More Than Okay

"I'm just having a quiet day. It's our last weekend before the tour, so I'll be doing absolutely nothing. I might go to the beach. It's been about 26, 27 degrees, a little bit windy, but not too bad. Are you having a good day so far?”

Regan Lethbridge is a nice guy. It's immediately apparent in his generous, always at ease conversation with an ever-present joie de vivre in his voice. And the guitarist and his Melbourne-via-New Zealand rock'n'roots band Bonjah obviously give no heed to superstition. After all, the four-piece are happy to hit the road for 13 shows as part of their national tour, and release their new single Evolution on Monday 13 May.

“I actually noticed that when I read our [tour promo] stuff,” Lethbridge laughs. “Originally it was an 11-date tour and then we got a couple of shows added and it ended up being 13. I don't know, something funny's happened there. I hope we're not slapping the band with a curse of something.”

If indeed that is the case, it seems unlikely to yield any adverse affects on the group that can seemingly do no wrong, having had no end of love thrown at their intimate and energetic gigs and two studio albums since touching down in Australia in 2006.

School friends Lethbridge, singer Glenn Mossop and bassist Dave Morgan made the inevitable post-secondary school move south to Dunedin and it was while at uni the trio met and recruited drummer Dan Chisholm, and Bonjah was born. And they may have studied sometimes in between jamming and hanging out.

“Dan graduated; he's a trained lawyer but we saved him from that,” Lethbridge cheekily reasons. “I actually met him in music class and we just started jamming and ended up getting him onto drums. Then literally after the first jam I asked him if he wanted to join and he said yes. We were pretty lucky because we've always struggled with drummers. When we were at school and stuff we were just playing covers and [our drummers] were terrible. I mean, one of them was good but we were horrible. But it was fun.

“Our rehearsals were always in our friend's dad's shed and he was always saying 'It's shut, it's shuteh!' and then one day he was like 'it's okay'. We were like 'yes, we're onto something!'. Since then we've always gone by things being 'shut' or 'okay'.”

Melbourne was always in Bonjah's sights. Busking on the corners of Bourke and Swanston near-constantly for their first fours years on Australian turf is what put food on the band's table, backed by the odd casual job proffered by friends they'd made in the city they now “hang their hats”. Those years on the street also found the lads an instantly dedicated following.

“That's how we met most of our friends at the start, was through busking,” Lethbridge explains. “We just set up a little table and lived off our CD sales. We'd sell, I don't know, 150 a week or something. We loved it, it was just a way to play music a lot and meet people.

“This is what pretty much started it for us, the crowd response and people actually paying money to come see us. We started out playing three or four nights a week for the first couple years, and then the tours, and the albums, and the venues we've been playing, we're just so appreciative. We're forever going to be grateful for the way Melbourne's treated us.”

The lads expect to complete their feverishly anticipated third studio album in June, with murmurs that it is due to drop some time in the months following. What can be expected is a more upbeat collection of soulful roots rock, a side-step from their more mellow 2011 long-player Go Go Chaos recorded with Steven Schram, whose belt notches include San Cisco, Little Red and Eagle And The Worm. But how tough is it to follow up their previous album's success with a touring schedule as rigorous as Bonjah's?

“We're mindful of the fact we're not repeating ourselves for sure, but in terms of the songwriting we kind of just have the philosophy that anything goes,” Lethbridge says. “We might write 11 songs and scrap five. We want to put out the best possible record we can, but at the same time we're really good mates as well, we don't really let stuff get in the way. But you can get quite precious with some things, for sure.”

As their first release in two years, Evolution appears to be already its working wonders, getting healthy spin time on triple j and loads of gushing fan love on the group's social media sites. An instantly likeable, swift-footed toe-tapper with Mossop's Jeff Buckley-cum-Dan Auerbach drawl, it makes good on their promise of a more vibrant outing, and yet its inspiration carries a more serious undertone.

“We met a girl after a show and she'd told us about tough times she was having,” Lethbridge explains. “We all walked away with our jaws on the floor and wrote a song about it. We just all knew that was the song, there's something special about it. The first time we played it everyone was stoked. We just had that gut feeling that we had the single, so we recorded it and we're really proud of it.

“We got a few buddies to help us record it, like Nick [Didia, who's worked with Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Powderfinger], but Mozza's voice, I think he was just really passionate in what he was singing about, and he just got carried away. He's an incredible vocalist and he's really quite unique. That's what I really hone in on when I listen to it, is his vocal.”

With Brisbane denied a slot on their national tour (“it wasn't intentional, but we'll save that show for the album,” Lethbridge promises) they may just about make up for it when they play Nambour's Big Pineapple Festival alongside a line-up boasting Birds of Tokyo, Grinspoon, Regurgitator and stacks more. But is Lethbridge more excited for the line-up or to see our big piece of fruit?

“I can't remember where I've seen it, where's the Big Banana?” Lethbridge is informed it's in Coffs Harbour. “Oh yeah, no sorry I've seen the Big Banana. The Big Pineapple… I think we've driven past and stopped and had a look. I can't wait for that though, the line-up is great.

“I try to be like, 'just breathe, be cool' [with the artists we play with]. But if you've been listening to someone for ten years and if you get to hang with them, you've got to pinch yourself. You'd want to hang up the boots otherwise. But the thing is, a lot of these artists, they are just genuinely very, very nice people. There's no cold shoulder, they're just really cool people. And the guys that are dorks and end up being rich and successful, well it all comes back to bite them in the arse in the end.”

Bonjah will be playing the following dates:

Friday 19 April - The Loft, Gold Coast QLD
Saturday 20 April - Big Pineapple Fest QLD
Saturday 20 April - Sol Bar, Maroochydore QLD
Sunday 21 April - Hotel Brunswick, Brunswick Heads NSW
Friday 3 May - The Gov, Adelaide SA
Saturday 11 May – Fly by Night, Perth WA
Wednesday 22 May - Brass Monkey, Cronulla NSW
Thursday 23 May – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW
Friday 24 May - Heritage Hotel, Bulli NSW
Saturday 25 May - Baha, Rye VIC