Project Description

Q&A

with Punk/Folk outfit

BENNY MAYHEM

responses by Benny Mayhem
(singer/guitarist/songwriter)

.

.

Already stuck into the first leg of their Australian tour ‘Benny Mayhem’ and the guys are hitting the ground running with the release of their brand new single ‘Bulwer Street Waltz’.

We had a bit of luck catching Benny the other day and managed to hold him down for a few minutes to chat to him regarding his new track and massive Aussie tour!

.

.

Hi guys, it’s great to chat with you today.

Thanks! You too – appreciate you taking the time.

.

First off ‘Bulwer Street Waltz’… A name that seems to have a certain meaning. Is it anything to do with the song itself or is it just where you recorded it?

344 Bulwer Street is a house in West Perth, Western Australia, and is directly across the road from the Hyde Park Hotel. Nowadays, the ‘Hydey’ is just a suburban pub but, when my friends and I were younger, it was a whole other story.

Bulwer Street then was a magnet for freaks, geeks and the inner city working class. It was a musical and creative haven where anything went. Some of the biggest names in WA music, from Pendulum to The Panics to Jebediah, walked the sticky carpets of the front room – as did some of our noted comedians, eg. Dave Callan.

But for every ‘super-star’ that occasionally graced the Hydey (such as Tommy Ramone or Eddie Veddar…) there were a thousand no-names, lowlifes, indie kids, drunkards, speed freaks, rappers and punks. It was a fucking shithole, and it was our fucking shithole – it was terrifying, dangerous and beautiful, all at once.

That scene is long gone, but its legacy continues to this day. There is a great documentary about it, actually, called Fridey At The Hydey, which was produced and directed by my colleagues, and has been screened in London & Berlin.

Anyhow, during 2004-05, my friends and I rented 344. We lived there for a full year. The house was owned by some government department…. it was ridiculous. At one stage, we were six months behind in rent, but we were never evicted. Jeez, we were barely adults, and we lived 24/7 on the inner-city front line.

So, ‘Bulwer Street Waltz’ acknowledges that those times existed, and that, for better or worse, my friends and I came of age that summer. That’s all it is: a snapshot of a place and time. But I suspect the themes are universal.

.

Now although coming all the way from the U.K, you guys aren’t new to this place and judging by your accents you seem to be pretty local sounding. Where are you guys mainly based and how did you all get to know each other?

I was born in Albany, Western Australia. I’m the descendent, on one side, of some of the oldest whitefella families in the state, and on the other, from Irish/Cockney immigrants from the Falls Road, Belfast. And to this day, I am based in WA.

I spent 10 years in the original music scene in Perth, in the bands zxspecky and Project Mayhem, before moving to London for two years in 2013.

Like most Australian working holidaymakers, I blew all my money in Europe very quickly. I had tickets to Rebellion Festival 2013 in Blackpool UK, and I knew that by the time I got there, I’d be penniless.

So, before I left for the festival, I went down to Tin Pan Alley in Soho, and blew my last £350 on a guitar. I figured it was something I could at least try to make some money with. A few days later, I arrived in Blackpool…. and I couldn’t even afford a beer. So I went busking. That was the start of my professional career.

When I returned to London, I kept on busking, because it was the only job I could think of doing without having to write a résumé. Within two years, I worked my way from playing outside Camden Town Tube station, to the UK festival circuit.

I’ve since been back to the UK six times. And, in 2017, I actually played at Rebellion Festival, as an artist, on the bill. Fucking hell, that felt good.

So, a large part of me does identify with the UK – London will always be a second home – but in another, more accurate way, I am just another Australian taking my stories to the world. And the only way to do that is to get on a plane and travel.

.

‘Bulwer Street Waltz’ official music video is out now HERE

.

It’s a huge feat in itself not only recording and releasing music but also preparing for a tour on the other side of the world. There are hundreds if not thousands of bands wanting to do the same as you guys. What is some good advice to give readers if they are planning on doing the same thing?

With the benefit of hindsight, I could sit here and tell you exactly how I made the journey from bedroom solo artist to leader of a five-piece folk-punk band leader, and I could describe every element of it to you, in very great detail. But there is no guarantee whatsoever that repeating the process would yield the same results.

I spent many, many hours in my youth studying the working life of The Beatles. I wanted to replicate what they did – their success – and I couldn’t do it. Nobody ever can, just as nobody can replicate Nirvana. Nobody can replicate Pendulum.

What all those acts have in common was their fearlessness, their hard work, and the fact that they were in the right place at the right time… but also, none of them followed the prescribed doctrine of the industry around them at the time.

I continue to draw great inspiration from people like that, and I am proud that I have forged – and am forging – my own path in the world, whatever may come. You just have to do it your way, and you have to never, ever, ever give up.

That is so much harder than it sounds. I have lost lovers, I have lost bands, I have lost the things that I thought were the most important… but, at the same time, I have looked after, the very best I can, those who have stuck with me regardless.

And now, I have an incredible team of amazing people, on both sides of the globe, including this incredible Benny Mayhem band that we have put together here in Perth, which now tours Europe and Australia regularly. I am very, very grateful.

But the short version? You must travel constantly, you must take nothing for granted, and you must find a way to turn your art into a business.

.

Folk / Punk / Rock, is there any other genres you’d like to steal at all? This isn’t pigeon holing by any means but does the state of what you listen to currently reflect on your song writing?

Our folk-punk sound has its roots in the UK in the 1980s with The Pogues, The Levellers, Billy Bragg and The Men They Couldn’t Hang. Of course, The Pogues drew heavily from Irish bands, such as The Dubliners and The Wolfe Tones.

The Irish tradition continues in America today, with acts like Flogging Molly, and Dropkick Murphys; while contemporary solo artists like Chuck Regan, Tim Barry and Frank Turner draw heavily on Americana, and the folk & storytelling traditions of Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan.

Regan, Barry, Turner – what do these guys all have in common?

They all started out as the frontmen of punk rock bands, and as they grew up, they realised that those elements that make punk music what it is; work just as well, on an acoustic guitar, as they do with a full-volume four-to-the-floor band.

Both of these genres – folk and punk – have spawned entire galaxies of styles and subgenres, yet they can each be boiled down to one enduring philosophy: ‘four chords and the truth.’ The marriage makes sense.

And, for me, there is absolutely no point in even picking up a guitar if you do not have good songs. Kurt Cobain understood this, that’s why Nirvana were so successful. Noel Gallagher understood it too. So did the Beatles.

So, if that’s rock music? Then count me in. Every element of ‘Bulwer Street Waltz’ – from The Clash-style bass lines to the Marshall stack mandolin solo – is hooky as fuck – deliberately so.

Then, the final element, of course, is my own cultural identity as an Australian. Redgum, Warumpi Band, Midinight Oil, Banjo Patterson – we have our own storytelling tradition, our own unique voice.

And that is roughly how Benny Mayhem fits in to the musical world.

.

‘Bulwer Street Waltz’ available on iTunes HERE

.

Last but not least, where are you headed on your tour from here and when can we hear more from Benny Mayhem? 

The full band will tour Australia in April, May & June; and the UK and Continental Europe in August, September & October 2018.

We launched the new single at Amplifier Bar, Perth, on Friday 23 March; and in my home town of Albany, WA, on Saturday 24 March.

.

Stay glued to Benny Mayhem’s Facebook page for the latest tour dates.

.

.

AMNPLIFY – DB