Brisbane-based trio Bean Magazine are back with their new EP, In The Shade. Henry, Gabrielle and Seb have mastered guitar-driven, nostalgic, early 2000s-esque indie-rock with an underlying dark grittiness that perfectly complements Henry's youthful vocals. It's one of our favourite projects of the year to come out of Australia. “We’ve been sitting on this body of work for In The Shade for a while now and are so excited for it to see the light of day," says Seb. "When we brought these songs to our producer, Sam over a year ago he immediately expressed similar levels of excitement. Old or Young particularly feels nostalgic to us and delivers an immense feeling of home. The EP as a whole encompasses everything we have been as a band since the beginning and we want everyone to love it just as much as we do." As they embark on a tour opening for The Rubens, we spoke to Henry from the band about the new project:

We’re obsessed with your new EP. And of course, we love your name. To begin, tell us about the origin of the band?‍

Ahh shucks, thank ya! Our origins are pretty basic. We met as most bands do through mutuals and bonded over our passion for music. Whole lotta right place, right time energy. This all happened right before covid so we had a lot of spare time to bring everything together. ‍

These songs are all equally great and it feels like such a big evolution from the EP in 2022. Where did you write these songs? Tell us about working with Sam to produce them?

‍The EP songs were written all over the shop. A lot of the songs would probably pre date some of the ones on the first EP like, Chicken and NWS. We like to just continuously write. Working with Sam is a joy. Not that it’s spoken about but being that he is such an illustrious artist, we try and put our best foot forward in regards to songwriting. We want to impress him hahaha. In turn that probably benefits the songs too. ‍

What was inspiring you during the writing of this EP? Is there a theme throughout it that is personal to you?‍

I don’t think there’s a distinct theme that runs through the entire project. We just wanted to put a collection of songs together that we all felt were strong. Some of the tracks like old or young and don’t you die were recorded later in the piece & as cliche as it may be were born out of a breakup.  ‍

What did you guys learn from one another and about yourselves making this project?‍

Coming out of it we've just found a groove in our studio routines more than anything. We’re a lot more direct and quicker with our creative decision making. Trying not to be too precious with specific ideas. Every choice we make, we do to serve the song.‍

Is there a song you’re particularly proud of? ‍

3 is probably the one I’m most proud of. It was a demo that was in the back burner for ages. Gab and Seb hadn’t really heard it much before we’d recorded. On the day we improvised most of it. We listened to the first bounce non stop on the way home. We were super happy with it and it’s still one of the favourites to this day. ‍

Who is on the Bean Magazine bucket list? Who would you love to work with? Artists, producers, engineers, directors… anyone!‍

This list is extensive. Hard to say with so many folks that inspire us. Gab would definitely say Rick Rubin. I’d (Henry) would love to sit in a room with acoustic guitar and just shoot the shit with Neil Finn. Seb constantly harps on about getting a Lil Yachty feature one day. ‍

We love your visuals. Tell us about the process of the visual side to the band.‍

The visuals are simple DIY sketches. All the single artworks were drawn on a note pad then scanned & edited on a phone. I think we want to keep experimenting with different mediums and make some wacky visuals. We hope they’re at the very least memorable. ‍

Do you think that growing up in Australia and being around the music scene here has influenced sound?‍

For sure. We definitely have aspirations to have fans across the globe, but the Brisbane and Aus scene is always gonna be apart of what we do. It’s so rich with amazing artists. ‍

Who are you excited about in music right now?‍

We’re super excited about Le Shiv. Nilüfer Yanya is an international artist that also totally rocks our world! ‍

What’s next?‍

Coming off this metro tour with the Ruben’s we’re super keen to get in the studio and record as much as possible. 

Listen to Bean Magazine HERE.

@bean.magazine

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