Aussie party rockers The Bennies are heading across Australia on a short summer tour, including 2 dates in WA for the Austrlaia Day weekend. Not just any old tour this will be the first tour officially as a five-piece as The Bennies welcome long time collaborator and touring member DJ Snes Mega to the band. With new music also on the way plus some touring overseas later in the year, it seemed like a good time to catchup with all the latest with the band in our interview with guitarist Jules.
Andrew: Hows things with you and the band at the moment? How was 2018 been for you?
Jules: It’s been lovely man! We’re a party band and this is the party time of the year!
Andrew: Obviously you have the tour coming up and the WA dates are on January 25th and 26th which is the Australia Day weekend so it looks like it’s going to be a big one in WA.
Jules: My word, they know how to rock it there.
Andrew: [Laughs] So what can the fans expect? You’ve done a lot of touring across Australia this past year so what do you have planned this time around?
Jules: Recently we’ve been working on a whole bunch of new songs so I mean we look forward to bringing new sounds and some familiar favorites to the crowd as well as our usual antics, of course!
Andrew: Yeah of course it wouldn’t be a Bennies show without the usual antics!
Jules: [Laughs]
Andrew: It’s been a while since I’ve seen you guys live, it was actually at Soundwave Festival some years ago when I last saw you. I remember it was a fantastic show but it was a festival which is obviously different to club shows. Do you have a preference between the two?
Jules: The thing with festivals is that, like you say, they are different. Club shows are intimate, we love that connection with the audience. We like the people right there, we like to see their smiling faces, we like to see their dance moves. We like to have that connection and that energy transfer so that’s something I personally live for a long time now. In the festivals circuit it’s a great chance for people who are curious about the band but don’t have the guts to come down to a club show and basically we try to flip it and rip it and hopefully we get afew people onboard and if not, we’ve got the people who have supported us through thick and thin. The festival atmosphere with all those people getting into it, if that happens, it opens right up. It’s always good on a festival to meet a lot of bands that we usually wouldn’t cross paths with and to have a few beers with, so that’s always nice for us as well to make new connections and for us to see other bands that perhaps we wouldn’t of seen either in the process of being a live act.
Andrew: Yeah I guess that’s one of the advantages of a festival is those opportunities to see different bands that you wouldn’t normally go see. For some fans seeing The Bennies for the first time must be a thrill because you guys put on a performance not just with the music but the whole theatrics of what you do on stage is quite entertaining as well I find.
Jules: Cheers man that’s a lovely compliment and we like to think so!
Andrew: You have a huge 2019 coming up as well, I know you guys are travelling back to Europe again right?
Jules: Yeah we’ll be hitting Europe around early August, playing a couple of festivals that were announced recently – Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia and I don’t know how to pronounce it but I think it’s SBAM. I always have a bit of difficulty with that, I’ve had a tongue that’s lopsided on one side. But yeah anyway we’ll be in Europe and all around there, they’ve been really kind to us so we’re looking forward to re- connecting with a bunch of people and make a few more fans or make a few more enemies, whichever way you look at it.
Andrew: You’ve been over there a few times now so have you been finding that the fanbase has been growing and growing every time you’ve been over there?
Jules: Yeah it’s been pretty awesome. I don’t know how many times we’ve been, I think we can count them on one hand but we’ve managed to get thee 4 or 5 times now and it kind of reminded me when we started to gather a bit of momentum in Australia. We weren’t sure if people would make the same connection because I mean it’s not much of a language barrier but there is a bit of a language barrier. But it seemed like people latched onto the energy and that’s how we sort of hit them, straight between the eyes, Bennies attack force, rock n roll party antics, live performance styling. They like to drink beers, we like to drink beers, they’ve got weed, we like to smoke weed and not that’s it’s all about that but it is a part of it to be honest. So we’ve managed to carve a little bit of a niche for ourselves through out Europe, we’re just building on it incrementally. Fortunately for us it seems that the fire has taken, it started as a small flame and it’s slowly growing. It takes a bit of nurturing and hopefully by the time we’re fully spent we’ll have an inferno.
Andrew: How do you find the crowds over there as far as how they react to your music? Is it any different to the Australian fans at all or do they have their own unique way of responding to your music and performances?
