Bananagun (Aus)

To say that the intervening 4 years since the arrival of their debut album had been tumultuous for Melbourne/Naarm’s Bananagun would be an understatement. Released during the height of lockdown in the summer of 2020, the group were forcibly “scattered” following the release of The True Story of Bananagun. Australia’s ultra-strict lockdown rules - declaring it illegal to travel beyond a 5km radius - made it nigh on impossible for the band to get together at all, with the only rehearsals requiring them to sneak past military checkpoints undetected. Coinciding with this too was a great period of personal change for the band’s guitarist/vocalist/flautist, and songwriter Nick Van Bakel. "I had a myriad of mountains to be crossed which was pretty challenging” he explains. "So I just cocooned into lots of spiritual side quests and soul seeking. Band members were travelling etc so it was ages before we got through the stop-start stop-start phase and regained some band momentum…” Bananagun's new album, Why is the Colour of the Sky?, is all about "not losing your head and being over stimulated by the ‘goggle box’; the need for spirituality and nature; the need to be able to communicate and share ideas and adapt in a rapidly changing world without being judged and profiled." And what better way is there to feel human than by laying down a dynamite groove, or nine?