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Interview with
BEN STEWART
from
SLOWLY SLOWLY

(November 23, 2023)

Interview with Dave Bruce and Shaquira Hobbs

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Slowly Slowly / Photo – Marcus Coblyn

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Dave: Hi Ben, how are you? My name’s Dave, this is Shakira, and she’s going to probably ask most of the questions, and I’ll jump in and maybe ask a few questions at the end, are we cool with that?
Ben: No stress at all.

Dave: All right, let’s go, Shaquira.
Shaquira: All right, first off, lovely to talk to you today, can you tell us a bit behind the inspiration of your fourth album with Daisy Chain?
Ben: Daisy Chain was, I think, like a moment for the band to explore a lot of new sonic territory. So from just an aesthetic point of view, we were just like looking to push ourselves out of our box that we built over the last couple of records. But then I think probably from a song writing perspective, a lot of it was just about the personal growth that I’ve been through over the last 12 months.
Yeah, lots happened, I don’t know, it’s really hard to sum it up.

Dave: Does the TikTok age come into that at all, like the changes that are happening with technology and with people. Does that, you know, affect the writing experience as you’re saying you’re doing new stuff?
Ben: Not for myself, like I’m not on TikTok and I don’t see myself doing it. I’m really opposed to it and I don’t really have an opinion that’s strong enough to voice it out.
The writing experience just is consistent. Writing is consistent.

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Shaquira: And in that transition to Daisy Chain, you previously mentioned wiping the slate clean. How did this impact your songwriting in the musical direction?
Ben: I think I just like wanted to, in terms of wiping the slate clean, just, I think a lot of the record was written like when we were going into lockdown here in Melbourne. And so there was like just a giant period of self-reflection and thinking about what the band actually was, what, you know, who I was as an artist. And then I think that’s why it’s such an important record for us and me was just, there’s just a lot of self-reflection on there.
Whereas maybe in the past, you know, I’ve maybe viewed music a lot as like a cathartic thing where I was just like sort of getting my feelings out there. Whereas Daisy Chain, I think was just a little bit more realised in its vision. And the other thing too is collaborations with Chris Carraba, I’m sure this will be a big part of this collab.

Shaquira: How do you think his work helped to enhance that overall sound?
Ben: The collaboration with Chris just happened really naturally. We reached out to Chris and he was like all about it. He loved the song. I said, do you want to write a little bit for the second verse? Or do you want to just sing what I had? I totally connect with the concept of the song. I’m going to write a couple of lines for the second verse. And I said, unreal. And then he tracked the vocal over in the States, sent it over. And it just like all came together like a jigsaw puzzle.
It was like extremely painless. And yeah, the few conversations that we had leading up to it and afterwards, like, were just really positive. It was, I wouldn’t say that it like, you know, shifted the sound of the record or changed like a whole lot.
But it just, for me, it was like a real sliding doors moment because I just grew up listening to so much Dashboard Confessional. And Chris’s writing is just like, was so important to me. And for him to like, listen, even just listen to a song that I’d written and tell me that he liked it was enough. So it was a really nice experience.

Shaquira: Did you know him before?
Ben: No.

Shaquira: Oh, that’s cool. That’s really cool.
Dave: It wouldn’t be too hard to know you guys. So he would have probably known you.
Ben: Oh, I don’t know. We’re pretty small fish in the scheme of things.

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Shaquira: But he did get involved. So well done. That’s great. You are a part of an impressive lineup at Good Things this year. How does it feel to be amongst such a diverse group of artists?
Ben: Yeah, it’s wild. When that poster came out, they don’t share the full lineup. A lot of the times, not until the very last minute. So, you know, we knew that it was going to be a big deal. And yeah, when we got sent the social tiles to chuck up, we were just like, fuck. Yeah, it’s big. It’s big.

Shaquira: Do you have some go to’s already? Who are you going to, you know, crash and, try to get to know.
Ben: It’s going to be hard to try and see everybody. I’m a big fan of so many artists on the bill that the hardest bit is going to be scheduling the day. It’s going to be a mad time.

