Last Thursday, I snuck away from the last 20 mins of music theory during school to have a chat to the very cool Benny Bograil (lead singer) from Skegss. The trio from Byron Bay have shot up in popularity amoungst the Australian youth in the past year, with tunes such as “L.S.D” and “Spring Has Sprung”.
Upon picking up the phone and asking how he was going, Benny was quick to state he is still pretty bloody tired…
You guys have just come off a tour with Dune Rats and The Gooch Palms, how hectic was that?
It was real hectic, and so much happened. We hang out with the Dunies and the Gooches generally anyway, so it was really great fun hanging out with them all the time. It was cool just waking up and being with all of em’ all day every day. I feel like I will be recovering for the rest of my life from this tour, though!
I’m a Tassie chick, and we’re pretty hungry for more live music down here. Would you look at playing down here? How was your experience playing in this state at Party in the Paddock back in February?
Yeah for sure, I think the problem for bands is just trying to work it into the rest of the tour. Getting to Tasmania can be expensive compared to travelling to other places in Australia, where you can just drive. I think if you play on a Friday night in Tassie, then fly back to to Melbourne and play the Saturday then [it] would be easier to work in.
Our experience at PITP was really good, had tons of fun! It was our first time in Tas so we spent about a week afterwards checking it out. We went and stayed at our mate’s cute ‘tree house’ in South Hobart behind the Cascade brewery for a few days, and went down to Southport too and messed around down there.
Speaking of Cascade Brewery, did you get a chance to give one of our beers a go or did you stick with the favourites?
Nah actually, I’m a big fan of White Rabbit’s, it’s a dark ale. Way hectic. You can have like two dark beers and just be kinda chillin’, sit back and just relax in the couch.
Back to the music, you boys have a new EP coming out very soon! How do you guys feel about it?
We’re stoked! We started working on it a few months ago. We just kept coming up with new stuff and kept showing the boys all the time. Everything just kinda fell into place, there was nothing we wanted to change about the songs, they all just flowed really well. We would come into the studio and our producer Chris Collins just knew the sound we didn’t know how to get. We’re also pretty happy about finally getting our music on vinyl, that was a big thing for us, just having a physical copy of Holiday Food.
I gotta ask, who does those wicked sketches for your posters and EP/ single covers?
Jack Irvine, he’s been a good mate of ours since we started. When we met Jack at Coogee; we just made a team and he’s been doing them ever since.
Quite a lot of my mates are fans of Skegss as your songs are incredibly relatable to young people, where does the general inspiration for your songs come from?
Yeah, we write like a lot of kinda funny comical songs about life and how weird it is, getting older and all the weird shit that happens growing up. It’s hard sometimes at that age trying to handle things and living through them; our music kind of reflects that.
Do you think there should be more live shows accessible for under 18’s?
Yeah for sure! Legit, all ages gigs are way more fun. Kids are always way more excited about gettin’ a chance to see bands live and it’s like a really good atmosphere to be in. Under 18/AA gigs are the best gigs to play ever.
Skegss’ latest EP, Holiday Food is out now.
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