The Bennies are currently gearing up to drop their eagerly anticipated new album, Wisdom Machine, at the end of the month. In addition to featuring triple j-approved dance floor fillers like ‘Party Machine’, the album also bears some very distinctive artwork.
“We were tripping on mushrooms one night and we came across a plate with an amazing painting on it of a dude riding his beard over a city with a dude in front of it riding a horse,” singer and keyboardist Anty Horgan tells Tone Deaf.
“The dude riding his beard was cheeky as fuck and just laughing at the mess below, we were like, ‘That dude rules.’ It was in the style of Palekh, which is Russian Orthodox icon style, but strictly non religious.”
“They were painted when Russia became communist, so they couldn’t paint religious content. I was like, ‘My dad kills that style!’ And we were like let’s do this shit for Wisdom Machine and then it kinda just all fell together from there.”
Anty’s dad, Geoffrey Horgan, and Chris Cowburn, drummer for fellow Melbourne rockers The Smith Street Band, then collaborated on the artwork that would eventually grace the cover of Wisdom Machine, which drops 25th March.
“Chris did everything that wasn’t the actual painting itself,” says Anty. “Dad did the painting in the middle of the cover — dudes on horses, etc. — Chris put together the layout, did all the font and colours, and shit like that.”
Image via Facebook
“Both Chris and dad worked extremely hard and with great detail on it. Huge effort.” Anty says when his dad first saw a copy of the album he was “pretty much speechless and was especially stoked with the picture disc. He couldn’t believe that it had his painting on it and also played our music”.
Anty recently gave props to his dad on Facebook, writing, “Got to show my dad the pressed record the other day!! He couldnt believe how sweet his painting came up on a fucking playable vinyl. Not many picture discs left for pre-order… like fuck all. Ooooh yeah!”
According to Anty, his old man has been painting for “a long long time… now he is retired it’s pretty much all he does”. Horgan Snr specialises in Russian Orthodox-style religion paintings and “has some in churches all around the country and especially in Melbourne”.
The Bennies National Tour Dates
Saturday, 26th March *NEW SHOW*
Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Sunday, 27th March 2016
Club 54, Launceston
Monday, 28th March 2016
Brisbane Hotel, Hobart
Thursday, 31st March 2016
Adelaide Uni Bar, Adelaide
Friday, 1st April 2016 *SOLD OUT*
Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Saturday, 2nd April 2016
Amplifier, Perth
Sunday, 3rd April 2016
Prince of Wales, Bunbury
Wednesday, 6th April 2016
Transit Bar, Canberra
Thursday, 7th April 2016
Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Friday, 8th April 2016
Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Saturday, 9th April 2016
Woolly Mammoth, Brisbane
Sunday, 10th April 2016
Sol Bar, Maroochydore
