Entertainment

Donny Benét

24. May, 2018

Donny Benét is an interesting guy. Everything from his backstory to his look has you raising an eyebrow. And if he caught you, he’d raise one back and start gyrating salaciously.

According to various sources, his father was a renowned Italian disco accordionist and he had a stint performing Tom Jones covers at the Airport Hilton Ballroom in Vegas. However, a quick Google search of the name he gives for his father shows only Donny mentioning the name in interviews and none of the man himself. Benét appears to be the alter ego of Ben Waples, an award-winning jazz bassist and the son of a music teacher from New South Wales.

Appearing as the lovechild of Tony Clifton and Ron De Jeremy, Donny Benét has put out four albums since 2011, while also playing synth in Jack Ladder’s band The Dreamlanders, along with Kirin J Callinan.

On the surface, his sound is an ode to vega 80’s ballads, comprising mostly of synths, drum machines and reverbed sax. In and of themselves, though, the songs speak to a deeper sentiment, not to be taken as kitsch as they may seem.

We spoke to Donny on the back of his newly released album The Don.

There is a pinch of humour in your music and your persona. Do you find that incorporating humour into your music makes it difficult sometimes to express things that are potentially more sentimental or emotional for you?

I haven’t thought of it like that to be honest – part of making music is letting the music “write” itself. For most of it my music comes out the way it sounds and most of the time I have little or no control over what happens in the actual process. It’s not until the song is written when I decide to keep working on it and refining it on a music production level (eg, picking sounds, editing parts, etc)

Having said that I feel like there’s sentiment and emotion present. “Reach the Top” and “Just Leave Him” (from The Don) give a powerful message of hope, dreams and love.

By the same token, does humour allow you to express things in ways other musicians cannot?

Again, I’m not consciously or intentionally using humour as a vehicle in songwriting. All I’m aiming to achieve is to express my enjoyment in writing, recording and performing music and I feel that my cheekiness or enjoyment gets a chance to shine either through recordings or live performance.

I read somewhere that you or your family had a property in Hurtsville, Sydney. You’ve also had a fair bit to do with Jack Ladder over the years. Is there a story or connection between your Hurtstville property and his album of the name same?

No, unfortunately! I think Jack liked the name Hurtsville and there is a suburb called Hurstville in Sydney. There’s a fantastic Chinese community in Hurstville and the cuisine is very good, at an affordable cost.

What’s your view on the state of the music industry at the moment?

It has to (and has had to!) evolve very quickly, like pretty much every industry since the internet has taken over our lives. For a while now artists have had to spend more time curating an online presence in order to entice one to invest either their dollars or time into what you do. Kind of like those adult child drinks with donuts in them. That’s where it’s at.

What about the Australian music scene?

Great – there’s a whole bunch of interesting and quirky acts making some nice heat overseas. And that’s encouraging. Some Australian music seems to be a somewhat exotic dish in Europe and The States where it may struggle to fit the more standardised Australian appetite.

You’re no stranger to Japan. What do you draw from it?

People, cuisine, collecting culture, Shinkansen. Yeah, it’s a real place. I’ve been a whole bunch of times and can’t wait to go back. Hopefully tour there real soon.

Favourite synth?

Sequential Circuits Prophet 5.

When was the last time you cried?

When Prince died.