{"id":5967,"date":"2023-10-15T11:21:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-15T11:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/?p=5967"},"modified":"2023-10-15T11:21:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T11:21:31","slug":"blog-interview-hens-bens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/2023\/10\/15\/blog-interview-hens-bens\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog interview: HENS BENS."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"645\" src=\"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/HENS-BENS-1024x645.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5968\" srcset=\"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/HENS-BENS-1024x645.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/HENS-BENS-300x189.jpg 300w, https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/HENS-BENS-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/HENS-BENS-95x60.jpg 95w, https:\/\/platinummind.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/HENS-BENS.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<iframe style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/artist\/2boFmpM0MTebdy7KVgXhUM?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameBorder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n<p><strong>Congratulations on the release of Shut Up Samuel, how does it feel?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It feels good! People seem to like this one! It\u2019s had a few radio plays here and there too, including Mr Robinson\u2019s 6 Music show [the BBC Introducing Mixtape]. We recorded it as a special version of another new song when we realised that the original was unlikely to get played anywhere.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s a radio friendly version of \u201cF**k Off Philip\u201d, what\u2019s the story behind this song?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I couldn\u2019t possibly say. Philip might sue us or something.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tell us about Hens Bens how did it come into being?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>HENS BENS started as a one-man band at the end of 2021, with some music on Bandcamp and a vague plan to play some gigs eventually. About a year later Paul and Samuel were recruited and the three-piece \u2018proper version\u2019 of HENS BENS was born.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The idea so far has been to remain as independent as possible. We engineer, record and release everything by ourselves, which means we can continue to sound exactly how we want. Our live shows are kind of unconventional too. Lots of props. My current favourite on-stage game is to see how many bananas I can eat during one particular song. There are also costume changes, power tools, confetti, AI-generated crowd banter and other nonsense.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What were your influences starting out?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I always loved bands who sat in the middle of \u201cloud\u201d and \u201cnot serious\u201d \u2014 Devo, Polysics, Guitar Wolf, Sparks, The Flaming Lips, that kind of stuff. I\u2019ve always been turned off by earnest bands. Do you think Bonio from U2 (or whatever his name is) means every word of every song he sings every night? Nah, he\u2019s trapped. That\u2019s why he has to play in that massive LED dome thing now \u2013 he\u2019s terrified someone will make eye contact with him. Our songs are mostly nonsense, but it\u2019s nonsense that we firmly believe in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You have an EP which is a collection of your 2023 releases and B-Sides what were the writing sessions for that like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes I\u2019ll have a lyric or an instrumental part kicking around for a while before I find a use for it, but normally we work quite quickly. What starts off as a rough demo often accidentally ends up as a finished recording within a few days. We\u2019re old! We have jobs and families and things! If we took our time we\u2019d never get anything done.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s your favourite song from it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>F*$^ Off Philip is the most recent one, so it has that shiny newness about it. It\u2019s also probably our best-sounding recording. Weird A.I. Yankovic is lots of fun to play live.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That track, Weird A.l. Yankovic, is an ode of sorts to the man of many cover versions, what\u2019s your favourite by him?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dare To Be Stupid is so close to sounding like the real Devo that it might as well be. I\u2019m not sure if it was made with malice or affection, but I love that one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You led a campaign to support Devo with a song of the same name, is this still an ongoing dream? If you could, who else would you like to support?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We saw Devo in 2007 and thought that would be the last time they ever came over here. Then this year they announced a farewell world tour, including a few UK dates. Within about four hours of the announcement we had written, recorded and released a song called \u201cPlease Can HENS BENS Support Devo\u201d explaining why it was crucial that we were the opening act in Edinburgh. We sent it to the band\u2019s members, their management, the show\u2019s promoter and some other people close to the band.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We also held a \u201cDevo Support Simulation\u201d where we played with the amazing tribute band \u201cWe Are Not Devo\u201d for some of their tour dates.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We got close! At least some of the band liked us and were in favour of us doing it, but they\u2019re a band who rarely have support acts and ultimately it was not to be. Upon learning this we recorded a sad piano version of the song called \u201cDid Not Get To Support Devo\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As for who else we\u2019d like to support, we\u2019re supporting legendary Japanese band Guitar Wolf later this month! They\u2019ve been my heroes since I was a teenager so this gig really is \u201cdreams coming true\u201d type stuff. We didn\u2019t even have to write a song.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are you listening to at the moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>About once a year I become obsessed with 90s Bowie. I\u2019m in one of those phases just now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s next for you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Next year, Devo will support US.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congratulations on the release of Shut Up Samuel, how does it feel?\u00a0 It feels good! People seem to like this one! It\u2019s had a few radio plays here and there too, including Mr Robinson\u2019s 6 Music show [the BBC Introducing Mixtape]. We recorded it as a special version of another new song when we realised &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[191,42,118,129,52,247,31,132,30,142,117,177,150,183,162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alternative","category-band","category-bass","category-drums","category-guitar","category-interview","category-keyboards","category-lyricist","category-music","category-producer","category-punk","category-rock","category-songwriter","category-synthesizers","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5969,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967\/revisions\/5969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platinummind.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}