Jen catches up with Anty from The Bennies about their upcoming tour and album Wisdom Machine.

The Bennies are touring around Australia real soon to promote their new album Wisdom Machine. Jen chats to Anty, about the new album, the tour and Medical marijuana. Thanks to Kit Lindsey for his research and assistance with the questions.

Hi Anty, how are you going?

Great thanks.

I saw you when you played at Melbourne with Less than Jake and Reel Big fish, I was interviewing them. Loved you set, it was insane!

Ah cool! Which venue?

Prince bandroom

Ah yeah in Melbourne.

I was interviewing Vinnie.

Ah yes he is awesome that dude, he is kind of like the brains behind the band. He was a really really nice dude. We got along with those guys particularly well and I think we are going to be releasing our album with his record label in the States.

Sweet!

We hope to get it to tour with them over there at some stage. We almost did not do that tour, it was like really bad timing for us, we had not even finishing recording our album, well just finished but we had not done the mixing yet. So it was like in between but was pretty hectic, we had been in the studio the night before we left and had stopped recording and it was hard to get into the mode of playing a live set after recording but it was definitely worth it.

For sure! You have new fans and I can wear the tee I got at the show!

It is great to play at gigs like that as there are people that don’t go to local ska gigs as much and something like that and so it is awesome when a local band gets to play those kind of gigs in front of so many people.

Awesome! Congrats on making the top 100, number 88 For Party Machine, was that a surprise for you?

Thank you, I am so happy! I can’t believe it, it was a surprise. It sounds like such a cliche but it was a massive surprise. You always hope but we had a song last year that was released around about the same time called ‘Heavy Disco’ and that got a lot just as much radio time if not more than Party Machine, that song did not even get into the top 200 so we were like kinda of like well fuck obviously you got to get a lot of votes and quite popular and that sort of stuff so we were did not have an expectations but to get in was fucking incredible!

I got the album last night and I absolutely love the second last song.

‘Turning around’?

Yes! I think it would be amazing to hear live.

It is funny that song, it was a bit of a surprise song, I mean we put in effort into all the songs this one was like we had a little bit of a battle for a while and we weren’t sure.  Everyone that we played it to was like this is like the catchiest song and it is really good and something makes people drawn to that song.

Your first release off Wisdom Machine was written a few days before you entered the studio at Psyfari, seems like that camping festival was a lot of fun, “Party Machine” has a more ska and electronic influenced sound, is that something that came from trial and error or did you contribute that to the influence of the festival?

Yes, we have played there are a few times now actually in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney. They are really really great there and I really love it. They are trying to do this thing there to bridge the gap between electronic, DJ kind of music and dance. There is not that many bands that play but fortunately they like us to do a bit of reggae stuff and that seems to work well. We all really love that we get to play that festival, along the bands that we usually play with play punk music, they don’t get the opportunities to play those sort of different gigs. We have a few different genres in our songs and it’s great we get the opportunity to play some shows like that.

Love the preorder tee back, Psychedelic Reggae Ska Doom Metal Punk Rock ,After listening to the album, That actually does make sense!  You have the whole Psychedelic theme going with the album, did you design the cover and tees yourselves?

It was actually done by Chris Cowburn, the drummer of The Smith Street Band. We are really good mates with those guys and Chris has a really good brain for band stuff like design and being organized and we actually run a lot of things past him like decisions and stuff to get his input. So he said he would help with the design. The original concept of the artwork came about with my dad painted the painting, the middle of the front cover. The picture of us riding on the horses. So my dad did that then we gave it to Chris who did everything else. The tees fit in with the artwork.

Will any horn players be with you on the tour to play on Burn Out City’, ‘Heavy Reggae’ and ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’.

I am not sure yet, I actually just got a message from a guy that plays horns a few seconds before you called wondering what we are doing, I imagine at the Melbourne shows we will definitely get them out for a song or two. I am not sure. We might do it for some of the capital cities as we know a few people and we might ask them to get up and play just for one song. We have done it sometimes and it is an awesome vibe but is a lot more work to  organize it if that makes sense. When we are on tour running around like crazy it can be the straw that breaks the camels back almost, if they don’t know how a gig runs.

A random question for you, how do you feel about your home state of Victoria being the first in Australia to begin trials to legalize medical marijuana?

I saw that! In 2017. I feel great about it. It is awesome!

I heard of someone that is on medical marijuana and it has made a huge difference to their lives in regards to pain relief and sleep.

That is great! So it really helps! That is fucking Ace!

Do you know what the thing is? It is not for everyone, some people don’t like it but for a lot of people, that 70% of people who are in pain it makes a world of difference. I don’t see it doing any harm. We should be able to take advantage of this sort of gift. Not being able to sleep at night can really wear you down and to have a little bit of oil so they can sleep through the night that can make all the difference and be better rested and stuff. So why not!

In your career you’ve become somewhat notorious for having endless tours. What would you say has been your most crazy tour experience?

I can tell you one that can promote the tour. So we are bringing out a band called ‘Off With Their Heads’ from America on the next tour and we are really excited about as they are one of our favorite bands. We were in America are playing a gig at Long Beach, called The Prospector, which was really a big deal for us because Sublime used to play there all the time and we are a big fan of that band. We got there all excited and we played a gig to one person.  There was only one person watching us for the entire gig. We could not believe it that we had gone all the way to America to play to one person, we thought this sucks so bad. But we have an attitude that every gig is worth something so we gave it everything, we smashed it out and gave it our everything. After the gig the  guy that was watching us came up and we chatted to him for ages. Then after speaking for a while he let slip that he played in a band and we said what band?

He said we are called ‘Off With Their Heads’ and we were like WHAT??? We could not believe it! And that is how this tour has come about. It was because of a strange gig that we played to one person, that was the singer of ‘Off With Their Heads’.

What an awesome story! So glad it happened!

That night ended with me on the bar on the bartenders shoulders chatting USA while drinking directly from a bottle of vodka!

Haha!  Classic! Leaving the dream!

Yes in some ways.

Thanks for your time Anty, I look forward to seeing you in Melbourne.

Thanks Catchya!

The Bennies will tour Wisdom Machine across Australia in March and April with support from Minneapolis punk band Off With Their Heads (Epitaph Records) and Adelaide’s Hightime. “Melbourne can’t contain me,” sings Horgan on ‘Burnout City’. With more touring and international dates in the works for 2016, The Bennies machine is unstoppable.

Wisdom Machine preorders available from Jan 28th via

Poison City E-Store www.poisoncityestore.com

Album release March 25th 2016

THE BENNIES – WISDOM MACHINE TOUR

w/ special guests Off With Their Heads (USA) & Hightime

Presented by Poison City Records & Jackknife Music

Sun March 27 – Club 54, Launceston

Mon March 28 – Brisbane Hotel, Hobart

Thur March 31 – Adelaide Uni Bar, Adelaide

Fri April 1 – Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Sat April 2 – Amplifier, Perth

Sun April 3 – Prince of Wales, Bunbury

Wed April 6 – Transit Bar, Canberra

Thur April 7 – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle

Fri April 8 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

Sat April 9 – Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane

Sun April 10 – Sol Bar, Maroochydore

Tickets on sale Friday January 22nd at 9am from

WWW.THEBENNIES.COM.AU

Written by Jen Rees and Kit Lindsey

Photo by Jen Rees