Bonjah are about to head out on a national tour which will see them make a massive trek across the country. Tone Deaf’s Nikki Williams caught up with the band to discuss making the move over from New Zealand and how busking gave them their break.
Can you tell me about how Bonjah got together and what made you want to create music with this particular group of guys?
Three of us met at High School when we were thirteen. So quite a while ago – there’s a fair bit of history between us. We were friends first then learned how to play guitar together and would get together at lunch time and play little gigs. You know trying to bust out Nirvana covers. And so we grew from there and moved down to the bottom of South Island (South Eden) in New Zealand. That’s where we met our drummer and we jammed a bit and it was awesome. So we got him on board and moved to Australia.
And were you all into the same music at this point or was there perhaps come controversy as to how you were going to mesh your musical tastes together when creating music of your own?
Well sort of. 3 of us grew up listening to pretty much the same stuff. But these days we all listen to different music. But when writing music we definitely clicked.
Jeez that’s lucky.
Yeah well so we’ve heard. We don’t know any different but we hear a lot about how difficult it is to get a band together who are all on the same page.
Well it’s working that’s for sure.
Now where did the name Bonjah came from?
The name Bonjah is a made up word. We didn’t know what we wanted to call ourselves. We had a few different names early in the game but they were crap.
Haha, what were they if you don’t mind me asking?
Haha, I don’t really want to say. They’re pretty bad. I think our first very original name – keep in mind we were 13 – and we called ourselves ‘Untamed Souls’
Untamed Souls – that’s deep!
Haha yeah but Bonjah is literally a made up word. Bonjah and we don’t know how it came about but we were trying out names and it clicked. And we take it as meaning – we want our music to have good energy and we think Bonjah represents good energy.
I was expecting it to have a native New Zealand meaning behind it.
Na, no Kiwi meaning behind it.
Can you tell me how you guys developed from being a local band to being a nationally touring band and I guess going from a local band to a band who many, many people know what you’re about and what you do?
Well we wanted to play as many shows as possible and worked our little butts off. We booked tours and endless tours and kept touring and playing as many shows as we could. We also had a great team around us – a great booking agent and manager. And yeah it was the surrounding team that made us get to where we are now.
Was there perhaps one person in the band who was booking these shows and tours prior to having industry people around you? I’m talking early days here…
At the very start when we moved over as a band from New Zealand. We didn’t know anyone. We did everything ourselves. Regan was kind of like our acting manager kinda’ guy and still Regan and I do a lot of the behind the scenes work ourselves to keep us up and running. We got the help from all these different people along the way and I guess we learned as we went.
Onto Melbourne, you would probably know we have a huge busking scene – were you guys ever involved in it?
Yeah yeah! When we first got here, we didn’t really know how it all worked. We honestly thought we could go into a pub and hand in a CD and get a gig the following week. We were kinda naïve. We soon found out it would take months until we got a gig at a pub. We spent a lot of money to get our equipment over here and get set up with a house and furniture and stupid things like a teapot. We didn’t have any money so we saw all the buskers in the city and it was pretty easy to get a busking permit. It didn’t cost anything and we started doing that and selling a demo CD we recorded in New Zealand. Heaps of people started buying them and we thought it was great – they’d just buy the music off the street. Everything developed from here.
It seems like it’s the done thing these days, a lot of people are having success on the street even more so than booking their own gigs etc.
Well it’s a great starting point. You are literally giving your music directly to the public. Unlike in New Zealand, Melbourne is a massive city, so literally thousands of people are hearing your music as they’re walking by.
Now, I’ve been a massive fan of Cat Empire from their very early days and when I heard Bonjah for the first time, I thought of Cat Empire. What differentiates you from Felix and the other boys?
Well first of all we don’t have a horn section. Umm, they’re such a good band, man I love the Cat Empire. Their live set is so up and so vibing. They’re pretty much gung ho the whole time and have a huge party vibe. I think that reflects on their success and they’re known internationally as well. With us I think we focus more on singer songwriter vibes. Which is quite different to the Cat. But we still like to play fun music and get the party going, you know.
