To say that the intervening 4 years since the arrival of their debut album had been tumultuous for Melbourne/Naarm's Bananagun would be an understatement. Released during the height of lockdown in the summer of 2020, the group were forcibly scattered following the release of The True Story of Bananagun. Australia's ultra-strict lockdown rules - declaring it illegal to travel beyond a 5km radius - made it nigh on impossible for the band to get together at all, with the only rehearsals requiring them to sneak past military checkpoints undetected. Coinciding with this too was a great period of personal change for the band's guitarist/vocalist/flautist, and songwriter Nick Van Bakel. I had a myriad of mountains to be crossed which was pretty challenging he explains. so I just cocooned into lots of spiritual side quests and soul seeking. Band members were travelling etc so it was ages before we got through the stop-start stop-start phase and regained some band momentum... This 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 'True Story... ', 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 a Button Pusher studio Preston, Melbourne with equipment on par with any 60's studio, tracking with minimal takes - 'warts' n' all' - using traditional methods for the most, organic pure way to record. It was all attitude towards life and esoteric stuff, natural law, how energy transfers, sounds, chemistry between people, explains Van Bakel.
