BENJAMIN GOLBY

New Rules

While he’s best known for his work with local indie pop outfits New Rules For Boats and Split Seconds, harmonica-wielding, synth-exploring folk musician Benjamin Golby is stepping out on his own with his recently released sophomore solo record A Progress.
“I don’t think that I can claim to be particularly productive,” begins Benjamin Golby, a statement local music fans might find hard to believe. Both as a core member of two of the state’s most loved indie pop outfits – the sadly disbanded New Rules For Boats and promising new(ish) act Split Seconds – and through his work as a sound engineer, Golby has become one of the WA scene’s most recognisable faces.

The busy muso shows no signs of slowing in 2012, with a string of Split Seconds shows already pencilled in the calendar, in addition to the recent release of his sophomore solo release, the aptly titled A Progress.
“I started writing A Progress during 2009 while I was working as an engineer on The Bank Holidays’ Sail Becomes a Kite album and what became Split Seconds’ self-titled EP. In 2010, I began recording the album largely in Split Seconds’ garage in North Perth as well as in a few studios,” he says. “The whole process involved being canny with studio time and spending a great many hours editing in my bedroom.”
While Golby says he is “pleasantly surprised” with the resulting album, he admits that local fans may have a while to wait before they get to hear live incarnations of the new tunes.
“I’m working out how to front a live act at the moment. It would be rather beastly to train up a band to this music as it is quite complex. At the same time watching a solo performer is usually pretty boring. I’m figuring out a way to do this without being underwhelming,” he says.
Golby’s numerous years on the local scene have afforded many anecdotes from memorable gigs, including this delicious tidbit from way back in ‘07: “At the height of the West Coast Eagles’ hedonism crisis in June 2007 New Rules For Boats had a CD launch at the Bakery. We were a pretty keen Eagles band. That year, headlines and talk around town had been dominated by Ben Cousins ever since he had been pulled over on Aberdeen Street wearing no shirt and sporting his new “Such Is Life” tattoo in a staged arrest. Recently he had gone to America supposedly for rehab but some awesome rumours were flying around that instead he was just owning it around LA with Cameron Diaz.
“Then, out of nowhere, Ben Cousins turned up at our launch. It was so good. The entire patronage of the usually uber cool Bakery were fixated with Ben Cousins who was standing in the centre of the beer garden, looking like a jolly dude wearing this incredible button up shirt which had a pirate’s head decorated with fluoro coloured spangles on the back. I remember enthusing with a then 15 year old Scarlet Stevens [of San Cisco fame] after the Flairz finished playing. Our launch was totally overshadowed by his presence and it was fantastic and probably the crowning achievement of that band.”