Nino Van Benton is the collective of Anthony DeMaggio and Will Tompkins. Having gone their separate ways after attending the same high school, the two converged in early 2007 to work on this project. Then a rough collection of song ideas brought to Will by Anthony, the two discovered a common passion and interest, particularly for electronic music. A complementary relationship and musical language soon developed; driven on one end by Anthony’s prolific songwriting and expressive idea generation, and on the other, Will’s innate technical ability to creatively construct and assemble sound. As things unfolded, they relocated The Subterranean to a centralized location in an effort to increase productivity and creativity, setting the stage for Nino Van Benton. Look for a release from the up-and-coming electronic duo in the coming months.

Nino is the alter ego of singer-songwriter Anthony DeMaggio and his Italian nickname. It represents the many different shades and mindsets of himself. For many passing years, Anthony has formed and lead several projects/bands with consistent passion and disciplined work ethic. Something that developed in the embryonic stages of his writing at age 15 and has ultimately remained as an underlying theme in his music with the humble reminder to never settle.

Van Benton is the alter ego of producer and sound designer Will Tompkins. He has been playing with and recording bands/artists for a decade. After studying sound design in Vancouver, Canada and experimenting in the film audio world, Will came home to create his masterpiece, House of Sleep, with band Auto Pilot - an obsessive project that isolated him in his studio, The Subterranean, for nearly 4 years. It was during this time honing his craft that Will pushed into new creative territory, spurring the direction of future electronic abstractions.