The Bennies

They weren’t up for any Australia Day celebrations, nor were they gathered around the wireless to listen in to the national youth broadcaster.

“Anty was asleep, Jules was playing video games and I was out playing golf with my dad,” says Selak, the band’s bassist and one of its three vocalists. It was early afternoon when the news broke within their camp: ‘Party Machine’, the lead single from the band’s third studio album Wisdom Machine, had entered the triple j Hottest 100 at number 88.

“I think we were about to tee off on the second hole when suddenly my phone started ringing off the hook,” Selak laughs. “I don’t think we even thought we’d get into the Hottest 200! It was such a thrill, even just to know that the hard work that we had put in meant that people outside of our friends and families had been listening to us and were getting behind the band.”

The Bennies were formed in 2009 by Selak, vocalist/keyboardist Horgan and drummer Beaumont, and originally came together under the name Madonna (yes, really). Rozenbergs, a former axe-wielder in The Gun Runners, was enlisted on guitar and vocals a year later. Now, the Melburnians – who flirtatiously skid between reggae, ska, punk, rock, pop and hair metal – are honing in on what is easily their most ambitious LP to date.

“We’ve never worked as hard on anything as we have this record,” says Selak. “We wanted to try something really conceptual, which was a big deciding factor in what songs made it onto the record. I think that we wanted this to be a record of freedom – it’s an album where we took the liberty of doing everything that we’ve ever wanted to do on one of our albums. Nothing’s forced on this album – everything you hear is just us going about exploring what we’re able to do as a band. We were focused primarily on doing whatever came naturally to us.”

Fans have already heard three singles from the record – the aforementioned ‘Party Machine’, ‘Legalise (But Don’t Tax)’ and the pun-slinging skate-punk of ‘Detroit Rock Ciggies’. There’s plenty more where that came from too, as Wisdom Machine ensures these stoners leave no stone unturned in their quest. ‘Corruption’, for instance, is one of the slowest and heaviest tracks the band has ever committed to wax, stemming from two quite different but notable musical influences.

“Even back when we were Madonna, we’d always had this idea of doing a song like Rage Against The Machine,” Selak explains. “Their songs are angry and punchy, but they’ve got so much groove to them. Though it’s a different groove, you can say the same thing about Black Sabbath, who I’ve always loved. That’s kind of where the idea behind that song came from – doing something really heavy, but then switching it up with kind of a reggae feel.”

If that wasn’t enough, Wisdom Machine also features both the shortest and the longest Bennies songs yet. ‘West Memphis Three Paper’ is all over in 21 seconds, while closer ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ clocks in at the ten-minute mark. Selak is particularly emphatic about wanting people to hear the latter, which he also deems the song that means the most to the band.

“I honestly think it’s the best song we have ever recorded,” he says. “It’s a really personal one – especially for Anty, who wrote all of the lyrics himself about his brother. We were both kind of working on our separate things – we were formulating what would become the song itself, and Anty was working away on the story that he wanted to tell. The one thing we knew we couldn’t do was hold back – when it came together finally, it was such a huge moment for all of us.”

The album’s exquisite artwork is a collaboration between Geoffrey Horgan, Anty’s dad, and The Smith Street Band drummer Chris Cowburn. Horgan painted the psychedelic centrepiece of the cover, while Cowburn handled the design and typography.

“Our jaws just dropped when we saw that for the first time,” recalls Selak. “They just both completely went above and beyond for this album. Anty’s dad just paints as a hobby, and we loved the style that he paints in. It’s got that real Renaissance-period feel to it, but it doesn’t carry any real religious connotations. When we were putting together the concept behind Wisdom Machine, we realised that he would be the best guy for the job. He was with us every step of the way, and he really made the idea his own.”

Fans will get yet another chance to see The Bennies as they head out on a national tour in support of Wisdom Machine. The tour begins in their native Melbourne before the run wraps up in Maroochydore of all places, exactly two weeks later. The shows will be the first time many tracks from Wisdom Machine have been performed live, and will also see The Bennies play some of their biggest headlining shows yet. Joining them will be Adelaide punks and old friends Hightime – whose last album Mother Crab features Horgan on one of its tracks – as well as international visitors in the form of Minnesota’s premier punk exports Off With Their Heads, making a long-awaited return to Australia. Selak explains with glee how The Bennies and Off With Their Heads crossed paths.

“We were touring through America – it might have been the very first time we did, actually. We were playing in Long Beach about two years ago, and there was this guy … he was literally the only one in the entire venue that was paying any attention to us. If we’d have known we’d just be playing to one person, we’d have pulled out in an instant – we were so hungover and dusty. Still, we didn’t think too much of it – I mean, what can you do, really? – and just treated it like a bit of a jam session or rehearsal. We were just laughing and having fun, like we always do. After we were done, this guy came up to us and had four beers waiting for us. He was like, ‘That was the best show I’ve seen in years. You guys are my new favourite band.’ We were all like, ‘Who the fuck are you, dude?’ It turned out to be Ryan Young, the lead singer of Off With Their Heads. We ended up having a bunch of beers with him and made sure to stay in contact. A few years down the track, they wanted to come back to Australia – and here we are!”

The moral of the story? “Rock every show that you play!” says Selak with a laugh. “You never know who might be watching!”

[The Bennies photo by Ian Laidlaw]