Benjamin Moffat – Bringing Dude & Dad Energy to His Company & Rock Band

Recorded in the Urban Meeting Room at Kiln SLC (Gateway Mall)

Company: Gantry

Band: King Nico on Spotify

Book recommendation: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson

Gibb A Little Love video

This episode features Benjamin Moffat, the founder of Gantry Studios, a video production company. Benjamin shares his journey, insights, and the lessons he’s learned from running his business.

Benjamin’s entrepreneurial journey began with a desire to create a work environment where artists could focus on their craft without worrying about administrative tasks. He wanted to create a culture where artists could be themselves, tell their jokes, bring their unique perspectives, and work hard to create art.

One of the unique aspects of Gantry Studios is its approach to work. Benjamin believes in the power of authenticity and passion. He is a super fan of the work his team produces, and he brings this enthusiasm to his interactions with clients. He sees himself as the perfect liaison between his team and the clients, ensuring that the artists can focus on their work without worrying about client emails or spreadsheets.

Despite being the owner, Benjamin still gets a chance to be creative every day. He enjoys the opportunity to share initial reactions, help craft and steer projects, and educate and challenge his team members. He also appreciates the opportunity to mentor and share his ideas and methods.

Benjamin is excited about the future of art and creativity. He believes that as artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent, humans will be challenged to bring more of a rebellious and human spirit to the work they create. He is excited to see how humans will express themselves and how new art forms might emerge.

In addition to his work at Gantry Studios, Benjamin is also a musician. He parallels being in a band and running a business, often using band metaphors to explain business concepts. He believes that his musician experiences have helped him run his business.

Benjamin’s story offers valuable insights for current and aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those interested in the creative industries. His approach to creating a supportive work environment for artists and his passion for the work his team produces provide a unique perspective on running a successful business.

Kyle Knowles:
Hello there. Welcome to episode number six of the Maker Manager Money podcast, a podcast about entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, founders, business owners, and business partnerships from startups to stay ups, to inspire entrepreneurs to keep going, and future entrepreneurs to just start. My name is Kyle Knowles, and I’m just trying to make some cool content at Kiln. Daddy made you some content. That’s K-I-L-N as in never going to give you up. Kiln provides working communities that are handcrafted and programmed to elevate lifestyle and performance. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Kiln is the lifetime fitness of co-working communities.
Tonight’s guest is Benjamin Moffat, CEO and one of three founders of Gantry, a design motion and video production agency. Gantry just had its seven-year anniversary, and they do work for everyone from Adobe to Microsoft. Gantry prides itself in the ability to turn complexity into simplicity, specializing in cell style animation, 2D motion graphics, 3D animation, and live action shoots. Ben is skilled in leadership, business development, and marketing with an educational background focused on liberal arts and behavioral science from the University of Utah. Ben is also a guitarist and songwriter in the Salt Lake City based band, King Niko. Earlier this year, King Niko released their latest single Pockets to their 12,000 monthly Spotify listeners.
Ben, welcome to the Maker Manager Money podcast. It’s so good to see you again.

Benjamin Moffat:
Hey, Kyle, it’s good to be here. Thanks for having me, man.

Kyle Knowles:
I’m having a little bit of deja vu. We won’t let the listeners in on why we’re having deja vu right now, but did you notice I snuck a Rick roll into the opening?

Benjamin Moffat:
I did, of course. Never going to give you up. Dude, can you do the voice? That’s the thing.

Kyle Knowles:
I can’t. I can’t really do it. Can you try it? You sing. Come on. Just give it one.

Benjamin Moffat:
Never going to give you up. Never going to let you down.

Kyle Knowles:
That was a little more Michael McDonald, but a little-

Benjamin Moffat:
Maybe.

Kyle Knowles:
It’s very close.

Benjamin Moffat:
We’re no strangers to love. I love Rick.

Kyle Knowles:
For sure.

Benjamin Moffat:
He’s one of the best.

Kyle Knowles:
Yes. Yes, he is. All right. So, you are a CEO with your two partners, Ian and Kory. They’re both creative directories… Directories. They’re both creative directors. Does that make them the makers, and you, the manager?

Benjamin Moffat:
I don’t know, man. They’re so involved in every component of Gantry that I would say the traditional model of a manager telling them what to do is definitely not the case. I’m not telling them what to do. We’re really like a three-legged stool. They’re involved in everything, but there’s these times when Kory and Ian need to go be creative, and I guess that is a maker. So, what I try to do is help steer the ship, free up some of their time, give them the opportunities and the resources they need. I almost… I’m like a human shield of business stuff so they can just geek out. So in a way, maybe I am the manager, and they’re the maker.

Kyle Knowles:
You’ve talked about the energy you bring also to the team, right?

Benjamin Moffat:
I’m like… It’s called dad vibes.

Kyle Knowles:
You bring that dad energy.

Benjamin Moffat:
Yeah. I think… Really, I’m surrounded by people that are much smarter than me, and when I see the art they create, I’m like, “Well, you’re definitely more talented than me,” but I’ve had this history, a bit of a street smart history. So, I’d say I have this… I’ve run my own companies off and on since I was probably 27, just different things that have come and go. So, I am able to just help be that voice and almost just an entity in the room of, “All right, I think things are going to be okay. Ben’s going to help make sure things are okay.” That’s what I like. That’s what I love to do.

Kyle Knowles:
You bring that confidence too to the team that everything’s going to work out.

Benjamin Moffat:
I never thought about that, but it is a quiet confidence because I’m just like, “We’re going to be good. We’re seven years in. We’re good now. We’re going to be good, and we’re going to keep this vibe going,” but I’d never have really thought of myself as a manager or a order giver. I’m more of a listener and then one that tries to decipher, almost like a Babelfish like, “All right, here’s what I’m hearing, and then here’s how we can manifest that, so let’s go do it.”

Kyle Knowles:
Nice. I love it. Let’s go into that. You mentioned that from the time you were 27 or something, you’ve been doing different things, working for yourself in different capacities. Let’s talk about that just for a second. Was your mom or your dad ever… Did they ever own a business or something like that?

Benjamin Moffat:
It’s funny you just bring that up. They did, and I hadn’t really thought about maybe their influence on my entrepreneurial spirit. My mom ran this… People would put ads in the Enquirer, and she would have… She’d put an ad, and then people would order these crystal kits that she would make, and most of her orders came from inmates in prison. I’m trying to remember the name of her company, but this would’ve been like ’88 or ’89, placing ads in the Enquirer, getting orders, and just really mom and pop up. Then my father was an executive at Utah Transit Authority. He was burned out on corporate life, and he went and became an independent, what, consultant.
He was the first that showed me that… I’d say both of them, but my dad went hardcore all in. I was like, “Oh, I’m in a teen…” I’m a teenager at the time like, “Oh, my dad just quit his big job, and now he’s out there hustling.” I’m like, “This is cool, and he seemed a lot happier.” It was just… I think I’ve always seen it around me. I’ve seen people go for it. My first job in high school was selling futons, and I worked for this really interesting hippie dude that I was like, “Cool, this guy’s just a regular person, but he started his own company.” He has the charisma and the discipline to do it.
So, I’ve always had these role models around me. I mean, those are just… That’s just up until I’m in high school still. I’ve had these three people that have shown me, “Yeah, you can do it.”

