Bergen Nielson (drums, guitar) Lenny-Dee Doucha (vox, guitar), Jenny Dison (vox, percussion) and Matthew Watson (drums, percussion, guitar) make up the ambient indie group, Bye Beneco. In a relatively short space of time they’ve made solid headway in an already heavily indie-saturated market and this weekend they make their Cool As Folk debut in Joburg.
TX: When you were first approached to play Cool as Folk in aid of Trees for Zambia, what was your first reaction to their cause?
BB: It’s always an added incentive to do something for a cause, and nature is a rad cause 🙂
TX: What does “being green” mean to you?
BB: Being conscious.
TX: You’ve very recently signed with indie label Just Music, I know you haven’t been with them for very long, but how has this changed your outlook on your career trajectory?
BB: Being with JustMusic has opened a lot of doors for us. They let us be who we want to be, there’s no weird pressure or anything like that. We just do our best to make good music and they support our journey.
TX: What do you think of Greenpop’s environmental endeavours? What would be your encouraging words to people to get involved in their initiatives?
BB: Again, nature conservation is an honest, extremely worthwhile cause, and we’re stoked to be involved with another cool project they’re putting forward.
TX: In your short space of gigging time you’ve managed to procure a solid fanbase, were you at all surprised by how quickly you amassed people at your events and what have been some of your career highlights so far?
BB: Yes, it has been surprising for us. To be honest I think we all knew we were doing something a little different, trying our best to make something that appealed to our initial vision as well as putting out a sound that (we hoped) would be new and refreshing to people. When we receive good responses to performances and footage we’ve put out and all that, it’s a bit like confirmation that we might have pulled it all off. Without a doubt our biggest performance so far was Koppi 2013. We landed up playing 3 shows over that weekend and the response was great. Hopefully we’ll be booked again.
TX: And lastly, complete the sentence “If you come to Cool As Folk we will…”
BB: … Play you one or 2 new songs for the first time.
