REVELATIONS
BANANAGUN
Nick Van Bakel on a “pure, natural” sound
Given the constantly fizzing creativity of songwriter and guitarist Nick Van Bakel, it was always unlikely that Bananagun’s second album would simply mirror their debut. Chief among the changes on Why Is The Colour Of The Sky? are the lower profiles of Tropicália and Afrobeat, and a new thread of British folk in its psych, jazz and prog mutations. “In some ways it’s an opposing stance to hyper-modernity, and that’s where my nose has led me,” explains Van Bakel of the latter. “It has a lot to do with the idea of folk music being free of corporate ownership. It’s from a pure, natural place.” As to those genre drop-offs: “It gets impractical to tour with an extra horn section and all the extra percussion, so I tried to write stuff that’d require less overdubs and be easier to nail as a five-piece live. We still love those styles but never set out to be an Afrobeat or Tropicália band.”