Bananagun Dive Deep Into New Album, 'Why is The Colour Of The Sky?'

Naarm/Melbourne-based band Bananagun have unveiled their long-awaited second album, Why Is The Colour Of The Sky?, the follow-up to their 2020 debut, The True Story Of Bananagun.

A long time coming, the new record sees the group eschewing the "ultra-slick bursts of sunshine pop and afrobeat" that permeated their first offering, album number two sees them braver and bolder, leaning into the likes of incendiary jazz and freak-beat experimentation this time around.

Though sonically reminiscent of the '60s in its creation, the quintet's new album wasn't created via a festishisation for the decade, but rather guided based on the philosophical and aesthetic principles many albums of that era were crafted alongside.

“I feel like a lot of human nature and tradition is worth preserving, because we've probably evolved to be this way”, explains songwriter/vocalist/guitarist/flautist Nick Van Bakel. “This album is all about not losing your head and being over-stimulated by the ‘goggle box’; the need for spirituality and nature; the need to communicate and share ideas and adapt in a rapidly changing world without being judged and profiled.

“The preservation of human needs, so we don't all get homogenised and isolated and poisoned to stupidity and obedience."

With Bananagun’s new album out in the world, the band are already looking ahead, with a pair of shows in Sydney and Melbourne slated for February and March 2025.

In the meantime, however, the band have been kind enough to give us a track-by-track rundown of their latest record, explaining what went into the creation of each of the immersive tracks on the album.

01. Brave Child Of A New World

This is addressed to children growing up these days or how I at least would feel as a kid trying to make sense of a society where everyone is inundated with new daily causes to stand for and polarised at either extreme fighting between themselves and having exact opinions forced on you by odious people who ironically are very childish.

I decided instead of arguing with them, I would just sing a song to remind people and myself we’re just living through a time and that you have a birth right to think freely.

02. Children Of The Man

Frivolous innovation and trans-humanism severing connection to nature. Cool sounds! Sounds pretty chill! More engaging with machines and less engaging with people. It’s just insane, but leave the door open.

03. Those Who Came Before

This one is about current civilisation thinking we’re really advanced but there are these undeniable megalithic signs scattered across the earth that tell of ancient civilisations that were more advanced and lived in harmony with nature.

I find it funny just the monumental size of the pyramids or Easter island heads and how conservative mainstream media and cutting edge science either can’t understand it because they’re not actually that advanced or they deny it because it doesn’t correlate with National Geographic. Either way, it’s just a funny situation, like, spill the beans?

04. Feeding The Moon

This was originally called The Magpie, I had my piano set up by the window and was just fiddling around watching the trees when a big bird fight broke out between a murder of crows and a solitary magpie. I was scoring their battle recording on my phone and then I liked it enough to show the band who liked it enough to record it.

05. Gift Of The Open Hand

This is basically being annoyed and frustrated that people don’t really have any sovereignty and we’ve been funnelled into a perverted existence where we owe our thanks to a system that bleeds and I don’t understand how people stand it!

I think people would be happier and more productive without the intervention of governments keeping you safe from yourself. 

06. With The Night

This is our first piano song. I wrote it when I lost a lot of faith in our system seeing how broken and corrupt it is. It was a strange few years during the pandemic and social media hysteria, etc.; personal circumstances that led me toward something more meaningful and nourishing in spirituality. It’s kind of about feeling isolated because ‘religion’ is such a dirty word now too, although it’s quite trendy to have a Buddhist tattoo.

I got a lot of peace and inspiration out of studying natural law and finding my own way outside organised religion looking for my own light. A dark night of the soul that forces you to search inward for the treasure the external world denies.

07. Hippopotamusic

This one was I played the harpsichord while Jimi played maracas to hold the tempo. Bit of a time signature and we got our friend Kas from Melbourne band Zelkova to play the great flute parts on it. It took a while because the harpsichord has smaller keys than piano so it’s easy to hit a wrong note. It reminds me of cartoon hippos doing synchronised water dancing in tutus under the sprinkler, haha.

08. Free Energy

This came from playing drums along to Stereolab with headphones but recording it with mics at the same time. I liked the beat and added some instruments and sat down at the lake in Daylesford and wrote the lyrics. The band added a lot to it though, especially Jimi’s tasteful drum solo and the broken beat part.

It’s about transient energy all around us and within us and exchanging between us etc., the infinite possibilities depending on where you choose to place your energy. It’s like a force bigger than us that we can harness and transmute into cool things like a sculpture or a song or a roast dinner. It’s "the force" Yoda talks about.

09. Wonder, Pt. I

This was half an old demo from ages ago that we polished up and fleshed out. The song is basically about when you were young and wondered the what, when, where, and how’s of life and how that felt like it was a big thing to be solved. Then you get older and you still think about that stuff but you realise that it’s normally pointless and gets you nowhere to worry about, so you remain still wondering, but you’re satisfied not knowing everything.

10. Wonder, Pt. II

This is just not having regrets or grudges or looking back to the past too much, losing sight of the current moment and future ahead. A wee little mantra about keeping your eyes on the prize.

Bananagun’s Why Is The Colour Of The Sky? is out now.