There is, however, a clear exception to that assertion. Ms Anderson tells the story of a 104-year-old lady Dean met while returning to his hometown in New Zealand. “Ms Anderson was this lady I met when I went back in April last year,” Dean says. “She lived next to my friend’s grandparents. She was 104 then, and she’s 105 now, and she’s super independent, with a mind like someone who’s in their 70s. She’s super inspiring, so I wrote that song about her in about ten minutes. That’s the only song on the album about a girl – well, a lady,” Dean laughs.
The genesis of Bonniwells lies a few years ago, when Dean recorded of a bunch of demo tracks on cassette and showed them to potentially interested collaborators. “I did these super lo-fi recordings and sent them to friends,” Dean says. “I met John [Waddell], our bass player through that, and I met Zac Olsen through The Frowning Clouds, who I’d been following for a while around town.”
Dean had been playing in bands of sort for some years, having formed his first band at the age of ten. “My first band was playing Hendrix covers, and then it evolved into this thrash metal band called Abattoir,” Dean says. Having traded thrash for lo-fi garage punk, Bonniwells played its first gig in 2009 supported the Ooga Boogas. “We started off just playing my songs, but then after a few months we all started coming up with the general idea of the sound we wanted,” Dean says. “Although that’s a lot different to how Bonniwells sound now.”
With the band adopting a more collaborative songwriting style – “John chucks in the really hard songs that take us a while to learn,” Dean quips – Bonniwells gradually put together sufficient material to record an album. Their debut album, Unprofitable Servant, was released in 2010 to critical, if not commensurate popular, acclaim. With Dean churning out “about three songs a week,” Bonniwells’ catalogue grew out at a rapid rate. Earlier this year Bonniwells bunkered down in Dean’s house, and in the Sydney residence of Owen Penglis (Straight Arrows) to record Bonniwells’ second album. “We recorded about 20 to 25 songs, and then we whittled them down to what’s ended up on the record,” Dean says.
While a home recording might have raised the ire of more sedate neighbours, Dean was lucky enough to have a musician as a neighbour, who had no interest in complaining about the noise from the home studio. “He’s super considerate because he’s a musician,” Dean says. “And he’s also got a super loud dog!”
The resulting product, Sneeze Weed, exhibits a rough and ready production style that Dean says was entirely intentional. “We wanted to keep it really raw and honest,” he says. “We wanted it to be lo-fi noisy and loud; we wanted that total live sound that was like we’d been playing live for a while.” The album took its title from a wild flower often used in herbal teas. “It’s definitely not a drug reference,” Dean says, before I go down the obvious inquisitive path. “Sneeze weed is a type of flower, a bit like camomile, and it grows wild, and you can use it in teas for a calming effect.” And Dean can testify to the flower’s meditative effect when brewed up. “Yeah, I’ve tried it – it’s great!” he says enthusiastically.
The cover art for Sneeze Weed – which features the band members pegged to a suburban Hill’s Hoist – however, doesn’t look anything at all like a calming event. “I think that it was Zac who came up with the clothes line idea,” Dean says. “He suggested it, and we decided to go with it – Zac has some great ideas.”
Beyond the forthcoming album tour, Dean is keen for Bonniwells to develop its musical direction. “I feel that after we tour this record I want to take the band in a different direction,” Dean says. “I wanted to do a garage punk record, and we’ve done that, so now I want to do something different, a bit more mellow, with stronger compositions. I’d like to do more acoustic op songs – maybe some wussy pop songs, some psych pop songs, a bit more dynamic” he says.
In a town like Melbourne, where quality rock’n’roll bands can be found on just about any corner, it’s difficult for a new band to stand out from the crowd – something that Dean finds frustrating. “I feel like with the band, we’re a bit like the runt of the litter, if that makes any sense,” Dean says. “I feel we’re overlooked, but I don’t know why. I’d like to move the band overseas, maybe to Europe or the United States – I’d like to go to Portland.” So is there a particular band Bonniwells would like to emulate in its evolution? Dean pauses before answering. “If I wanted to say a groove that we wanted to emulate, then off the top of my head it’d be Wire – the second and third albums,” Dean says. “And there’s also a great girl group of the ’60s, The Pleasure Seekers – I take a lot of inspiration from them.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