Kyle Knowles:
So, you didn’t have maybe some hesitancy that other people who didn’t have those examples maybe have to… You had the guts to go do it, because you’re like, “Hey, my dad can do it. My dad can-

Benjamin Moffat:
Totally, man. I think I saw… A lot of it was this pursuit from money and prestige to a lifestyle and just a whole new way of framing their own life, and so I was like, “That’s cool. I like that.” That really made me want to… As I came into higher education, graduated high school, college, I had this really rebellious spirit. It was always the Frank Sinatra, “I’ll do it my way.” So, I struggled with college and being told what to do, and I had great classes. I mean, I went liberal arts, and I’m still being angsty over my liberal arts courses, so basically in the pockets of working restaurants and just getting by money. I had a few opportunities to start companies, and I went for them.
One was a furniture company called Lou Fox, and I would import furniture from Denmark. This is in the early days of the internet, and sell it on a website that I built. This is pre big commerce, pre all these. It was very custom development, and building a shopping cart module, and trying to skin it. That’s where I was like… We made money.

Kyle Knowles:
Wow.

Benjamin Moffat:
Right off the bat, we were selling futons and this Danish furniture I was importing. I was like, “Oh, this is working.” Really, it’s mostly a result of just the courage and the tenacity to go and do it. So, I’ve just been very fortunate to have role models, and then just be dumb enough to go for it.

Kyle Knowles:
Sometimes, that’s what it takes. You’ve worked for other companies and other people. I really would like to go into the space where you’re working for someone else. Do you have any examples of how you were maybe entrepreneurial, even though you were within an organization, and it wasn’t your company?

Benjamin Moffat:
For sure. I would say the industry I’m in now is creative arts advertising industry. The job I had before Gantry was a company called Verite. My mentor there was the CEO, this woman named Kim Jones.

Kyle Knowles:
Our good friend, Kim Jones.

Benjamin Moffat:
Yep. She’s a lovely human. I think she saw something into me where she’s like, “I’m going to… I’m not going to just direct this kid, but I’m going to put him at the bottom. He’s going to answer phones for two to three years, and I’m going to see what he does in that environment.” I think I thank her for it. She would show me little moves that she was doing on sales, and I’d listen. I was right next to her office, so I could listen to her. Really, I’d say I was like, “All right, this can’t be my life.” I’m 34 answering phones and cleaning up oatmeal bowls for teenagers that are programmers and stodge. So, I think in that moment, I was like, all right, I need to learn how to understand this industry, and then go do what I was good at, which is selling things, basically helping people get what they need, a broker of sorts.
So, I was able to land a few accounts from the receptionist’s desk, and was promoted to a sales coordinator. I’d say that was a spirit of like, “I need to just get out of this position I’m in right now, because I know my boss sees that I have more. I know I have more. It’s up to me to really just show it. ” I’ve had other ideas within restaurants that I’ve worked out of like, “We should really…” I’m making this one drink that’s not on the menu, and we should just make it a menu item and get paid, and we’ll quit making Ben’s poolside on the side. We’ll make it-

Kyle Knowles:
A legit drink you can order.

Benjamin Moffat:
… a legit drink, and you can get people going. I think it’s just a matter of I see things… I see little pockets of opportunity, and like, “This could be filled up,” and then I usually just speak up. I’m that guy that never is… I don’t know what that word means. Just the other day, I learned what precipice means, and my friend’s like, “You don’t know what precipice means like, “I’m the precipice?” I’m like, “I really don’t, man, but at least I’m here telling you I don’t, and if you could tell me, and now I know.”

Kyle Knowles:
That’s awesome, willingness to say when you don’t know.

Benjamin Moffat:
Exactly. I’m a big fan of just being candid, brutally candid.

Kyle Knowles:
I believe that the smartest people in the world are willing to say they don’t know when they don’t know.

Benjamin Moffat:
Right? I love that when I hear that. It’s like, “Cool. You don’t need to know everything. You don’t need to have a snappy answer to every single thing in the world.” I think it was… Do you know the furniture designer Charles Eames?

Kyle Knowles:
I’ve heard the name before.

Benjamin Moffat:
He’s the Eames chair. He said, “90% of my design is focusing on what I don’t know. I’ll base my entire career off pursuing what I don’t know rather than what I know.” That led to some of the most timeless and classic designs we know today, just because he was hungry to be not the smartest person in the room, and to ask those questions. People like that really inspire me where they’re candid, and they’re hungry to learn things, and they speak up when they don’t.

Kyle Knowles:
I like that.

Benjamin Moffat:
Yeah, man.

Kyle Knowles:
I guess, you’ve worked for other people, and you’ve worked for yourself. What do you feel like the biggest difference is transitioning to working for yourself? I mean, obviously, even if you have your own company, you are working for someone, right? You’ve got customers. You’re maybe not working for the man anymore, but you have customers, but what is that transition from working for someone else to forming your own company with a couple of really good coworkers from your former company? We can talk a little bit about the history and things, but what was that like, and what was the difference between forming your own company, your own organization with your two work buddies, and then before when it was working for someone else, when you’re working together as coworkers?

Benjamin Moffat:
The biggest, most exciting part of it all, I think, is the opportunity to almost David Bowie yourself. Maybe you were Ziggy Stardust. I mean, no one’s that cool at a corporate job, but let’s say you’re going from Ziggy Stardust to Let’s Dance David Bowie, two different David Bowies. But you get to decide like, “This is who I want to be now, and this is where I want to focus my effort.” Whereas before, in the corporate gig, in my instance, it was like, “We are going to sell everything at this last company I was at,” and they were very successful at it, but I saw… You want to play to somebody, not everybody.
So, it was really rewarding, and I think it’s something that every entrepreneur gets the chance to do, and the really good ones say, “I’m just going all in on this sliver of the market or this thing that I can see being valuable and interesting to me, and hopefully to other people that want to be involved with it.” So, I think the ability to unleash your mind a little bit, and get away from, “All right, we’re doing all this. We’re doing this.” I’m just… I know my agenda. I got to do this to just really freeing up that brain and saying, “All right, I am now… I’ve seen all of this. I know that I’m good at this, and I know this is in high demand, so let’s just go right here.”
For me, that’s how Gantry’s success has been defined since seven years ago. Just we are going to be the premier video production shop in Salt Lake that does animations that people always go, “What? How do they do that?” I just want it to be a part of something creative. I want it to be with the weird brooding and cool misfit artist type. Those are my people. So, I was like, “I want to hang out with those type of people for the rest of my career. I want to do different projects every month or so, not the same thing, and I want to do that via video.” That was the end of the talk. It’s like, “Cool, let’s go build that ship, and let’s go sell that channel right now.”

