Newcastle four-piece Benjalu have spent three years touring the country extensively, leaving rave reviews in their wake from audiences and critics alike. Following the release of new EP ‘Shadows In The Sun’, the boys are again back on the road.

OutInCanberra caught up with Bejalu’s Anthony Morris (bass and woodwind)…

Describe Benjalu in 5 words:
Fun, melodic, roots, rock… music

Who would be your dream collaboration?
We’d love to work with someone like Ben Harper or Dave Matthews, a big rootsy mash up! They’re both great songwriters and are a big inspiration to us. That would definitely be a dream come true.

What’s been your favourite gig to date?
We supported one of our all-time favourite bands, ‘State Radio’, from the USA at the Annandale in Sydney last time they toured here. The crowd was pumping; it was crazy how much of a following a band we thought was virtually unknown in Australia had.

What would be your dream festival lineup?
Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, The Beautiful Girls, Midnight Oil, Sia, Ben Harper, Dispatch, Powderfinger, Paul Simon, Angus and Julia Stone, The Fumes, Cat Stevens (Yosuf Islam), The Middle East, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffet, Bob Marley, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles. This is a good dream yeah? I don’t think I’d ever wake up!

Do you prefer touring or recording?
We’ve done A LOT of touring over the past few years and we love it! Being on the road, seeing different places and sharing our music with people is our favourite thing to do. However, this year our plan is to record a fair bit so our preference might change slightly!

What was the inspiration for the new EP, ‘Shadows in the Sun’?
We wrote the songs for ‘Shadows in the Sun’ over about a week. At that stage there were no plans for an EP or to record them at all actually. We were just jamming out on some ideas and the music just formed from there. We usually write the lyrics separately, and we get inspired by a whole range of things, like stories on the news or things that we’ve seen on the road.

What’s in store for Benjalu in 2011?
We’re touring the first EP at the moment on the Shadows in the Sun tour. The second EP will hopefully be released by August and the 3rd one by November/December. So it’s shaping up to be a very exciting and busy second half of the year for us.

Catch Benjalu’s EP launch for Shadows In The Sun at The Front Gallery on Saturday, 21st May at 7:30 PM. Tickets $10 at the door. Supported by Nick Saxon.