413

413 is the debut EP by Exist Elsewhere, a four-piece from USC Thornton’s Popular Music Program in the early 2010s:

Noah Benardout (lead vocals, guitar, keys) · Luke Francis Walton (lead guitar, vocals; co-write, co-produce) · Brandon Michael Woodward (drums, vocals; later half of FEiN) · Nick Petrou (bass, vocals), per Andrew Gant’s Tokyo credits

Origin: Exist Elsewhere started when Luke joined Noah Benardout’s backing band. The July 2012 run at the Hard Rock Cafe on Hollywood Boulevard was billed as Noah Benardout, not as Exist Elsewhere. Mickie’s Zoo (June 27, 2012) lists Fridays July 6, 13, 20, and 27 at 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Noah at 10:45 p.m. (11:15 p.m. on July 27), with other support acts. Buzzbands.la (July 9, 2012) lists “Noah Benardout at the Hard Rock Café Hollywood” for that week. Neither piece names the band. Luke Walton and Brandon Woodward were in it. A July 5, 2012 post is the video-billboard still in front of the cafe. The caption says Luke is on that screen, and that the band plays every Friday that month at 10:30. The band’s GigTown bio says Exist Elsewhere was born at 11:45 p.m. on July 27, 2012 at that Hard Rock, the last night of the residency. Luke and Brandon left before they recorded and released their first FEiN music, #Grownupz (August 25, 2014, FEiN Times Issue #1), and became FEiN. Noah continued Exist Elsewhere.

Sonicbids (Farah Joan Fard, March 10, 2014) prints the next lineup: Noah Benardout, drummer Elijah Wood, guitarist Josh Jaramillo, and bassist Mark Pacificar. Luke Walton’s account: that is the band that replaced him and Brandon after they left to start FEiN. The piece is that lineup’s REACH 2014 tour with NVEEE. It kicked off March 7 in Riverside, fourteen cities in six states that month, with SXSW on March 14 and 15. The same piece recalls the 2013 iNDIE iNNOVATION win and the 413 EP. Elijah Wood in that roster is the drummer (Electrify Your Strings), not the actor. His page later calls the tour a 40-show run. The March 10 article says fourteen cities. Luke, Brandon, and Nick are not on that roster.

Two early songs were recorded at Blue Microphones’ corporate studio in the Los Angeles area; those recordings are preserved on SoundCloud via the engineer who tracked the sessions. On June 12, 2013, a post shows Frank Rosato at the console in his studio, mixing the last notes for the upcoming EP. The other people in the room are not named. Luke Walton’s account of the EP’s engineering: he, Brandon Woodward and Frank Rosato all engineered 413, and Rosato mixed and mastered it.

The band won the 2013 Macworld/iWorld iNDIE iNNOVATION Championship in San Francisco on January 31, 2013, finals against Mister Loveless via Sonicbids (championship write-up; the March 10, 2014 Sonicbids piece also calls them the first-place winner), documented on the official Macworld/iWorld session video (Exist Elsewhere at 28:12). Prize: open for Little Feat at the Mezzanine Blast party. USC Thornton names Luke Walton (BM ’13) and Brandon Woodward (BM ’14). A 2014 Salvation Army concert bio also says the band won a State Farm Eventful Fan Contest; no original contest archive is on this site. Their sound was tagged as Daft Punk-meets-Phoenix / Muse-meets-Coldplay, with layered arrangements and four-part vocal harmonies, self-produced in Pro Tools and Logic.

The EP landed August 2, 2013: four tracks, about seventeen minutes, on Spotify and Apple Music: Tokyo, Can’t Fall, Unwhole, Genesis. Can’t Fall later synced nationally in a Pantene commercial featuring Zooey Deschanel, the band’s PR Newswire bio names the placement. The Tokyo music video, directed by Andrew Gant for Private School Entertainment, was shot with the Xbox Kinect. Gant’s portfolio calls it the project that split his career toward narrative film and volumetric/VFX capture (RGBDToolkit / Kinect lineage); No Film School and Kotaku featured it (per his credits page). A behind-the-scenes featurette documents making film and art with the Xbox Kinect as capture device. No Film School interviewed Gant about that setup and records his credit to Sarah Oh for the lightman. The band’s Vimeo upload lists her for lightman concept and art, and Marisa Papadopoulos as set photographer. Vexare’s Tokyo (Vexare Remix) is a separate SoundCloud upload, timestamp 2013-08-19T19:33:07Z. Other public footprints include sessions at Olympus Audio Studios. On August 14, 2013 they played Tokyo and Unwhole live on The Artie Lange Show, and were interviewed; USC Thornton posted the same day and said the band had recently finished an East Coast tour. Luke says the Indiegogo campaign Become a Lifetime Exist Elsewhere VIP is how that tour, including the New York trip for the show, got paid for. BackerTracker records the campaign, by Luke Walton: $20,145 raised against an $18,000 goal, from 118 backers. The tracker states the purpose as completing the debut EP and getting the music onto both coasts. The Indiegogo page itself was behind a bot check when this was filed, so the pledge text is not transcribed here.

