent on records. I was crate-digging for hours once, sometimes twice a week – just bringing myself to school on everything funk, disco, and soul. I became really obsessed with any music from Detroit. Learning to DJ with those records opened the door to house and techno, and artists like Moodymann, Andrés, and Theo Parrish blew my mind with how they recontextualized classic cuts. That inspiration shaped a lot of the decisions on Chex Mix!.

More recently, on my first international trip this past year, I walked into a thrift store in rural Ireland and heard this crazy track by Craig David called “Fill Me In,” specifically the Sunship remix. Thus started my deep dive into two-step and UK garage – Groove Chronicles, Todd Edwards, Artful Dodger… it’s amazing how many rabbit holes you fall down with music if you’re keeping your ears open. To me, all of this feels like a pretty natural path to fall down if you love groove-based music and feel. As a music consumer I want to be challenging myself to get out of my comfort zone. This is true for me as an artist as well.

Whether it’s the SNACKPACKS, other Ben Elder projects, producing for others, or even making a game – I want it all to feel like it’s coming from the same person. I strive for honesty and authenticity. For the people that hear it, I want them to really hear it. Because in the end, my art is just a reflection of the person I am: my values, my taste, my confidence, and my fears.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
Over and over again. What comes to mind most is the minor streaming success I had with my singer-songwriter project, under Ben Elder back in 2020. A song off my EP Vitamin Energy titled “Moonsong” got on some bigger Spotify editorial playlists – nothing major, but enough to get me a little buzz with some publishers and labels. It was all really unexpected, and it all was happening smack in the middle of the pandemic and George Floyd protests, and honestly I was an anxious wreck. But it led me into some really interesting experiences. A lot of stuff I wasn’t ready for, and simultaneously the worst time to do sessions while we were all socially distancing. I ended up folding and shelving a couple projects along the way, because I felt like I kept trying to either recreate the success of that song, or please others with what I thought they wanted. It was a really constricting time for me and my creativity, but I have a lot of compassion for that younger version of myself.

One of the things I used to repeat as a wide-eyed 18-year-old arriving at music school was that I’d be happy if my music even changed one person’s life. And I did that. Somebody DMed me a screenshot of themselves listening to “Moonsong,” and said, “This summer I will sit faded af on a rooftop in Prague listen to this and think about life. Thank you so much for this song.” As silly as it sounds, I think about that impact a lot. And that’s just one of many. Those little messages, the few who stick around and follow each project, genuinely bring me the most satisfaction. I shipped a Snacktime! shirt to Switzerland – they might be one of two listeners there total. But how cool is that?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nonstopsnacks.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ben.elder
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nonstopsnacks
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nonstopsnacks
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nonstopsnacks

Image Credits
DJ Vision
3denemy