On Missing His Bandmates, Mario Kart And A Venue Painted In Rasta Colours

When one calls in to Anty Horgan, the party-hard frontman from Melbourne's The Bennies, you can forgive the guy for being a bit held up trying to board a plane. Fresh from their recent jaunt touring the UK and Europe, and a few weeks out from the four-piece's mammoth 27-date national tour, it's safe to assume they've been very busy little Bennies indeed.

But, 24 hours later, the vocalist phones in ahead of the band's slot on the Big Pineapple Festival in Queensland, which has afforded the guys a bit of fun in the sun before the next onslaught of touring kicks off. Not that Horgan is looking forward to the mini hiatus; far from it.

"We're staying at the place we're playing, which is a theatre painted in rasta colours."

"I don't like downtime," he deadpans. "It's just so much better to keep moving and doing stuff. And when you're doing it frequently and you stop it's really heavy. So I'm worried because we've got about three or four weeks off before our tour starts. I'll probably play a lot of Mario Kart and smoke a lot of weed I reckon.

"But it's always been our intention [to tour this much]. When no one knew us we played like six gigs a week just in Melbourne. And that was dumb. No one came to any of the gigs. But we didn't really care, we were playing. And also — this is going to sound like a cliche — but I am in a band with three of my best friends who I love spending time with. I've been away from them two days now and I miss them."

The unstoppable party machine that is The Bennies has hazily knocked on the door of venues far and wide since 2014's Heavy Disco EP hit the airwaves, followed by two lauded albums including this year's Wisdom Machine. Their trademark psychedelic tights leave a searing impression wherever they're busted out, but Horgan was never worried crowds wouldn't stomach the band's loose reggae-punk.

"It's more like — well this is going to sound really arrogant — but the one thing about our band is that we can win a crowd over," Horgan laughs. "Like we've always been able to do that. Because no one likes the style of music that we play so we've had to do everything that we can to try and get it over the line."

With a new bunch of fans made across the globe, an itch kicked in and the boys decided it was time to hit the road again back home. Standing out like a sore thumb on the massive list of shows is a slated gig in the weed capital of Australia, Nimbin. It's a Bennies dream come true.

"We're really lucky because the guy with the venue is being super fucking awesome and really excited about the gig," Horgan says. "He said there hasn't been a punk gig in Nimbin for ages. We're staying at the place we're playing, which is a theatre painted in rasta colours. I'm so excited. I reckon we need to get someone along for the ride just to film it because I reckon there'd be some fucking funny stuff going down."