Kyle Knowles:
How long did it take you, Ian and Kory, to narrow in into that focus?

Benjamin Moffat:
We were all pretty much in agreement on it. I think we saw the pitfalls of the Omnichannel 360 advertising agency experience, and we realized that at the end of the day, websites always go out of scope, and they’re so hard. There’s always something that’s broken. I mean, it’s tricky to build a website. A video, you get it going, but you build it, and then it’s done. So, we all… I think the focus of Gantry was pretty clear. I shared my vision with Kory and Ian, and they’re like, “Yep, let’s just not do websites and apps and UX and PowerPoints.” They knew all the stuff that when they were designing that, it’s like, “This stuff sucks. I can’t design another.”

Kyle Knowles:
I noticed you mentioned PowerPoints. It’s like, “No, we don’t want to do PowerPoints.”

Benjamin Moffat:
No, man. That’s a lot of it was listening to artists, so it was just honing in like, “Let’s no, no, no, no, no.” Yep, those are the things you were… It was never like, “I had the vision,” and we were all just pretty much like, “We love doing video. We can do great video, so let’s just focus there.”

Kyle Knowles:
I love it. What’s your superpower then? What would you say besides the dad energy, that kind of stuff, what is your superpower that you bring to the table?

Benjamin Moffat:
Man, I’d say it’s just a genuine passion for the work that we create more than I’d say the artist. I mean, they’ll do something, and I’ll go home and watch it 45 times, and just drool over it. I mean, it’s like hearing a great album cut or something to me. The work that the team produces, it stirs me inside, and so I think it’s almost like the super fan getting to run the band or be in the band. It’s a genuine passion for what we do and what I know we can do to help clients that have a problem to solve. It’s like, “Man, if you come to me with a problem, and I can think about it with the team, I know we can do something that will fix your problem, and make you look amazing, and make people smile or have some sort of emotional reaction to…”
I love the emotional aspect of my job, and I think my ability to bring that in and just internalize it, and then output it back to clients, and that enthusiasm, and that like, “I want you to have the greatest experience here with our team because we are the best.” I think I’m just the perfect… I’m that perfect liaison between our team and the client. People have seemed to like working with me over my career, and the team that I have seems to like working with me. So, I think that’s really it. It’s just, again, I’m the perfect human shield for artists. I know exactly how to keep them busy, keep them paid, keep them with dynamic work, and they never have to send an email. I don’t think one of our artists has ever sent a client email in seven years.

Kyle Knowles:
That is amazing.

Benjamin Moffat:
I don’t want them. I don’t want them doing that.

Kyle Knowles:
Get them focused on-

Benjamin Moffat:
I want them to have fun and just not ever think about spreadsheets or anything. I really don’t want them to do that. It’s not like… I really don’t want them to do that, and I love doing that.

Kyle Knowles:
I can feel, and I can sense just the culture making the three of you have done at Gantry so-

Benjamin Moffat:
Thank you, Kyle. It really… That’s everything for us. You can feel vibe when you’re at work anywhere. I mean, it’s like here at Kiln, it just feels like, “Oh, I can be myself here. I can be my best self here.” Gantry, we have that same kind of vibe like, “Come. Tell your stupid jokes. Bring your weird anime figurines. Let’s talk about everything and anything, and let’s keep it weird. Then when it’s go time, let’s go hard, and let’s make some sweet art.”

Kyle Knowles:
I think what I’m hearing from you is that at previous jobs that you’re coming into, you’re coming into a culture. You’re coming into something, the processes, the vibe, whatever you want to say about it. But going out on your own, you were able to basically take a blank sheet of paper, and actually build a culture that you wanted not only for your partners to give them that freedom of creativity, but for yourself. You wanted a place that you could go to, you would feel comfortable. So, I just think it’s an amazing journey to hear how you did that and the results for it, and seven years later-

Benjamin Moffat:
It’s pretty trippy, right, seven years later.

Kyle Knowles:
Something must be working, right?

Benjamin Moffat:
Well, it’s funny because you can tell, right? I think I’ve always had this major dude energy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at a Taco Bell, and someone has said, “Are you from California, man?” Just echoing back to what you said, I remember at my old job, I would suit up hard, ties, tie bars, but I was always kind of a dude. But anymore, I’ve just really leaned into my most natural self and being… Authenticity is everything. I mean, if you are lucky enough to know who you are, what makes you happy, what you stand for, and then you’re brave enough to pursue that, man, your life’s going to be great.
I don’t care what you’re doing. You could be washing dishes. I don’t… If you’ve got that going, that’s great, so to make a culture of a whole company that’s just an extension of that, and be with like-minded artists and Kory and Ian who are just so remarkable, and every artist, Sean, Lindsay, Kira on our team, I can honestly say I’ve never really gone to work. I mean, there’s been a few times where it’s like, “Oh, the deadline’s today,” but we always lift each other up, and it’s a magical thing.

Kyle Knowles:
The past seven years, what’s one of the most memorable projects you worked on?

Benjamin Moffat:
Ooh, that’s a great question. I would say we recently did this video for Adobe, and it was basically a video to help them attract recent college graduates and new people entering the workforce to go work for them. They dreamt up this really crazy thing where it would be soundbites of their employees talking about the Adobe culture. Then for each soundbite, we would have a different scene of animation. So, it’s basically like you make a video. Usually, you pitch a style, and then the whole video’s in that style. Well, this video was like, I’d say, maybe eight or nine styles, and it was a minute-long video, so it was really snappy, really dynamic, lot of character animations.
I just saw every artist in our team put their own vibe into their scene that they were assigned, and then to see it come working in harmony and concert together, all of them like, “Oh wow.” To me, that video just shows the breadth of our team’s work, shows the spirit of our creativity and lightheartedness. It recently won an award at this thing called the 100 Show, which is the AIGA, which is a graphic arts association here in Utah. We were like, “We won an award for it.” We were like, “Whoa. Oh, dude, this is amazing.” It was nice to be acknowledged for that, and it is one of my favorites.
The second favorite is we just did a Barry Gibb clone video where I dressed up as Barry Gibb. That was fun to wear that much white pants, white shirt, gold necklace. So, I’ll save that story for another time, but that was another one recently that stood out.

Kyle Knowles:
I think we’ve got time.

Benjamin Moffat:
Okay, if you’ve got time, let me take-

Kyle Knowles:
Go ahead and take a drink, Ben.

