The Brisbane trio is no stranger to touring, currently supporting Ball Park Music on their national escapades.
Bean Magazine (Credit: Charlie Falconer)
Brisbane trio Bean Magazine is no stranger to touring. After all, they’re currently supporting Ball Park Music on their whopping 28-date tour around Australia and New Zealand - and they spent last year supporting The Rubens, Hockey Dad and Rum Jungle on their respective tours.
As such, it’s no surprise that Bean Magazine’s latest EP FOLLY - which drops today - touches on their experience with those pesky “post tour blues”.
“We've had some of the songs for ages, but we wrote some of them when we were on tour last year, travelling around,” frontman Henry Creamer reveals to The Music. “I just feel like we had so many times where we were riding this massive high being on tour, then we were coming home and facing post tour blues. So, some of those songs are written off the come down of that. I just feel like a lot of them kind of draw from that energy.”
The seven track collection is a journey, turning frustrations into thrashing guitar lines and frenetic sing-a-longs, alongside gentler, overcast moments of self-reflection and acceptance. It’s about “being a fool and having a bit of a laugh at yourself" - an ode to stepping back and not taking yourself too seriously, especially when your mind is crowded with defeatist thoughts.
Leaning into that foolishness is their new track, Carly - a song whose name stems from a simple joke within the band.
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“Seb does a pretty funny impression,” Creamer says - speaking about bassist Seb Baren. “The Inbetweeners, the show, is something that we watched when we were a lot younger, and Seb does an impression of [main character] Simon saying ‘Carly’, which is quite funny. And we're playing that song at a party, and then Seb just went, ‘Carly’, in that voice. I thought it was pretty funny, so we just titled it Carly for the longest time, and it just stuck.”
“I also have a friend named Carly,” drummer Gabrielle Beiers adds. “She's my best friend, so it's kind of funny as well.”
“Cool gal,” Creamer laughs. “I wanted to change the name, but then I just forgot about it. We don’t say ‘Carly’ once in the song. Not even once. That's just how it goes sometimes.”
As a whole though, the band agrees that FOLLY isn’t “a far reach” from their other works. But they do tell us that they made “leaps and bounds” to suss out “a new sonic way” to create music, causing the EP to be their heaviest work yet.
“I definitely think we made a big effort to focus on the rhythm sections and making sure the drumming and the bass playing were a lot tighter, which has a different feel,” Creamer says. “I think, with In The Shade, there's definitely moments where it feels like it's obviously a bit more live. But this one, we really wanted to focus on the drums and bass.”
“This is the first EP where I've kind of actually sung along on a song with Henry as well,” Beiers adds. “I guess that's something that I wanted to try and do, when it comes to changing up things sonically. I've always kind of done harmonies and those kind of things as well. But for me, it was a change. I think it added to the feel of the song. That one's called The One In The Egg Dress. So, I'm keen for that one to come out as well. I thought that was something different, and I wanted to give it a go.
“We recorded a lot of the songs with Sam Cromack from Ball Park Music, so he's been a great mentor and really helped us, like, flesh out the new tracks as well, even structure wise. And I think a lot of the best moments in our new songs took influence from him as well.”
Working closely with Brisbane royalty like Cromack, Bean Magazine is sure to keep on the up-and-up… and FOLLY is proof of that.
Bean Magazine’s latest EP, ‘FOLLY’, is out today on all streaming platforms.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body