Boomla is the brainchild of Ben Brazil and Syrene — who as well as writing amazing lyrics, delivers them in tremendous voice—Boomla supported jazz and funk legend Maceo Parker in December just a week before they played their debut show to a sell out crowd at Melbourne’s Prince Bandroom. It seems like such immediate interest, but Ben reckons Boomla has been evolving over the past six years. But before FL can ask him about Boomla’s ‘overnight success’ there’s the small matter of finding a moment for him to talk.
On a cold Tuesday night, FL is waiting at Revolver trying to remember the last visit. (Though Revolver is like the 60s – if you can remember it, you probably weren’t there.) There are a handful of dudes setting up for the night ahead, all red lamps and seventies couches, with the sound check – one two one TWO yes yesss YES YES yeeeeees Yo YO one TWO – thundering around an empty room.
Ben’s the host of tonight’s Melbourne Fresh showcase—a series that ran the month of May and spilled into June: an opportunity for local acts to get heard. Running late tonight, he is birdlike – on the hop, inquisitive, gentle, eyes crinkling at the edges when he sees someone he likes. He dives down the stairs into the depths of Revolver where he’s greeted by Minnie, the Revolver dog, fluffy and sweet; then into the studio quickly to see that it’s free; before darting up to the top level to grab a quick beer. Through the sea of dim lit couches Ben’s floats off to say hello’s and make welcomes in his tan leather jacket and stylishly neutral cap. In the office an errant muso is fluffing around with tracks on a computer, the two boys catch up—evidently they have recently returned from Europe as part of Goyte’s touring band.
Finally ensconced in the studio for the interview and settled into a couple of vintage armchairs, it feels as though we’re in a garage, complete with faux-wood laminate coffee table. Ben spends a few minutes marveling over FLs digital recorder, then another few figuring out how to work it.
‘Yeah, time just keeps ticking away,’ he muses with humour. ‘Last time I thought about it, was four, four and a half years ago. It’s taken a long time!’ I get the impression he’s just thought to consider this. But now, you’re ready to release something? He smiles, ‘[We] just got to the point where we feel like we’re going to throw the baby out into the big wide world and let it live, you know?’
It turns out a connection from the past was a push they needed. ‘We spent a lot of time [recording] at Sing Sing in Melbourne and then we had the opportunity of working with Clif Norrell —who’s renowned for working with Jeff Buckley, U2, Nirvana, REM. It was a really great opportunity—as well as Chris Corby who’s a New Zealand-born Australia-based amazing engineer who co-produced.’
Having worked on recordings with Ben years earlier, Chris heard the Boomla demos and called his old mate, Clif. ‘They met on a You Am I album,’ says Ben, ‘and had done a lot of work together, so Chris contacted him and said, “Have a listen to this… and bang! It was just amazing. Clif has really supported us with the whole thing. Obviously these guys can often seem untouchable but when they believe in something, it’s a beautiful situation.’
With Ben and Syrene co-producing, the foursome achieved the sound they wanted and as Ben explains, ‘when you reach that point you recognise it’s time to put it out and move on. Now we’re going through the whole live thing: translating it to stage is the next phase.’
By ‘the whole live thing’ Ben means the stage show. A Boomla show is supposed to be art, entertainment, allure, all in one. What am I to expect? ‘Well,’ Ben trolls the far reaches of his mind to find a nice sound bite, ‘We’ve been described as a cross between _Cirque Du Soleil_…no…ah… we’re escapees from…oh man, I’ve forgotten the quote… what am I trying to do here?’
He’s trying to remember what Herald Sun’s scene aficionado, Nui Te Koha wrote in a 2007 article, The Year Ahead In Music: “ BoomLa is like Cirque Du Soleil stowaways on George Clinton’s mothership – funk performance art with hints of trip-hop, roots and eccentricity.” Nui isn’t the only one watching, I tell Ben. The Age’s Andrew Drever did something similar recently too, touting Boomla as one of the Melbourne ‘bands to watch.’ Amongst others were Daniel Merriweather, The Galvatrons, Gabriella Cilmi, Amorosi, Muph and Plutonic.
Do Ben and Syrene put much faith in predictions like these? ‘We put our arses on the line to try and make things happen. We need to be out there doing the best that we possibly can and if we can do that, we’ll be successful in every sense of the word because we’ll be enjoying what we do. If the by-product is success on an industry success, well that’s great, but it might never happen.’ A reality for musicians everywhere really, but he happily concludes, ‘There’s lot of walls out there and you’ve just gotta keep talking to them until they turn into something.’
People heading to a Boomla show, though, should ‘expect something very different, but something they can most definitely dance to. Something they will have a reaction to, that may be an incredibly positive one.’ And you can definitely expect a crowded stage full of passionate musicians, of which there are ‘fifteen, seventeen directly involved with a Boomla show.’
The Boomla show most eminent is the launch of the single Brain from their debut album, Brasil to Cyrene. What headspace did this track come from? ‘Oh, this track,’ exhales Ben, eyes crinkling. ‘I think we were just out of our bodies, floating about a metre above, looking down on ourselves and saying, “It’s time to take a little recognised break in consciousness and figure out what it is we really need.” He quickly admits that he has no idea what is going through Syrene’s mind when she was writing the lyrics, but as far as Ben’s needs are concerned: ‘I’m thinking about different things all the time…I hope everyone else is as well.’