Benjamin Moffat:
Let me drink. This is amazing, by the way. All right, here’s the story. My brother-in-law works at a high-end restaurant In Town, And He Tells Me For NBA Weekend, Nike Has Reserved His Restaurant. He’s like, “If you want, dude, I’d let you put your business card in this to-go bag of cookies, so they know who Gantry is.” I’m like, “Cool, dude. That’s so nice of you.” I’m like, “The business card will be cool. They’ll open it up, but what if we had a QR code on there, something inexperienced?” So, we quickly dreamt… This is over the course of on Wednesday, I find out about this, and the dinner’s on Friday. So, we dream up… I dream up this thing. I’ve been listening to a lot of Barry Gibb and Barbara Streisand. They have an album called Guilty.

Kyle Knowles:
Yes.

Benjamin Moffat:
I’ve been listening to that a lot in my free time. I’m like, “What if I dress up like Barry Gibb, and pretended to just be listening to music in my basement?” So when they open the video, it’s just me dressed up as Barry Gibb, and I said, “Hey, welcome to Salt Lake. We’re Gantry,” and I basically pitched the company. Then I just say, “Have a nice time at NBA Weekend, and we’ll see you later.” We make the video. We put the QR code. We print a little printout of Barry, the album cover, and it’s in the cookies. All right? The next day, I call my brother-in-law, and I go, “How did it go, man?” He’s like, “So, it wasn’t Nike.” I’m like, “So, Nike didn’t rent out the restaurant?” He’s like, “No. Nike’s main agency rented it out to entertain them for the night.”
I’m like, “Oh my God.” I just dropped these cards, and it looks like I’m just backdooring some deal. So, no hits on the video. We’re looking no hits. I go to work the next day. I tell the team. I’m like… Because we’ve been frantic, and everyone’s excited, and I tell them. Everyone’s like, “Oh my God,” and I’m bummed, and I don’t usually get bummed. They go, “Hey, let’s just print these out, and let’s just get them around town. Let’s see if it’s NBA All-Star weekend. It’ll still be busy. Let’s see what happens,” So we print out quarter sheets, and then I just went to every crosswalk next to the Delta Center, and just taped them up old school like it was a band flyer.
Dude, we got tons of hits. We didn’t get any business out of it, but we got tons of hits, and people just were like… Anyone that saw it was like, “This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. This is art for the sake of art.” It’s just a great example of us reacting quick, being small, and being able to just quickly do something, the team lifting each other up in a hard time. We pivoted and thought of something new to do, and it ended up being one of my favorite videos.

Kyle Knowles:
That’s great. We’ll be able to put links to both those videos then. I’ll get in the show notes.

Benjamin Moffat:
They’re live.

Kyle Knowles:
I can’t wait to see both of them.

Benjamin Moffat:
It’s a lot of polyester, Kyle.

Kyle Knowles:
What are you most excited about right now?

Benjamin Moffat:
Right now, I have rekindled my love of music, which has trickled into other parts of my life where I’ve rekindled my love of art in general. I’ve always had a genuine passion for it, but I’m excited about AI challenging humans to have more of a rebellious and human spirit in the work they create. I know that’s a big thing to say, but I think we have become as artists, not all of us, but I see it. I see a lot of copying, and I see a lot of like, “Hey, can you do this video exactly in this style?” It’s mood boards, and it’s this kind of looking to other work to then do your work. That’s how art works, the great artists still.
I mean, good artists borrow great artists still. I think by nature of things, art can be derivative, but the special art has that spirit of, “Whoa, dude, it just broke everything.” I mean, do you remember the first time you heard… I mean, for me, it was like 1991, I heard Smells like Teen Spirit. I was like, “I hadn’t heard a rock song like that,” or you-

Kyle Knowles:
No one had.

Benjamin Moffat:
No one had. I’m sure… I mean, there’s countless moments like that, and I think we are going to see some really cool art happening from humans. It’s already happening, but I think we’re going to be seeing a big press for it. I think the tag of a human made piece of art will carry a different way going forward. I think we’ll look at it in a different light, and we’ll think, “What was this person thinking about?” I know for me now, I’ll look at art, and I’ll just be like, “Yeah. Okay. Yeah.” I think we’re going to start seeing more of that connection on a broader scale. I think the general public’s going to be looking at art and saying, “What were they thinking about? What is…”
We’ll be thinking more than just the instantaneous reaction of it. We’ll think deeper about it. I think as the artist, we’ll be challenging ourselves to dig into like, “What am I? Who am I made of? What do I… What does this piece of art? Why does it need to come out of me?” There will always be your corporate stuff that we need to do, your infographics and stuff, but I still think that spirit will start to carry over into more work. I think you’ll start seeing some… I think we’re going to see some pretty cool work over the next five to 10 years.

Kyle Knowles:
I do too. I think a lot of people are Chat GPT, these kinds of things that are just spitting out blog posts, or now, there are all kinds of different uses of AI to create videos and summaries of this and that. But I think what it’s going to do is force us to be human, and we’re going to be attracted to the stuff that’s made by humans. It might be imperfections. There might be something about it, but I mean, I think… No offense to anyone that’s had plastic surgery or anything, but we have evolved to understand in an instance when something is off with a human. We will also… You’ve probably already started to notice things and go, “Did a human really write that?”
You’re even hearing voice over work and things like that, where it’s just a little bit off. I don’t know if you’ve seen Synthesia or any of those kinds of tools, but you can basically get a talking head. All you have to do is put a script in, and they’ll talk, but they’re… You just know the way their looking at you and the way their lips are moving that it is not human. Maybe we’ll get there with AI, but I’m not sure we will, but I’m just saying that back to authenticity. You will know when something is created by a human, and we will be clamoring for it, because it’s just going to get… The internet, there’s going to… Social media channels, everything’s going to get overrun with stuff made with ChatGPT.

Benjamin Moffat:
Well said, Kyle. Seriously, man, it is… I think that instantaneous thing where you just can spot something, I bet humans evolve even more on that as this generative content is happening. I’m really excited. I think pendulum swing in life, and I think we’ve been a little bit in this malaise of social media and just lots of stuff coming at us. I think we’re going to curate out of that. We’re going to see more, “Oh, this is human. Let’s pay attention to it. Let’s think about it. Let’s be with it, and let’s be inspired by it.” I think as we become more of that, you’re going to see… I really think we’re going to see a huge bloom of artists, again, over this next five, maybe even shorter. It depends on, I think, how fast this AI rollout happens.
People kind of like… I think artists have a rebellious spirit by nature, at least the ones I like. They’re just kind of like… Even the artists at Gantry, it can be utopia over there sometimes, because that’s just the nature of an artist. So, I’m really excited for where humans are going to be taking their expression, and how they’re going to be manifesting, and hell cow, we might even see something new that maybe it’s a mashup of holographic songwriting while it’s doing projection art. I think we’re going to see some new stuff, and I think it’s going to come from the imagination of a human.

