Electric Dreams

Though it's hard to wade through the moustached, white-suited, synthesised, '80s irony of Donny Benét to figure out if he is indeed the son of a famous Italian disco accordionist who enjoys entertaining old folks in nursing homes, it matters not a shred upon discovering the pure fun of his musical output.

“I've been playing small shows for years and playing gigs that no one saw… I've always kind of played music for other people and I was playing with Jack Ladder, and I had some tracks around and I met the Rice Is Nice people and we just put them out…” says Benét of his humble beginnings before pondering how best to describe his sound. “I guess it's Miami Vice meets Prince meets Rick James meets '80s Australiana…” he laughs.

From his father's converted garage in suburban Sydney, fondly referred to as Donnyland Studios, his experimentations with a vast collection of bequeathed musical antiquities gave rise to last year's debut album, Don't Hold Back, and this month's follow-up Electric Love. “All the equipment is all old; '70s, '80s, and a lot of synthesisers… and I kind of exclusively use that stuff – it just has that particular sound and you know, they operate and behave in a certain way and I just feel for the music I wanted to create it's kind of really, it just works best and [it's] really appropriate and then really fun to use and sounds cool…

“I even have another old family friend that made music and he gave me a thing called a Stradivarius string machine and it's probably the most amazing thing I have! It was the best gift anyone's ever given me; we used it a lot on Jack Ladder's album – and it's all over the new album, and it's a really eerie kind of spooky string sound, which is pretty cool.”

Whilst Don't Hold Back was an in-the-moment snapshot of Benét's improvised recording process at Donnyland Studios, he put more thought into both the writing and recording of Electric Love. “This one had to be sonically better – the songs had to be written in a different way, and the playing and singing had to be better. Everything you do you try to do something slightly different but it's a tricky one – you want to retain your sound and your same individuality, but at the same time you don't want to release a record that sounds the same as last time…”

Benét's strong visual presence, a marriage of Nightrider-chic and Tim & Eric bizarro, has allowed his new take on Italo disco funk to thrive in spite of not fitting into any existing scene in Australia today. “For me, there wasn't a calculated approach to it. The music I was making, the beautiful thing about it for me was that it just came out – there was no preconceived ideas about it I think, which is a good thing… If you [say] I'd love to record an album like this and make it sound like this, it's never gonna be an organic process. For me I guess, especially with the first album… I was thinking, I don't really hear – and this is a good thing – I don't hear music like this in the Australian musical landscape.” Benét admits he is continually intrigued by the reaction of newcomers.

“It's how people perceive things, which is always an interesting thing to observe. Some people will kind of interpret in one manner compared to other people and it's fine, I don't mind that at all – I enjoy things that hopefully get people thinking: hang on, there's something not right here…”

Donnt Benét will be playing the following shows:

Friday 7 September - GoodGod Small Club, Sydney NSW
Friday 14 September - The Workers Club, Melbourne VIC