Getting to know Born Joy Dead
Born Joy Dead are a four-piece fronted by former Hungry Kids of Hungary bassist Ben Dalton. We asked Ben to tell us more about the band:
We are Born Joy Dead. We’ve been around for a couple of years and have released one EP together so far titled ‘Stones in my Shoe.’ We’ve all known each other through various projects for a while now and we all love music and animals. 3/4’s of the band are married with one baby on the way so we’re running a nice, clean family environment here :/
Sourdough is a track about resentfully bringing home the bacon. It is a song for daydreamers, written by daydreamers. This band initially started out as a solo project but over time everyone has brought their own style and idea’s into the fold so this is actually the first song that we’ve written together as a band which makes it a lot more personal to us.
Our launch show at Black Bear Lodge will be a great experience for all. We’ve put a lot of work into our live performances this year and are pushing to make this the most memorable show to date so far. We can’t afford laser beams or anything but we do have a battery powered bubble machine and a special, powerhouse cover in mind also.
Home is where John Butler says it is and that guy does not lie. We’re all living between Brisbane and the lovely country town of Ipswich, working here and there. I’ve done fair bit of travel over the years and good ol’ Brisso still feels like home to me. My wife and I just got back from Ireland where most of my family roots are and I could imagine living over there for six months to a year to do some writing, but even in these imaginary scenarios we would always return home to Brisbane.
We spend too much time watching hit TV shows. Between work and writing music, there is now only spare time for shows. Papa needs his show fix. Right now it’s all about Stranger Things, Preacher and season two of Mr Robot.
We’re currently listening to BadBadNotGood – IV, Deerhoof – The Magic, Radiohead and D.D. Dumbo.
It might surprise people to learn that I am fan of low and slow BBQ cooking. I’ve only been doing it at home on a Weber Kettle for six months but I picked up a passion for it when visiting Austin Texas a few years ago for SXSW with the Hungry Kids of Hungary (my old band). I’m definitely not skilled enough to compete or open a restaurant or anything but I would like to perfect a few items such as Pastrami and open a deli some time in the future. Our Bass player Steve also repairs and builds guitars. He’s got a real knack for it and is just about to move on to his 4th build.
In the future I hope that loudmouth, bigoted morons with closed minds and no worldly experience have figured out that we are all connected and that we are all nothing to the universe on a cosmic scale. Hopefully hate will be bred out of the human race and we can all get along and shit. Why? Because it would be nice wouldn’t it?
Keep up to date with Born Joy Dead on Facebook. They play their single launch show at Brisbane’s Black Bear Lodge on September 1st.
Interview by Bobby Townsend.