Kyle Knowles:
For sure.

Benjamin Moffat:
Yeah, man.

Kyle Knowles:
For sure. I love it.

Benjamin Moffat:
I’m really excited about that.

Kyle Knowles:
Let’s talk about art just a little bit more, because I mentioned at the beginning, you were a guitarist. You love to write songs. You’re in a band. Tell me what that’s like and what kind of things do you learn from being in a band that you bring to Gantry?

Benjamin Moffat:
Man, my poor team must just be sick of everything’s a band metaphor like, “This is just like a lead singer.” It’s rampant, Kyle. It is something I reference on the Daily, and I would say the bands coming up in bands. I started in bands with… Do you want to hear a bad joke that we used to say about this one?

Kyle Knowles:
Sure.

Benjamin Moffat:
What do you get when you mix a penis and a potato? It’s a dictator.

Kyle Knowles:
Okay.

Benjamin Moffat:
So, I’ve been in bands where there’s that guy that’s just like, “Here’s your part, and here’s this, and get after it. Make it perfect.” You’re basically just doing their thing. And you’re in the band. I learned early on that I didn’t want to be a part of that type of a band. I wanted to write. I wanted to be with other musicians that are bringing ideas. I didn’t like the top-down approach, so I quickly learned in my mid-20s starting to find bands where it was this almost renaissance vibe of like, “Dude, you just inspired me so hard. I’m a little mad at you, because that was so good that I’m going home tonight, and I’m going to geek, and I’m going to bring you a song that you’re going to get mad about that I just wrote.”
I love the spirit of competition in a friendly environment. I think a lot of great artists need that. They need that like, “Okay, that was badass what so-and-so just did. It’s time to G up. I’m going to really go hard on this next one.” So, I’ve learned that, and I’ve learned how to create a culture where you can be safe in that space. You can still be competitive, and you can even be vocal about it like, “Yeah, dude, I’m coming for you.” So, to… I’ve really learned, and I’ve learned how to build that environment, and I’ve learned how to orchestrate in that environment. In my bands, it’s very much like Gantry, where there may be times where people are looking to me, and maybe they’re pitching to me, and I’m the one that’s seeding things out like, “What about this, this,” because I’ve always been the oldest person in the room.
I think that’s the only reason I get that. People look at me first. Maybe it’s because I’m tall too. I don’t know what it is, but definitely learning the nuances of how to operate a creative team, five to six people in a room. It’s just like a band. Then also how to not be stuck in, “Well, that’s not our sound.” Every band I’ve always loved has… You think about Led Zeppelin three versus Led Zeppelin one. It’s some hard rock album versus some folky, trippy, druid rock. My idols were always reinventing themselves, and always exploring the breadth of who they were.
So, doing that in a band and then realizing, “Oh, you got to do that same thing at a company. You can’t just do 2D explainer videos forever. You’ve got to…” If the team’s like, “Dude, we’ve got this idea, and it’s really weird, and it’s puppets, and it’s… The puppets are dancing,” but this is a video about digital transformation, but the puppets are dancing. Like, “Okay, let’s do it. Let’s see.” I can’t tell you how many times you think it’s going to fail, and the client’s like, “That was… That’s exactly why we came to you. Thank you for keeping it weird. Thank you for keeping it fresh. Thank you for not being in this little rut. You may think you… Not even a rut, but this little channel that you think you are in.”
It’s like, “No, you guys, you pitch what you want, and you dream, and then you’re not afraid to bring it to us.” So, I’d say being in a band, writing fun songs, writing hard songs, writing love songs, it’s a lot like running a creative studio.

Kyle Knowles:
Sounds like-

Benjamin Moffat:
I’m so lucky, man. Just talking to you. I’m like, “I’m really lucky.” I’d say 95% of my success, Kyle, is luck. I am the year of the rabbit on the Chinese food, which they say is the luckiest sign. So, just know a lot of this is probably just luck.

Kyle Knowles:
No, I love it. I think you attract it too with your positive attitude and your optimism.

Benjamin Moffat:
Thanks, man.

Kyle Knowles:
I think it’s so interesting to talk about that safety, being in a studio with a band or being in some brainstorming session for the next video you’re going to make, and creating that safe place, so people are willing to share ideas. I think it’s something that’s very hard for people to do, especially if people are managing, or we got to get this project done. It’s very hard for them to allow all the ideas to come out, and then pick the best ones. So, a lot of times, people clam up and won’t share these ideas because they might… The dancing puppets or whatever, they might just be hiding in the back. So if you’re able to create that safety at work or in the band, that’s leading to good results.

Benjamin Moffat:
It is, man. It’s like people will always blow you away. I’ve found that. People… in the weirdest spots too, and it is… It’s like, “If you can create…” You know how it is. It’s almost just like a room. You go into the room with the wrong lighting, and it’s stark, and you’re like, “Hey, let’s get to work.” It’s like, “I need natural light. I need…” I keep saying the word. You’ll probably run a AI transcript on this thing, and it’ll be like vibe was said 7,000 times, but I mean, I truly believe in vibe and environment and setting and really encouraging people to have a voice. Sometimes, artists are natively meek, and I don’t know.
You’re like, “No, come on. Give it to me. Tell me all the stuff. Just…” I think that’s where I’m maybe good is without them even asking, I’m sharing everything, all my stories. I’m like, “This is just a place that you work where we’re like this.” I try to just lead by example like, “Tell me everything on your mind, and it’s a safe place, and let’s just get down to it, because I know there’s amazing ideas everywhere.” Yeah, man.

Kyle Knowles:
No, I love it. I love it. Tell me about your home situation, because I have some theories about this, but tell me how important your life partner is to your business.

Benjamin Moffat:
Wow. It’s so cool you bring that up. I mean, your life partner… Let me just say for my situation. I think everyone’s got their own thing. You can be on your own and just be wildly successful. But for me, my life really didn’t take meaning until I met my wife, Holly. As our relationship has defined the work that we do, and the way I approach my professional life, and making money and just being a working dude, I really look to the example that my wife sets for me. What she does is she is the queen of authenticity. I mean, no one in my life is more genuine and steadfast and kindhearted as my wife. I mean, nobody I’ve ever met. So, to know that she’s out there living her life like that, it always inspires me just to be really authentic to who I am and to do that work to like, “Well then, who am I?”
She’s never been shy about challenging me to be just my most authentic self, my best self, and my happiest self. I mean, there were times where I was burning out, and she’s just like, “It’s time to bail.” This isn’t the life that you can live like, “Well, you can work at Walmart or something.” So, to know that I have someone in my life that wants me to be me, wants me to be really just the best version of myself I can be, it pumps me up, man. I think a lot of people probably have a picture of their wife and or kid if they have a little family, but I Homer Simpson that stuff. It’s right next to my desk, and I’ll look at them, and I’m just like, “I love you little rascals.”
I want to make them proud. I mean, it… Honestly, I think I want to just make them proud, and be like, “My dad’s cool, and he’s in a band. He thinks… He makes art,” and I want Holly to be like, “Yeah, and he also brings home a decent paycheck.” My dad told me when I first got married and had a kid, he said, “You are no longer Ben Moffat. You are now the great wallet in the sky. Do your job.” I was like, “Okay.” So. I’m always trying to remember like, “You got to make sure you bring home some bacon, and price these projects competitively.” That’s, I guess, one of the thing that I’m really good at at Gantry’s.
I love managing money. I love it. I’m pretty good at it, man. I do all the emails. I do all our accounting. I do all our Costco runs. I do all sales. I love bringing money in, partitioning it, managing it, investing it. It’s funny. I mean, it’s almost like the art I like to do.