Shaquira: How do you engage the audience, especially considering the variety of acts everywhere? What’s your thing?
Ben: Oh, we’ll just do our thing. You know, it takes over once we get out there. What’s our thing? I don’t even know what I think is. We just we’re just like, I think we’ve got to go to move. I think a big part of our lure as a live act is maybe how we. There’s a lot of anxious energy in a band and that generally like bottlenecks pretty hard and everybody is very energetic on stage.
So no doubt there will be anxiousness leading into that big slot of good things on the main stage, we’ll it will be there in droves. So, yeah, it’ll probably just be really high energy, I think.

Shaquira: So the fans will be ready for Good Things in general and they’ll be ready for you guys for sure. You got to make sure they’re having a good time. Pressure! So you got to make sure you bring it.
Ben: You do. You do. Yeah. Obviously, I’m going to turn it up. And screams. God bless screams.

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Shaquira: Yeah. Back to Daisy Chain. It’s been a while since you’ve had a big feature album. How do you think the audience are going to react to the new series? Are you going to include any of it?
Ben: Yeah, we’ll definitely be playing a bit of Daisy Chain. We just finished up a regional tour where we got to play like some of the deeper cuts on the record. And after you play a lot of shows live you really get to know an album. When we first started touring the record, the songs, they still got that. I think we’re in a nice position now with those Daisy Chain songs for Good Things. I think the fans will like those, and they’ll like our older songs that we just know, like the back of our hands.

Shaquira: Do you have a favorite track to listen to, or play live?
Ben: From our set? I don’t know. I’m the sort of person that like hands a record in and then I never listen to it again. I just play it. Probably the actual song Daisy Chain I quite like or there’s a song called Long Shot. Yeah, I like them all. I just like being on stage.

Shaquira: What are you looking forward to the most about the tour?
Ben: It’s been like a really turbulent year for everyone in the band, in both our private and professional lives and everything. And we have just thought of this festival as something that is just like a great way to cap the year off, put the cherry on top, so to speak.
You know, it’s been like a lot of hard work over the past couple of years to get that record Daisy Chain out there and to tour it and to, you know, to have people connect with it. And then this has just been like the it’s been in the crosshairs now for, you know, a year. We’d known that we were playing this show for a long time.
And it’s always just been like when we get to Good Things, it’ll all be worth it. So, yeah, it’s very important to us.

Shaquira: It’s going to be fun. Yeah, it really will be. Listen, if we get there, we’ll stick our hand up and you can pull us up on stage and we can dance with you. On second thoughts, good luck getting through security.
Ben: Exactly. Especially with Good Things.

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Dave: OK, so let’s finish with a few questions for some quick answers. Favourite album?
Ben:  Saturday Night Wrist by the Deftones. That’s a great album.

Dave: Favourite artist? Favourite artist. Jeez.
Ben: Maybe Bruce Springsteen.

Dave: Favourite movie?
Ben: Probably that movie, Michael, with John Travolta in it.

Dave: Favourite place to visit?
Ben: St. Leonards in Victoria. That’s a good place.

Dave:  Favourite venue to play?
Ben: The Forum in Melbourne.

Dave: Favourite food?
Ben: It’s whatever Nonna’s cooking. Nonna.

Dave: Favourite drink?
Ben: That’s Negroni.

Dave:  Favourite person in history? No, they’re simple questions. I mean, it should be pretty
Ben: I’m going to say my wife.

Dave: Favourite tattoo? You got tattoos?
Ben: Yeah, I got a few tattoos. What’s your favourite? Jeez, I have one of my Nonna and Nonno dancing.

Dave: Show us, show us, show us. Oh, that’s too cool. When did you get that?
Ben: Probably that one. Oh, a while ago now. That was, but it’s based off a photo,

Dave: All right. That’s just about it. So keep doing well. Keep that up. We’re fans. So good luck with it all. Hope it all goes really super well.
Ben: Thanks guys. Bye. See you.

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Press Release 19th November 2023 (below) HERE

GOOD THINGS FESTIVAL
welcomes
STAGE 666

Brand new stage
featuring
KARAOKE BAND,
CIRCUS PERFORMERS,
AM/PM DJS & more

And reveals
maps & timetables

BRISBANE SOLD OUT
limited tickets
left for
SYDNEY & MELBOURNE

Follow GOOD THINGS FESTIVAL
Website – Instagram – Facebook
Twitter – Tiktok

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AMNPLIFY – DB