Do you think you have a one up on the Cat Empire in any facet of your music?
Hahaha, not really. Not at all actually. Not at all. They’re all such fantastic musicians. If any of us were half as good as Harry Angus I think we’re on the right track.
This new track Go Go Chaos – what is it about and was there a reason for writing such a low-key track? Why release this particularly track first?
Yeah well, basically it’s a new direction we’re heading towards sonically. We experimented a lot with the song and it is very different to how it started. It was more of a grooving sort of mellow rock tune with a half decent chorus. And we got into the studio and started laying it down. Listened to it back and it was vibing but we weren’t that happy with it. So we decided bugger it and started experimenting with it. And we kind of naturally fell into the natural groove that it is now. And we followed that direction and path and we were quite excited with it because it was slightly out of our comfort zone and it was challenging. And we actually really enjoyed where we took it and the new direction we’re heading towards. And I guess we released it first to introduce the new sound to the public.
Have fans expressed their like for the new sound?
Yeah, absolutely. We’ve had a great response. On your social media and stuff. A lot of love and how much they like it. It’s getting a fair bit of airplay as well on Triple J and people seem to keep requesting it to be played.
Who has been the best act to support in your career so far and why?
I have to say G Love Special Sauce – the boys from America. They’re so good and so humble! The lead singer Gareth aka G Love haha is so down to earth and such a cool dude. And one of the talented musos I’ve ever met. There’s no bullshit about him and his music is really honest. He’s such a good dude to hang out with.
Sweet. Can you walk me through how a song is written by the Bonjah boys?
Yeah sure! A lot of the time it’s a very collaborative thing. Regan usually come up with a basic idea for a song or a chord progression and we’ll sit on it and see what we can come up with when we put our own little flavours on. A couple of songs I came up with the original ideas with and let them develop with the band. But then there are some where our lead singer came up with a melody and a chord progression and we sit down and say we’re not going to tour certain parts. Often we’re blown away by his creations.
And last question, what can fans expect from Bonjah in the next few months and any plans for summer festivals in Australia etc?
Well our album drops on Friday 15th July, also we’re touring Australia in August and September. We’re going to a fair few states – New South Wales, WA, Victoria, Adelaide, Hobart and up to Queensland so it’s quite an extensive tour which takes us up to October. We hope to get to Japan later in the year and we have a show at home in Auckland in October. And we are waiting to hear back from some people about Australian festivals like Woodford and Pyramid throughout summer.
BONJAH‘GO GO CHAOS’ NATIONAL TOUR
With Daniel Lee Kendall and The Joe Kings
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST – INDI BAR, SCARBOROUGH, WA
THURSDAY 18 AUGUST – MOJOS, NORTH FREMANTLE, WA
FRIDAY 19 AUGUST – ROCK INNE TAVERN, KARRAGULLEN, WA
SATURDAY 20 AUGUST – SETTLERS TAVERN, MARGARET RIVER, WA
SUNDAY 21 AUGUST – REDCLIFFE ON THE MURRAY, PINJARRA, WA
SATURDAY 27 AUGUST – CORNER HOTEL, MELBOURNE, VIC
FRIDAY 2 SEPTEMBER – GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL, NEWCASTLE, NSW
SATURDAY 3 SEPTEMBER – OXFORD ART FACTORY, SYDNEY, NSW
SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER – BRASS MONKEY, CRONULLA, NSW
THURSDAY 8 SEPTEMBER – GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL, BYRON BAY, NSW
FRIDAY 9 SEPTEMBER – THE ZOO, BRISBANE, QLD with THE BLACK SEEDS *The Joe Kings no appearing
SUNDAY 11 SEPTEMBER – SOL BAR, MAROOCHYDORE, QLD
FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER – REPUBLIC BAR, HOBART, TAS
SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER – JIVE BAR, ADELAIDE, SA