Kyle Knowles:
Nice.

Benjamin Moffat:
I don’t think a lot of people… I think a lot of people get nervous around money and purchase orders and master service agreements. I see that stuff, and I just light up. I’m like, “Oh yeah, let’s get in there. I love this. Let’s write the best statement of work they’ve ever seen.”

Kyle Knowles:
Ian and Kory are really grateful that you love that stuff.

Benjamin Moffat:
I think so.

Kyle Knowles:
I think they are.

Benjamin Moffat:
They’re in those meetings before that it’s figuring out the pricing and all that, and then they just go, “All right, Ben, tell us when the PO’s secured,” and then you get it all done. So, I think they do love that. They do come to me occasionally for QuickBooks advice like, “What’s our login again?” We really compliment each other well, and I can’t say enough about Kory and Ian, enough bad things. Just kidding. We really are kind of… I’m trying to think who are the perfect three? There’s the Three Musketeers.

Kyle Knowles:
Three Musketeers.

Benjamin Moffat:
There’s the-

Kyle Knowles:
Three Amigos.

Benjamin Moffat:
… Three Amigos. Phil Jackson was running that kind of-

Kyle Knowles:
The Bee Gees.

Benjamin Moffat:
Let’s stop right there. I would like to think we are the Bee Gees now, but we sing great harmony together. We challenge each other. I mean, we’re still in each other’s business sometimes, Kyle, that I’ll send the email I’m about to send to them to get advice. I mean, we are crosschecking each other’s work a lot. They’ll even say like, “Ben, come in here and watch this cut. As a business, bro, does this make sense?” I’m like, “Oh yeah, that’s,” or, “That’s too long. That logo, I know you don’t think the logo should be bigger. The logo should be bigger.” They’re like, “Oh, it’s so stupid when it’s bigger.” I’m like, “No, it needs to be bigger.” I’m just being honest. honest.

Kyle Knowles:
The number one ask of every designer in the universe.

Benjamin Moffat:
I’m like, “I know you don’t want to hear this. The logo actually needs to be bigger for this one. I can’t even read it.” They’re like, “Okay.”

Kyle Knowles:
Well, it sounds like you guys compliment each other really well.

Benjamin Moffat:
We’re great. I told them they need to come in here and talk to you soon, because they have such great perspectives outside of mine.

Kyle Knowles:
For sure, I’d love to have them on.

Benjamin Moffat:
I’d love to hear their podcast.

Kyle Knowles:
I know Ian and Kory well, and they’re sharp as could be. I mean, just super sharp-

Benjamin Moffat:
Really sharp.

Kyle Knowles:
… ask the right questions, and then just make amazing things.

Benjamin Moffat:
Amazing things. I mean, it’s like… I really think my partner, Ian, is maybe the smartest person I’ve ever met, next to my wife, but Ian really is… He just has this hunger for knowledge. He’s like, “I just read four books.” You’re like that, Kyle, where people that just… I don’t read very much. I’m out there like, “Well, I put myself in this weird situation, and I try to learn something that way,” but Ian’s just whip smart, and he knows that brevity is the soul of wit. He’s just so good. Then Kory’s hunger to need to know something, and then just to go learn it, and then just become the master of it on his own, I mean, I don’t think I know anyone more tenacious than that guy.
That tenacity results in what a lot of people just call, “Dude, you’re so talented. You’re just so talented.” It’s like… If you knew what Kory does to get these results, I watch it all the time. I’m like… I mean, in our whole team, but Kory’s just the single one example. The dude is grinding, just grinding so hard.

Kyle Knowles:
Putting the reps in seriously.

Benjamin Moffat:
Just repping out, he is. I mean like, “What’d you do last night, man?” He’s like, “Well, I was up to two watching these tutorials.” I’m like, “it’s Wednesday night. Then we don’t even have a project, dude.” He’s just like, “Well, I wanted to learn these soft body emissions.” I’m like, “Wow, dude, thank you. Because without that hunger, Gantry wouldn’t be what it is. Not even close.”

Kyle Knowles:
What’s something that most people don’t know about you?

Benjamin Moffat:
I was almost in a cult.

Kyle Knowles:
Really?

Benjamin Moffat:
I used to live in Montana, and I was in my young and reckless days of trying to be… I realized early on, all my great artists that I loved, you could feel this energy in their work like they had lived this life, and they were singing from a place that they could relate to. I was like, “I really haven’t had any experiences,” so I went to college in Montana, and I ended up meeting these two really interesting shut-in guys that lived across the hall from my best friend’s girlfriend. So, she’s like, “You got to meet these guys. They have all these jazz records.” I go over there.

Kyle Knowles:
That was your first sign?

Benjamin Moffat:
Exactly.

Kyle Knowles:
[inaudible 00:48:07].

Benjamin Moffat:
So, I go over there, and sure enough, we go to knock, and it’s just the loudest jazz you’ve ever heard, and just it looks like Spicoli’s walking out of there. You open the door, and just smoke pills out.

Kyle Knowles:
Wow.

Benjamin Moffat:
I’m like, “This is where I need to be to get that artist part of me. I need to jump into this hole, and get weird.” So, I jumped into the hole, and it ended up being like, “Right, these guys aren’t just trying to show me about art. There’s a little bit of a brainwashing, and you need to leave your parents.” I went home for Christmas one year, and this is back on landlines. They just called me, and they said, “You need to get on the Greyhound, and get back up here and denounce your parents.” I’m like, “I love my mom.” Then they’re like, “Well, Jesus won’t love you if you don’t do this.” I’m like, “I don’t know about that.”
So, I was pretty borderline, because I was… I was in their little circle for a few months before I went home, and was able to see through the haze. I was like, “Oh, right. I can see how people can get…” Strong people can quickly be assimilated into a thing, because someone’s pushing something on them, and they’ve got this hunger that whatever that itch is, they need to scratch. That person’s like, “Yeah, I’ll scratch it for you.” So for me, it was being young and dumb. I think I was 20 at the time. I almost… I mean, it could have been a great sex cult, but unfortunately I blew it. I blew it.

