Why is the Colour of the Sky?

The recent climate of upheaval does not go unheard on the band’s long-awaited follow-up ,‘Why is the colour of the Sky?’. 

While it’s by no means a pessimistic work - far from it- it’s an album that departs from the ultra-slick bursts of sunshine-pop and afrobeat that defined ‘The True Story of Bananagun’ and muddies the waters with a heavy blend of incendiary jazz and freak-beat experimentation. It’s Bananagun alright, but braver, bolder and more mysterious than ever.

With the only conscious musical dictum being that percussion and groove was brought ‘to the fore’ - and boy, is this album groovy - the band decamped to Button Pusher studio Preston, Melbourne with equipment on par with any 1960s studio, tracking with minimal takes - ‘warts ‘n’ all’ - battling through the temperaments of analogue mixing equipment late into the night under the assertion that these more traditional methods provided the most, organic pure way to record.

Also imperative was to manipulate the social conditions in which the takes were performed and nail the ‘vibe’ during recording: “It was all ‘attitude towards life’ and esoteric stuff, natural law, how energy transfers, sounds, chemistry between people,” explains van Bakel, “trying to foster an environment together where we can make some magic, capture the phenomena of energy and soundwaves interacting with each other in the room. And that was definitely what we wanted it to sound like - pro human."