In early 2025, following the end of his record deal and his final EP as Michael J. Benjamin, the artist re-emerged under a new name:
Virgil W.X.
The first single, “Me and God on the PCH,” was written during the 2019 wildfires in Southern California. It functions as a hymn or a séance, an attempt to eternalize a time marked by the pandemic, creative burnout, lost friends, narcotics and the dissonance of a shifting reality.
“I started looking back at old clips I took from that time. That’s when I thought to revisit the demos from that era, and I stumbled on ‘Me and God on the PCH.’ It pulled me straight back to those years, between 2017 through 2021. I wanted to honor the people that shaped me, let me in their world and who were equally part of my journey. I ended up recording the song properly in early 2025, right as the Palisades fires were burning again. It’s as if the whole thing had come full circle.”
Rooted in the American sound, Virgil W.X. draws influence from Wilco, Lana Del Rey, Tom Petty, and Neil Young.
In early 2025, following the end of his record deal and his final EP as Michael J. Benjamin, the artist re-emerged under a new name:
Virgil W.X.
The first single, “Me and God on the PCH,” was written during the 2019 wildfires in Southern California. It functions as a hymn or a séance, an attempt to eternalize a time marked by the pandemic, creative burnout, lost friends, narcotics and the dissonance of a shifting reality.
“I started looking back at old clips I took from that time. That’s when I thought to revisit the demos from that era, and I stumbled on ‘Me and God on the PCH.’ It pulled me straight back to those years, between 2017 through 2021. I wanted to honor the people that shaped me, let me in their world and who were equally part of my journey. I ended up recording the song properly in early 2025, right as the Palisades fires were burning again. It’s as if the whole thing had come full circle.”
Rooted in the American sound, Virgil W.X. draws influence from Wilco, Lana Del Rey, Tom Petty, and Neil Young.