On April 21, 2013, the first graduating class of USC Thornton’s Popular Music Program played the Troubadour (free, 7:30pm). DOLO Los Angeles printed Luke Walton’s bio on that bill: “Fender and Line6 endorsed artist, Luke Walton performs extensively as a lead guitarist and vocalist in numerous projects, as well has his own band, Exist Elsewhere. A graduating senior in USC’s prestigious Popular Music Program, he’s been featured on Isle of Wight radio (in the UK), nationally syndicated radio, USA Today, Country Weekly Magazine, and local TV. He will be touring nationally with Exist Elsewhere this summer.” Isle of Wight is Live on Isle of Wight Radio (October 14, 2012 session). Country Weekly is the 2009 print feature. The Fender and Line 6 endorsement, the USA Today piece, the unnamed syndicated radio show, and the national summer tour are this bio’s claims. What the summer actually documents is the Sunset Strip Music Festival (August 2), the City of West Hollywood free outdoor showcase across from The Roxy that Luke says is probably that Getty photo, and The Artie Lange Show (August 14). Macworld, in January, had already happened. At that show he demoed a Line 6 POD Mobile. That is a rig in the set, not an endorsement file.

Live archive: A July 13, 2009 photo is Exist Elsewhere at a bar in North County San Diego. The bar is not named, and the people in the frame are not named one by one. That date is earlier than the July 27, 2012 Hard Rock night the GigTown bio uses for the band’s start. A September 5, 2013 photo is an acoustic showcase at MTV corporate. Luke is on guitar. The other players are not named. An undated photo is Exist Elsewhere at Sonicbids headquarters. The people in that frame are not named one by one. July 27, 2013: the Ford Theater in Hollywood. Justin Klunk, Luke Walton, and Bonnie Brooksbank. The other people in the frame are not named. September 11, 2012: Exist Elsewhere at the Viper Room, Luke Walton taking a guitar solo on the catwalk. September 24, 2012: Luke Walton acoustic at Lestat’s Coffee House in San Diego. November 20, 2012: Exist Elsewhere performing in the House of Rock living room. The people in that frame are not named one by one. Aaron Dowler was the bassist before Nick Petrou. He is the bassist in an undated Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood photo. The other people in that frame are not named. Exist Elsewhere on E! News with Giuliana Rancic. The screen reads Dec 10. The year is not on the screen. The people on the couch are not named one by one. An undated photo is a showcase at Line 6 headquarters. The people in the frame are not named one by one. Another undated photo is Exist Elsewhere filming for a MySpace relaunch event. They were told they would be featured artists. Whether they were featured is not known. The people in that frame are not named one by one. Another undated photo is Exist Elsewhere with Mutemath. The people in that frame are not named one by one. Getty / WireImage documents the 413 lineup on Sunset Strip Music Festival, Day 1 (August 2, 2013, West Hollywood): Nick Petrou (bass), Brandon Woodward (drums), Noah Benardout (vocals/guitar), Luke Walton (guitar), the same release date as 413. The City of West Hollywood posted the free outdoor showcase for that festival on July 31, 2013: August 2, 2013, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., the outdoor lot across the street from The Roxy Theatre at 8950 Sunset Boulevard, with Franky Perez & The Truth, Jessica Childress, Great White Buffalo, Exist Elsewhere, and theIndependent.fm DJs. Luke Walton played that showcase. His account is that it is probably the Getty photo. It is not the Troubadour show. November 16, 2013: Exist Elsewhere at the Sunset Marquis. The post calls it the gig. It also says Joe Jonas opened with a DJ set. The photo is the band, three people who are not named in the frame. Luke says the other trace of Joe is a picture with him, not a bill, and that picture is not filed here. Earlier live: a September 28, 2012 post is the guitar rig for a live recording session and interview for Isle of Wight Radio, recorded at the House of Rock, 2009 La Mesa Drive, Santa Monica. The Santa Monica Mirror (November 27, 2012) is the public description of that house. It does not name the band. The released record, Live on Isle of Wight Radio, is the Oct 14, 2012 session: Aaron Dowler on bass. Bandcamp dates the release November 1, 2012. The three masters are free on that page. He was the bassist before Nick Petrou and is not on the EP. Guild Guitars (page captured Jan 27, 2021; the live URL now 404s) has the same lineup recording acoustic versions of The Great Beyond and Digital Life at the Guild Artist Showroom in Burbank, and a Nov 2 show at Tommy’s Place on the USC campus. An early live source: Exist Elsewhere performing Noah Benardout’s “Luna” (YouTube). Early work is also archived at Luke Walton Music on ReverbNation and Noah Benardout on ReverbNation.

In the Luke Walton timeline, Exist Elsewhere sits after The Luke Walton Band (San Diego → USC, 2009–2011). Luke and Brandon left before they recorded and released #Grownupz (August 25, 2014) and became FEiN. Noah Benardout continued Exist Elsewhere. Song-meaning notes: Tokyo · Can’t Fall · Unwhole · Genesis (4/4).

Noah Benardout (1995–2019) went on to record as LOVR®; he was killed by a drunk driver in August 2019. May he rest in peace. The Noah Benardout Foundation advocates DUI prevention in his memory. Please consider a donation there or to similar causes.

Listen: Spotify · Apple Music · Tokyo music video · Andrew Gant: Tokyo · Can’t Fall: Pantene commercial · Tokyo Kinect BTS (Vimeo) · Artie Lange: Tokyo · Artie Lange: Unwhole

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