Kyle Knowles:
Nice. Is there a book that you recommend to people?

Benjamin Moffat:
Man, as I mentioned earlier, I’m not a huge reader. The most important book that I ever read in my life was probably Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Again, my whole thing is chase experience, and then from those experiences, you will learn what you’re made of. Then in business and life, you can reflect on those moments, and be like, “All right, I’ve either got sent to Tranquility, because I’ve been through something way weirder than whatever this deadline or this weird email I just got is. I just… I’ve been…” For me, I would suggest fear and loathing to anyone who hasn’t read it. I mean, if you’ve seen the movie, great, but the book has this cadence to it, this bite that I feel really great art has.
It’s riddled with drug use and flying bats and these wild stories, which someone actually just recently said that Hunter S. Thompson was not a druggie when he made that. He was just fictitious, but I think any artist should read that book, and just internalize the spirit of what Hunter S. Thompson was trying to do, which is find the heart of the American dream. What is the heart of the American dream? I think without almost a… I don’t know if you’re into Joseph Campbell at all, but The Hero’s journey.

Kyle Knowles:
Sure.

Benjamin Moffat:
The Hero’s Journey can take many forms, whether it’s going vicariously through Hunter S. Thompson to Vegas, and doing ether and smoking human adrenaline glands, or it’s you leave home, and you go up to the you as opposed to living in your parents’ house. Any hero’s journey is paramount to any great person, I think. So for me, I read that book, and I knew right off the bat I needed to have my own hero’s journey. It wasn’t going to be this weird one, but I loved it. It was like, “Oh God, this is exciting,” and this is that side of the spectrum. So, if I don’t go milk toast over here, and on my compass, I’m veering a little bit more into the Hunter S. Thompson, but I’m having my own journey, I’m going to have a great life.
So, whatever book it is that inspires you to live your life, that’s the kind of book I recommend is one that inspires you to get out and live. Not necessarily like, “I learned these four principles of strategy.” It’s like… That stuff’s great, but I think on the grander scheme, a book should inspire you to reinvent yourself, and go hard at something.

Kyle Knowles:
I love it. I love the answer. Well, we’re almost to the end here, but I just want to do a lightning round sweet of questions here-

Benjamin Moffat:
Oh sweet.

Kyle Knowles:
… and get your quick takes on these. What’s your favorite candy bar?

Benjamin Moffat:
Ooh, Snickers.

Kyle Knowles:
Favorite musical artist.

Benjamin Moffat:
Let’s go, Bee Gees.

Kyle Knowles:
Favorite cereal?

Benjamin Moffat:
Captain Crunch Peanut Butter.

Kyle Knowles:
Mac or PC?

Benjamin Moffat:
Mac.

Kyle Knowles:
Google Gmail and Workspace or Microsoft Outlook and Office?

Benjamin Moffat:
G-Suite for life.

Kyle Knowles:
Dogs or cats?

Benjamin Moffat:
Dogs.

Kyle Knowles:
Phantom or Les Mis?

Benjamin Moffat:
Phantom.

Kyle Knowles:
Awesome.

Benjamin Moffat:
Those are great. Oh man, thank you. I never even knew those answers, but there they were.

Kyle Knowles:
I love it. I love it. Another thing, there are just two more things I wanted to talk about real quickly. You are a collector of a certain something, and I just want you to explain this obsession, or how it began, and talk about your collection.

Benjamin Moffat:
With pleasure, man. Nobody ever asked me about it, because it’s so weird. I collect vintage cartoon glasses. It’s very niche. The years I collect between are glasses made between 1962 and 1979. If you’re old enough to remember, fast food restaurants used to basically offer you an opportunity to get your drink and an actual glass with a little cartoon character printed on it for an extra dollar, and then you could take the glass home. Now, I had an aunt when I was a young kid that collected these glasses, and every time I would go over to her house as a kid, she had this special cabinet, and she’d say, “Ben, open up the cabinet, and pick whatever glass you’d want.”
You’d open it, and she’d have new ones all the time because she was… They would come out once or twice a week. There were… I mean, just so you know, I have over 450 of these glasses.

Kyle Knowles:
Wow.

Benjamin Moffat:
I am outrageously out of control. I’ve tried to curb it. It’s got to hold on me, but my aunt would just say, “Open it up,” and that would be like… For example, this is probably 1983. Let’s go back to 1983. I opened the cabinet. There’s, for example, Wendy the Witch, or Casper the Friendly Ghost, or Mighty Mouse, or the Road Runner. Any cartoon character that you can imagine from your youth, they have pretty much made a cartoon glass for it at one time. So, that memory of picking my glass, filling it with ice, pouring my coke for the meal, and just looking at it, just something primal triggered when I was… Let’s say I was six or seven years old, and when I was going to have a kid, I thought, “What do I want to do for my kid? I want to start giving her cool experiences.”
I’m like, “That was one of my favorite things,” so I got on KSL and I bought… I just found an auction. This dude’s like, “Just cleaned out this dead grandma’s attic, and there was this box of glasses, $100,” and so I go over to his house, and there’s like, “Oh, I didn’t know there was all of these glasses.” I just remember my aunt again on eBay quickly realized there’s hundreds of these things, and it’s my nature to… I need to dig into things so deep. I need to go as deep until I’m at the very bottom. Then even then, there’s more that I didn’t know was down there, so quickly, I bought this main set, and then I bought those main set with white letters instead of black letters.
Then I bought that same set with instead of fluted glass, it’s a straight glass. Then instead of the 16-ounce glass, I bought the 12-ounce glass. Then instead of the logo on the side, the logo’s under the name. Then quickly, I’m like, “I’m at 200 glasses.” Then I joined this group that I found these really cool guys that they’re called the Promotional Glass Collectors Association. That’s when I realized, “Dude, you don’t know nothing,” and they’re like, “Open this world to me.” It’s these really weird older guys that are in their 60s, and they are amazing. We all share this love of cartoon glasses, and we have these special Facebook groups, and my wife’s like, “What is it with these things?”
I’m like, “I don’t know. I need them. I need to have them. They’re like Pokemon. I got to catch them all. ” So if anyone would ever like to see him, and my collection is so nice… I mean, I have the mintiest of glasses, and I have glasses that are worth $600 a single glass.

Kyle Knowles:
Wow. Where are they? I mean, where do you store them?

Benjamin Moffat:
I keep about 18 of them up in my office, and rotate those in and out. Then I keep about 12 of them up at my house, just some nice ones. Then the rest are in rough totes in a cryogenic chamber like the David Duchovny thing over his hand in Zoolander. They are my preciouses. I told my daughter. I said, “These are yours whenever you want them, and especially if I pass.” I said, “Just don’t sell them for something dumb that a teenager would buy. I’ll give you my dad’s collection for this.”

