Oct
22
2.23pm

THE BENNIES // Bringing The Party To Brissy’s Loudest


If you see The Bennies live and have a bad time, you’ve stumbled into the wrong venue. True facts.

The Bennies, for those not in the know, are the ska-metal-punk-rap-electro extravaganza that’s 420% party and a million percent awesome. (We’re biased, but it’s true. Truer than truth on truth pils.) They’ll be bringing the loud AND the party to Brisbane at Halloween Hysteria. But what’s in store for punters? We caught up with frontman Anty Horgan ahead of the festivities and found out.

Hysteria: So, you’re co-headlining this ma with King Parrot. What’s the vibe?

Anty: It’s awesome. Yeah, I’m super excited. I think the line-up’s fucking incredible. Really pumped.

It’s a really diverse line-up, and you’re gonna play alongside metal, punk, hardcore, and everything in between. What was the reaction when you were asked to co-headline?

I can’t remember, but it’s not unusual for us to get asked to play gigs with bands that don’t really sound like us and they’re maybe really different. That’s pretty much the plight of The Bennies, we constantly play with bands that don’t sound like us, they’re real different. But it’s like, it’s awesome because we get to play with sick bands and do different shit.



It’s really hard to place you guys. “What are The Bennies like?” Well, you kind of have to see them.

It’s hard to say, hey … That’s not the kind of thing that we just talk about from within the band, but I guess we’re pretty proud of our live show, and we pride ourselves on a good time. We make music I don’t think it’s for everyone. It’s not like, music for a run or whatever but I think it would be pretty hard to have a bad time watching it live. I think you’d be trying to find the flaws. I don’t think that we’re putting out any kind of attitude or anything pretentious about it or anything, like I think it kind of comes across like we’re just have a time. So if you’re shitting on people having fun, that don’t really care, you’re kind of a dickhead.

Will you be dressing up?

I’m not too sure, man. I enjoy Halloween but I know that a lot of people are still a bit reluctant to it. I feel like Australia is confused about Halloween whether to embrace it or not. So, I like it because I’ll celebrate any occasion people get dressed up and I’ll go party. In terms of the Halloween thing, we’ll definitely be getting dressed up at Hysteria, but yeah, It’s going to be party as fuck as it always is, but we’re like … it will be our second show playing a bunch of new songs and I’m really excited about that.

Which bands are you most excited to see on the day?

I’m really pumped to see VOIID. I’ve never seen them before. Really pumped to see a band called Baker’s Eddy that I’ve been listening to heaps and I haven’t seen before. Obviously like, King Parrot and the Hard-Ons. I’m pumped. Press Club was fucking amazing. Hanny J, her new album is fucking incredible. They’re just on the top of my head, but as I said, I do think the line-up’s really sensational. So I’m just fucking amped, actually.

After Halloween, what’s the plans for the Bennies for the rest of the year?

So this weekend, we actually start recording some new songs. Yeah, cause then work on new album, and I guess we’ll just sort of start seeing how that rolls out. We have a few gigs here or there kind of planned, and I’m really hoping we can get out a song sometime soon. Yeah, just kind of like the same stuff that we love doing, just playing shows and trying to make new music.

[The Bennies] isn’t music for a run or whatever but I think it would be pretty hard to have a bad time watching it live. I think you’d be trying to find the flaws.
[ANTY]

Have you or the band ever woken up after a sesh and written something so out there, it’s out there even for The Bennies?

I guess the best example of that for us was the EP that we put out at the start of the year, Natural Born Chillers and there’s a song on that called Trip Report, which I feel like is a pretty odd song where it’s just on loop and there’s no real chorus, it just “whoa, whoa, whoas” and some story telling. That’s on paper a pretty bad song, but we put out that EP and that was the one that a lot of people gravitated to a lot, and I think when people are vulnerable in music, it reflects more of their personality, and I think people want to hear that.

It’s interesting you say that, because the vulnerability thing can be a double-edged sword for bands like yourself or Andrew W.K. “What, the Bennies having a bad time? How dare they!”

[laughs] It can feel like an internal trap, like feeling a need to keep doing the same thing. But I think that’s entirely an internal dialogue. It’s like feeling the pressure that maybe works and people are going to that so we need to keep doing more of that stuff. But nah, sort of a “fuck that” attitude.

Is that liberating?

Yeah, I mean, we’ve never appealed to a lot of people because we haven’t had a consistent theme. We like to change things a lot, and that’s been a reason that a lot of people have criticised us a lot, and it’s also been one of the reasons why people have praised us and you know, we just gotta do what we want to do to make us happy. I don’t think we can really confine that to a certain mood.

And as for yourself, you’re doing some solo stuff, tell us a little about that.

Oh man, it’s just super fun. I just like taking a bunch of old ska and reggae songs and I’m just making them hip hop and I just kind of badly rap over the top and just play. Just heaps of fun. I’m learning a lot from it and it’s helping my confidence and I’ve got so much room to grow to get better at it that it’s really good and fun and it’s like a nice little thing to fill in some time while the Bennies have downtime!

Do you get much downtime?

Well, we agree you need some time to relax and stuff, but it actually doesn’t work for us. The busier we are, the more productive we are, the more we enjoy it all and the more time we seem to be able to find for other things. It’s when we draw things back that it just feels like a bit more overwhelming. I don’t know if that makes sense at all.

We realised that recently. We were recording this weekend and we made that call a little bit too hastily. We’re like “fuck it, let’s just do it.” But like, that’s made us a bit more pumped and just when you start working like that, everything comes together well.

Like you’re constantly cramming for exams, keeping you on your toes.

Yeah, yeah. Constantly cramming. Hey, that could be a good name for the album!

Catch The Bennies co-headlining Halloween Hysteria with King Parrot on the 27th of October at The Jubilee Hotel, Brisbane! Tickets going quick!





Soulfly Ritual


Latest News

MORE MUST READS >