Saint Walker

After gigging solidly around the country for the past few months promoting his latest album, Benny Walker says he's only got one thing on his mind when he reaches WA next week. “Depending on the weather, getting down to the beach is the first priority,” Walker says. He mentions that Perth's chilled-out lifestyle is something he can identify with. “I've been over to WA a few times now, even just to visit, and I absolutely love it. Being from a country town, it's nice to go to a city with a laid-back feel.” 

Despite his relatively calm demeanour, he says he gets fired up by some issues in the news – particularly those affecting the environment. “For me, it's just the general abuse and exploitation of our land and of the earth in general,” he explains. “I think one of the biggest things at the moment is gas mining. I was just so appalled and so frustrated at what was going on at James Price Point and the more I find out about it, the more frustrated I get.” 

He says this was the inspiration behind Enough Is Enough, a song criticising the proposed Browse Liquefied Natural Gas Hub 50km north of Broome. “Every time I play that I like to tell the story so people who don't know what's happening hopefully can look into it and see if there's anything they can do,” he says. “Whether it's as simple as signing a petition or telling somebody else about it, I think we need to stand up and say no, now.”

When speaking about his latest record, Sinners & Saints, Walker says the album as a whole serves as a conclusion for the past six years of his life. “I think it's just a good snapshot of my life and influences in that period in time,” he says. “On this album I decided to put them all together as a sort of story book which clears the drawing board to start a clean slate for the next thing. If I want to go off in a slightly different direction it kind of leaves me open without having old material on a new record. I've already started writing a couple of songs and I'd like to put maybe some more electric on the next album. It won't be a massive step away but I'm really keen to try playing electric guitar a bit more on stage as well. Hopefully that will also flow into the songwriting and be on the next record too.”

Working with Shane O'Mara (Tim Rogers, Lisa Miller, The Audreys) helped him push himself in terms of songwriting. “I think it was the first time I was able to take what's in my head and get it onto a record. I think the only way I was able to do that was with working with Shane. We spoke about what sounds we wanted and how he wanted space in the album, serving the song,” he says. 

Walker also adds working with O'Mara and his fast-paced producing style left little room for sophomore album jitters. “It all happened surprisingly fluently and quite quickly. We gave ourselves four weeks and did it in 14 days so it was a really, really fun, quick process, in all honesty. One of Shane and my ideas was not to edit anything. We'd do two or three takes for each person and then pick out the best one, which I think really puts the soul in the album and gives it a real human element.”

He says he's got a lot in the pipeline but adds he doesn't like having everything set in stone as far as his career is concerned. “I guess at the moment a lot of energy's going into doing this tour and we're heading back to Canada and we're doing a bit of a US tour possibly at this stage. We kind of plan a year or a year and a half in advance really. It's a funny industry where you can't really plan too far ahead.”

Benny Walker will be playing the following dates:

Friday 10 May - The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC
Saturday 11 May - Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick VIC
Friday 24 May - Blues On Broadbeach, Broadbeach QLD
Saturday 25 May - Blues On Broadbeach, Broadbeach QLD