Jules: I think there’s one thing I’ve discovered having the privilege of being able to play abroad, is that fans are all very similar. I’m a music fan myself, I think the reaction to music is something that brings us all together. I think it’s something that transcends language and culture and it’s very similar everywhere we’ve gone, each place might have a slightly different flavour but to be real it’s very much like anywhere else. You kind of see people looking at us slightly cock-eyed and curious, what’s it about and if all things play in our favour you can see that inquisitive eye turn to a smile and then that smile turns to a head nod and hopefully that nod turns into a dance. That’s something we love seeing, it’s something we’re lucky enough to have behind us, so yeah it’s all part of the same parcel and it’s always been slightly different everywhere we’ve gone but really it’s the same kind of love and reaction that we feel. So it’s different but the same. If we had a few more brain cells we would be able to connect harder with the language but we try our best and people appreciate that.
Andrew: [laughs] Sure I’ve never been to Europe to see shows before so I don’t know how that language barrier works as far as between the songs, do you talk much to the fans or is that a thing you try to stay away from altogether?
Jules: Well I mean…it just depends on how many beers we’ve had!
Andrew: [laughs].
Jules: The one thing that is quite different is the riders over there are just amazing and the level of accommodation for bands on a very basic level – they’ll feed you, you get a meal and the clubs will put you up or find some accommodation for you. But we down a few beers and we’ve fallen into a trap a couple of times where everyone has this sweet energy and we start talking stage banter like here in Australia! We’ve had these sets where we’ve felt like we were being quite witty and there’s a bit of genius at play and a couple of people had coldly reminded us that, ‘We couldn’t understand a word you were saying but the songs were cool’ [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] That’s gotta be interesting from their end as well, to see something like that which they don’t normally get to see.
Jules: Definitely I mean being 5 dudes travelling abroad and we’re all family at this point, to be thrust in front of people, the body language speaks for itself I think. You can see if we were jibber jabbering on stage and then playing the songs, I think people understand we’re trying to make a connection and we do throw in some poorly pronounced local colloquialisms and stuff like that but it’s usually just met with more confusion but we just slay them with a few more songs!
Andrew: [laughs] Now I understand you’ve just introduced, well I wouldn’t say he’s a new member as he’s certainly been with you for a while but I guess he’s officially part of the band now right?
Jules: DJ Snes Mega!
Andrew: Yeah so what was the reason for introducing him in as a full time member? Was that something that you were trying to push for a long time or did it it just come along and happen?
Jules: It was a really organic process. Snes has been there pretty much since the beginning and I think he’s worked everything we’ve ever done, the band had evolved and matured to a point that it felt like that now is the time. He’s such a good friend and such a great guy and such a multi faceted talent and we’ve done tours with him and stuff like that so I think it was more a case of why he wasn’t in the band!
Andrew: I was going to ask, why he wasn’t in the band in the first place!
Jules: That’s a mystery to me because Snes has his own bands as well, he’s played in Menendez or Wet Tensioner and he’s been across so many acts and it just felt like the timing was right now. This was the time that he could do it and we wanted him to do it and we kind of all met in the middle, it was a real meeting of the minds. I’m really glad he is and we all are because he’s a really good friend of ours and he’s a soul force.
Andrew: That’s good to hear that he’s officially part of the band and we look forward to seeing him in Perth. Now you mentioned before about new music coming up, is this part of a new album or EP to be out in the new year?
Jules: That’s the idea, writing a bunch of songs, getting them in an album and just writing for the sake of writing. We had a bit of downtime so that’s what we do when we’re not touring, we get together, sink a few, smoke a few and then see what comes out creatively. I think that’s where we get our albums and where we get our inspiration so if you haven’t seen us playing, we’re working on stuff and that’s kind of our band. When we’re not touring, we’re writing and hanging out and keep it fresh!
Andrew: Well good to see the band is as active as always and seeing some Aussie music getting out there as well. Looking forward to seeing you in Perth in particular but obviously all the fans too across Australia checking you guys out. Thanks for your tme Jules, really appreciate it and have a great year and we will see you at the Australia Day weekend in WA.
Jules: I can’t wait to kick it on Australia Day in WA, meet some new people, smash it with some familiar faces. It’s always a pleasure, never a chore.
POOL HOUSE RECORDS PRESENTS
THE BENNIES
Friday January 11 – The Zoo, Brisbane
Saturday January 12 – Factory Floor, Sydney
Friday January 18 – Geddes Lane, Melbourne
Friday January 25 – Rosemount, Perth
Saturday January 26 – Mojos, Fremantle
Sunday January 27 – Jive Bar, Adelaide
Tickets on sale now from thebennies.com.au
