Paint It Black

It's a nondescript weeknight in suburban Melbourne, but for the neighbours of Bonjah frontman Glenn Mossop things are about to get a little rowdy. “The boys are around, we're going to chill out and do some writing”, he begins.

Once upon a time the prospect of the five boys from Bonjah writing some tunes would not raise too many neighbourly eyebrows. However, the past couple of years have been a time of reflection and reinvention for the four-piece. Percussionist James Majernik has left the band since the release of 2011's Go Go Chaos, so, as Mossop explains, Bonjah took the opportunity to change their musical direction. “When 'Maj' left, we didn't want to just replace him with another percussionist, so instead we moved away from that rootsy sound of our earlier stuff.

“Coming from New Zealand, in a way we were born into the rootsy, reggae scene. Moving to Melbourne though [the band crossed the ditch in 2006] and making the transition to a place where there's such an eclectic sound, we've adapted to the sound of diverse bands and artists, and we're taking influences from all kinds of directions.”

While the writing process has dominated much of the past couple of years (alongside European and Japanese tours), Bonjah have dropped the first two singles off the forthcoming album Evolution and, now, the straight-up rock'n'roll tune Blue Tone Black Heart. The latter was recorded with the help of producer Jan, a man whose surname Mossop needs to spell out for this confused interviewer: “I don't even know how to spell it; I'm going to have to Google it. Hang on, I'm just going to yell out to Regan, he'll know.” A shout cries out: “Hey Regs! How do you spell Jan's last name?” Mossop returns to the phone: “Can I text it to you?”. Turns out he's talking about Jan Skubiszewski, of Jackson Jackson and Way Of The Eagle fame, whose credits include The Cat Empire, Illy and Daniel Merriweather among others.

To celebrate the release of Blue Tone Black Heart, Bonjah are hitting the road. And although the tour spans across four months, it's certainly not the most intense schedule the band has kept. “When we first arrived here we would play for six to eight weeks at a time, four nights a week. As you get a bit older, you need a bit of breathing space and some time to rejuvenate.

“These days we prefer flying to piling into a van if given the chance. We did so much touring when we first arrived in Ozzie; we went through three vans in the early days. We actually left one on the side of the road. We were on our way to a gig in the middle of country Victoria and the van passed out on the way. We were still probably two hours away from the venue, so we had to cancel the fucking gig. We didn't even have a way to get home. We had to call our manager at the time and make him drive three hours to come and pick us up. I'm hoping we'll have no problems like that this time 'round.”