After playing a slew of gigs and open mic jams across Adelaide in 2023-24, local jazz-hop band Ben Iota and The Rogues have assembled to hammer out a debut single – 'Change Is'.
Driven by the 2023 referendum, and the revealing community fall-out, 'Change Is' speaks on the discomfort, the division, the confusion, the pushback, and ultimately the rethinking that emerges whenever change is on the cards in the internet era. The lo-fi, alt-jazz-soul-hip hop backdrop, over the ambient crackling fire of change, ties it all together.Joining Ben on 'Change Is' are the lush vocals of jazz-soul singer Elara Black, alongside band trumpeter Lyndon Parker, drummer James Owen, and bass player Callum Unger.
"I wrote 'Change Is' after the dust of the 2023 referendum had settled," Ben says. "I noticed the visceral discomfort, suspicion and insecurity that a lot of people felt at the prospect of change. Then came the disinformation and opportunistic politics, creating hysteria. It's what the culture wars are made of. It got me thinking about the concept of change.
"I wanted to zoom out and look at change more simply, and how it is linked to our own identities and sense of place in the world, for good and for bad, but change is inevitable, and necessary.
"We experience it, we go through it, and we grow from it. The only uncertainty is which way we should go with it. Everything is changing."
Here, with all the nightspots that are closing, the cost of living crisis, and people still emerging from the fog of COVID, Ben Iota and The Rogues want to remind you about why you should get out more.
Experience
Life is about experience. You can't take your material things with you when you are reclaimed by the earth that birthed you. Get amongst it.Community
Humans are social animals. It's how we've evolved to survive. As Joe Strummer said, without people, you're nothing. We need people. Individualism is a grave for the soul. Fark that cynicism that we're being lulled into.Reconnect with the ecosystem. You could meet your next ex. You don't need a whole lot of money, and you don't need to get sh.tfaced – we don't do that anymore (much).
FOMO
If you feel like you're missing out – you are right. There is a vibrant alt-jazz-soul-R&B-hip hop band community percolating right now in Adelaide that needs to be experienced. Warm vibes and connection.Life doesn't end if you have kids
It doesn't. You may feel 80 years old, but there is still life in those loins. Go get it.Art
Music is art. You get to see something unique in the moment. Did I mention that Ben Iota and The Rogues run gigs where live sets are complemented by an open mic jam over the band, and music is improvised in the moment to create something unique? We do. Get some.Ben Iota and The Rogues will celebrate their one-year band anniversary with a local show at the end of the month, that will also feature Jirrah ('Boss Level' launch) and Sandra Gan ('Dream launch).
"The music and gigs that we create are a departure from trad Aus hip hop. I tend to deal in themes of family, love, progress, and equality, as well as a good dose of fun, while the band dishes out this off-kilter, gritty, melodic, jazz warmth," shares Ben.
"It's a local incarnation of the bohemian 'conscious hip hop' that emerged internationally around the turn of the millennium, but never made much movement in Adelaide.
"Our events combine a gig with an open mic jam over the band, and encapsulate alt-jazz-soul-R&B-hip hop (or the 'dillasphere' as I like to call it).
"It's all about providing a warm and welcoming environment, improvising, embracing diversity, having fun, supporting and collaborating with fellow artists that attend, and being an incubator for local art and community.
"It's genuine, it's healthy, it's ego-minimal, it's cup-filling. I love it. Shoutouts to Cazeaux O.S.L.O. and band, who do a similar thing."
Ben Iota and The Rogues play The Little Red Door (Adelaide) 30 August.
