Drenched in woozy drawls, chiming acoustic guitars, and the familiar hiss of tape recording, the sophomore album from Bones and Jones is sunlit, daydream on a blue sky day. Bees kicks off with a familiar buzzing and immediately whisks you away through a collection of instant folk classic dipped psychedelic.
Like standing in a patch of smiling sunflowers, there is a pervading sense of uplift that fuses the album to its nucleus. Having supported The Murlocs, Twin Peaks, and The Nude Party, as well as tucked two solid albums safely under their belt, Bones and Jones are gearing up for a big 2020.
We caught up with Bones and Jones to get the inside scoop on their new album Bees
HAPPY: Hey! How’s it going? What are you up to at the moment?
TOM: Just crammed into a car at the moment going up the Hume!
HAPPY: Loving the new album Bees. It’s got an awesome lo-fi, ’60s vibe. How did you record it?
TOM: Thanks a lot guys! We tracked the beds at a secret location studio with Paul Maybury and then took the tracks to Nick Huggins and recorded some strings in an old church hall.
We did the rest of the overdubs in my studio and I progressively mixed it over a few months.
We are all really happy with how it came out sonically I think.
HAPPY: The art reminds me in a weird way of a middle European Heironymous Bosch painting. Who was the artist?
TOM: Willem Kingma does pretty much all our artwork, posters and videos.
He’s been a longtime collaborator and a really great friend of all of ours. His talent is endless.
HAPPY: What is the biggest change from your debut album Living Given?
TOM: We defiantly all worked on how we structured our songs, leaving enough space for strings and other tracks to be added whilst dubbing. Living Given was essentially a pretty live record and we were pretty keen to take a bit more time and allow ourselves the luxury of time to get everything right.
HAPPY: Were there any particular artists you were listening to that inspired Bees?
TOM: Can’t really remember! Whilst mixing I was listening to Revolver – The Beatles a lot, mostly to tune into how the strings are mixed in and where everything was sitting. That record is probably a big source of inspiration on all of us know I think about it.
HAPPY: You’re playing at the Marlborough Hotel tonight with Ultracrush. Is it your first time at the venue?
TOM: Yeah! Looking forward to it. Last time we were in Sydney we were all freshly 18/19 and I forgot my shoes, unfortunately, none of us have the same foot size which made for a funny 3 weeks.
HAPPY: Any bands you’re particularly digging in Melbourne at the moment?
TOM: The list is always growing but at the moment Pollyman, Foggy Notion, Mr Teenage, Fenn Wilson and the Fillmores
HAPPY: There seems to a whimsical, jovial element to your songs and lyrics. Does that reflect your outlook on life?
TOM: Yeah I suppose, always go through ups and downs as does everyone, I think at the time of writing the record a lot of the Jovial elements and playfulness that comes across is us enjoying trying out new sounds and pushing each other a bit to get out of our little safe spots.
HAPPY: Who is your ideal show if you could support any artist at any concert?
TOM: Rolling Stones when they toured Exile on Main st for me. I’m sure some of the boys will disagree haha
HAPPY: What’s coming up next?
TOM: Apart from the rest of the shows in support of Bees. I think we have tracking our next record at the forefront of our minds.
Bones and Jones are playing at the Malborough hotel tonight with Ultracrush – Thu 12 March. Event here.
