Rob Benvie

Rob Benvie (born Halifax, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian musician and writer who has performed with alternative rock acts Thrush Hermit, Camouflage Nights, The Tennis Injury, The Tim Robbins Experience, Drug Dog and The Dears.

Benvie first gained notoriety as the guitarist, singer and songwriter in Halifax rock band Thrush Hermit. Thrush Hermit also included Joel Plaskett, Ian McGettigan and Cliff Gibb. Touring extensively throughout North America, Thrush Hermit released two EPs on Murderecords: Smart Bomb and The Great Pacific Ocean. Their first full-length Sweet Homewrecker was released on the American label Elektra Records. In 1999, Thrush Hermit released Clayton Park on Sonic Unyon Records.

Prior to the Thrush Hermit era, Benvie distributed numerous home recordings under such names as The Tennis Injury, The Benvies, Yammer, and Day Pass. After Thrush Hermit's 1999 break-up, Benvie wrote and produced two solo albums as Tigre Benvie: Year of the Mutt and Bankruptcy. In 2001, he joined The Dears as bass/guitar player, and in years following has continued to perform and record with the band in various faculties. He has also intermittently released music digitally under the pseudonym Drug Dog. In 2010, Thrush Hermit briefly reunited for a successful reunion tour.

In 2004 he and McGettigan formed Camouflage Nights. After a string of tour dates and limited edition audio and video releases, the band's debut LP -- originally slated for late 2008 -- is still forthcoming due to ongoing label complications. Camouflage Nights has remixed artists such as Stars, Every Move a Picture, Pony Da Look, along with scoring numerous projects.

In May 2001 literature and humour website McSweeney's featured an essay by Benvie titled "The Porn I Like". Benvie's first novel, Safety of War, was published by Coach House Books. He has admitted to over ten years of work on another lengthy novel titled Barefoot Teenagers, possibly about the history of CGI, heli-skiing, and the life and death of Shannon Hoon. In interviews surrounding Thrush Hermit's 2010 reunion tour, he indicated his second novel, reportedly titled Maintenance, would appear in 2011.

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