Kyle Knowles:
Exactly.

Benjamin Moffat:
Please don’t do that. You can get a lot more money. But I love it. I love my collection and I’m very proud of it.

Kyle Knowles:
Well, so do you ever crack a cold Coke open, and pour it in and drink out of them?

Benjamin Moffat:
That’s a good point. I keep a couple of duplicates just up in the kitchen. They’re in rotation. They’re hitting the dishwasher, and we’re drinking out of… My daughter’s favorite one is a Ronald McDonald one, and I really like to drink out of a Pepe Le Pew.

Kyle Knowles:
Love it.

Benjamin Moffat:
I love the Pepe Le Pew. Henry Hawk will make an appearance occasionally, and then my wife’s just like… I don’t think she has a favorite, but she’ll drink out of them. So, we get them into rotation, but not the nice ones.

Kyle Knowles:
Okay. So, these are duplicates of the nice ones.

Benjamin Moffat:
Yeah.

Kyle Knowles:
You get the feeling of it that you’re not ruining your precious.

Benjamin Moffat:
But Kyle, I have a special T-shirt that I’ll bring out, and then I’ll like… I huff them. I huff on them and then polish them up-

Kyle Knowles:
Really.

Benjamin Moffat:
… and hold them up to the light. I’m like, “Okay, that’s looking real nice.” Then I’ll line them up carefully. I wonder if part of me is a little OCD. I’ve never really thought that, but there’s something that I do, and I’m like… It’s like, “Did you have action figures as a kid or anything?” You’d set them up, and it’s 100% that. It’s like, “I got to have all these action figures. I got to set them up, and I got to look at them.” So, I love it. You should come see them, man.

Kyle Knowles:
I’ve got to see them.

Benjamin Moffat:
They’re so great.

Kyle Knowles:
I’ve got to see them. I remember them. It would take me back for sure.

Benjamin Moffat:
Oh, that’s right. That’s right.

Kyle Knowles:
You will take me back, for sure. I think Taco Time did it. I think several different Arctic Circle was doing [inaudible 01:00:01].

Benjamin Moffat:
They all did, man. It’s a cool story, and I think a lot of my… The other thing I really like about is it’s pop art. They’re beautiful. The colors that they used back then, I mean, everything’s so vibrant and glossy, and it’s like it’s pop art, so-

Kyle Knowles:
For sure.

Benjamin Moffat:
I’m like, “I love it.”

Kyle Knowles:
I love it. It made me think of OCD and the use of OCD, because if you are into something, you probably exhibit OCD behavior. I just love your passion for it. I love hearing about it.

Benjamin Moffat:
Thanks, man.

Kyle Knowles:
I don’t know how I knew you did that, but did you do a video or something related to it for Gantry?

Benjamin Moffat:
We had started, because the team’s like, “Dude, this is weird. We need to make a video about it,” and we started the video. That was pre-pandemic, and then client work took over, but it is actually on the slate, I think, to revisit it. So if we revisit it, this could be like… This could get picked up.

Kyle Knowles:
For sure.

Benjamin Moffat:
This is just weird enough, where someone could be like, “I need more of that.” We could tell the stories of all the other collectors. You could-

Kyle Knowles:
Oh, for sure.

Benjamin Moffat:
You could do a series on this.

Kyle Knowles:
Why there’s not a documentary on it right now, I don’t know.

Benjamin Moffat:
Glass hunters just out there, there’s like-

Kyle Knowles:
Glass hunters. I love it. So, where can people find Gantry? Where can people find Ben Moffat? Where can people find King Niko?

Benjamin Moffat:
Nice. Gantry is gantry.tv, G-A-N-T-R-Y.tv, like television. That’s where you can really see most of our work. We’re out on the social medias and LinkedIn. I’m out there pretty active, but really, just come to our website, or call me up, and I’ll have you over to the office, and show you everything. I mean, I love being with people and talking to people in real life.

Kyle Knowles:
You’re in the crane building, pretty close to here.

Benjamin Moffat:
Really close, man. We love the crane building. Gantry is a type of crane.

Kyle Knowles:
Yes.

Benjamin Moffat:
So, it’s weird that we’re in the crane building, but we love that spot. Good vibes there. Then for me, I mean, I’m pretty much off the grid. I really love privacy, and I do have a social media presence or a little bit, but I also really like to be low profile. So, I keep my friends real close, and I like to share everything I can, but really to know me well, call me up, and let’s bro out, and let’s just have a drink, and let’s talk. But I do… Don’t you love people that have a little sense of mystery? You’re kind of like-

Kyle Knowles:
For sure.

Benjamin Moffat:
You’re a little weird, and I don’t know everything about you. So, I’ve always liked to try to do my best to maintain that. Then King Niko, the best spot is Spotify or Apple Music, and it’s King N-I-K-O. Our music is to make girls dance. That was the focus. That’s still what we try to do. It comes in different flavors, like we talked about earlier. It’s not always just upbeat high hats and things, but we tell all stories of making girls dance. There are sometimes slow dances, but yeah, I love… I love my band just as much as I love the artist at Gantry, same kind of thing, just almost like a little family.

Kyle Knowles:
For sure. You’ve been with King Niko for how many years now?

Benjamin Moffat:
Whoa, dude.

Kyle Knowles:
What’s the anniversary date, seriously?

Benjamin Moffat:
We started in April of 2009.

Kyle Knowles:
Wow.

Benjamin Moffat:
Oh my gosh, I don’t want to think about that. We’ve been around a while.

Kyle Knowles:
Is it 14 years? Is my math correct?

Benjamin Moffat:
Yeah, I think so, man. All I know is we were a pretty big deal in 2011. So, we played with Jared Leto. We were the band of the year for City Weekly, and that was fun to be like the guy on the scene for a little bit. But then I quickly realized like, “I’m not chasing that fame. I know who I am. I just want to write cool songs with my friends, and rock out.” That’s the itch that I need to scratch.

Kyle Knowles:
I love it.

Benjamin Moffat:
Thanks.

Kyle Knowles:
I’ll include links to all things Ben, Gantry, and King Niko in the show notes. Despite your private personality, thank you so much for being on the podcast, Ben, and being generous with your time. I hope your other two partners, Ian and Kory, can be guests in the very near future. I’m looking forward to celebrating many more Gantry anniversaries in the future. Thank you, Ben, for being a guest on the podcast.

Benjamin Moffat:
Thanks, Kyle. This was fun, man. You’ve got a good thing going on here. Keep it up.

Kyle Knowles:
Thank you.

Benjamin Moffat:
Thank you.

Kyle Knowles:
I had a good time.

Benjamin Moffat:
Me too, man. Thank you again.