With the fifth anniversary of her double-Platinum hit “Supalonely” (2019) just passing, BENEE has taken a moment to zoom out.
She wrote her latest single, “Animal”, during a bout of extreme existential dread. “When flying in a plane on tour, looking down onto what looks like an ant-like world really inspired the lyrics,” she says. “How huge something feels when you’re in it, but zoomed out so SMALL. I love thinking about life like that.”
With fame increasing its presence in her life, BENEE teases that she can’t be held accountable no matter how big she gets on “Animal”: “And you can’t stay mad at me, I’m just an animal. A micro-celebrity, but I mean nothing at all.”
In “Animal,” she cleverly plays with proportions, describing herself as a tiny but vulnerable dot.”Too much pressure might get squashed,” she adds. “And if I get stuck in a crack, come dig me out of this hole.”
BENEE “thought about this concept long and hard,” coming to the conclusion that we can “only be playful with the thought of how insignificant and small we are compared to the universe. There’s peace in not knowing what anything is here for. It makes me want to enjoy everything in life even more.”
The accompanying music video, shot in Sydney, features post-produced visuals that match the “quirky beat” and “glitchy echoes” of “Animal”.
“We shot the ‘Animal’ video in Sydney when I was there on tour. Directed by Keith Herron and shot mainly on green screen, there was so much we could do creatively in post,” BENEE reveals. “We had a lot of fun with the story and creating a crazy visual world to live beside the song!”
BENEE features in the first-ever Rolling Stone AU/NZ Musicians on Musicians series, which we announced earlier this month.
Each year, Rolling Stone‘s Musicians on Musicians series invites artists to interview each other about life, music, and everything in between. We went big for our inaugural local edition, uniting some of the biggest artists in Australia and New Zealand for revealing conversations.
As well as BENEE and Bic Runga, Luke Steele and Tones, Australia and New Zealand’s first Musicians on Musicians edition features intimate and illuminating conversations cover stars Luke Steele and Tones and I, INXS’ Andrew Farriss and 5 Seconds of Summer’s Ashton Irwin, electronic groups Confidence Man and Orbital, Australian singer-songwriters Kasey Chambers and Thelma Plum, and close collaborators Stan Walker and Kobie Dee.
Read BENEE and Runga’s Musicians on Musicians interview here.
BENEE’S “Animal‘” is out now via Republic Recordings.
