Celebrating the release of their new EP Boondoggle we caught up with Newcastle outfit Benjalu – one of the hardest working bands in Australia – to talk about touring, the new EP, the upcoming debut album, their upcoming shows in December and much, much more…
So you have been keeping busy this year with two EP releases. How have you felt they’ve been received?
We feel as though The Battle EP was pretty strongly received by the Benjalu faithful and helped us pick up a few new friends along the way. It’s a very diverse collection of tunes so everyone favours a different song. We were so stoked, we even got to # 3 on the singer/songwriter charts through iTunes! Must’ve been our mums buying up…
The Boondoggle EP came out on November 15th and will add a whole new dimension again to the Benjalu sound. Can’t wait to see how the new tunes go down!
Did you work on the EPs at the same time and then release them separately or did you record them separately, too?
The songs were mostly written over the same period, but it became fairly obvious that we would split them up into the two releases. We threw our energy into The Battle first off working with Tim Powles as a producer on some of the tracks and then once we’d finished the EP, we had the space and energy to try another direction on the Boondoggle tracks.
Boondoggle was much more of an organic process than The Battle. Most of it was recorded out of our guitarist Luke’s home studio over a few beers! It was produced by Neal Hunt (Sureshaker) and mixed/engineered by Ian Pritchett (The Beautiful Girls) – both great guys and long-time friends of Benjalu who really know what we were all about.
You’re a band we know well from the road, but what’s life like in the studio with Benjalu?
The studio is lots of fun and we’re getting better at that side of things all the time. We’re pretty lucky that we’ve worked in a couple of different studio environments over the last few years – Luke’s garage included! Being at home added a very relaxed vibe which we really thrived off and we look forward to doing more of that. It gives us loads of time to flesh out ideas and play around with all sorts of recordings.
Mostly, we’re pretty collective with the songwriting… one of us will come up with a little lick or melody line and we all get on board from there.
Are there any plans for a debut album release soon?
We can certainly say that we’ve been writing new material and we feel the time is right! Who knows what 2014 will bring?
The title Boondoggle. Is there a story behind it?
There are a few different meanings… but mostly it’s an awesome word! It will all make sense once people hear the song! Call it a good story…
You seem to have a lot of support from your fans and we noticed that you are in the competition for Big Day Out’s Headspace, how do you think you are going?
Yeah we’ve thrown our hat in the ring. It would be amazing to play Australia’s biggest festival! There are a lot of good bands in the running so we’ll see how it pans out.
The last couple of years we’ve been hit up to play some pretty rad festivals and it’s probably one of the band’s favourite part of being a musician collectively… Bands, booze, babes, festival food and markets… you can’t go wrong!
Being on the road a lot; what would you say is your favorite part of touring?
Wow… There are so many things we love about touring. Meeting new friends, watching people sing along to our songs and seeing our following slowly grow, free beer!
Who in the band would you say has the worst habits?
Tony. Snores like a freight train derailing in an earthquake… Yeah, we’ve totally shared a few beds in our time…
Where has been the strangest place you have ever been struck by inspiration for a song?
At a venue situated in the middle of a power station… we’ll let you guess which track.
There are a lot of artists that are trying to get to where you are now (career wise) Do you have any advice that would help them get on the right track?
There are many different ways to develop and grow, none of which are necessarily right or wrong. We have just had to work hard and stay on the road. We love it though and will just keep on keeping on…making more and more mates along the trail.
With all the tour plans winding down this year – what’s in the pipeline for 2014?
Write, record, release, tour, sleep, eat, repeat. Did we say rave? Scrap that for a surf…
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The Boondoggle EP is available now! December tour dates below:
Thursday December 12 | SolBar | Maroochydore, QLD
Tickets at the venue
Fri December 13 | Miami Marketta @ Rabbit & Cocoon | Gold Coast, QLD
Saturday December 14 | Southside Tea Room | Brisbane, QLD
Tickets at the venue
Friday December 20 | Cambridge Hotel | Newcastle, NSW
Tickets available here
Saturday December 21 | Beach Road Hotel | Bondi, NSW
