Boo Seeka is back and better than ever with sophomore album Between the Head and the Heart proving to be well worth the wait.

Words Madelaine Cherrington

The solo project of Australian musician Ben “Boo” Gumbleton, Boo Seeka is halfway through a jam-packed regional tour. We spoke to Ben about the power of playing live, his love for touring regionally and the importance of staying true to yourself creatively.

You’re currently in the middle of your regional tour. What do you enjoy most about playing regional gigs?

Touring regionally has always been a huge part of what we do. I was in a band prior to setting up Boo Seeka, it was clear that so many people living out in regional towns love live music and are thankful for bands that come and play. So, when Boo Seeka started I said ‘let’s go regional!’ and it’s continued to be a massive thing for us. Everyone goes absolutely ham, it’s so good. 

You’ve got a gig coming up at the Wollongong UniBar, is this the first time you’ve ever played in Wollongong?

We’ve been to Wollongong plenty of times! 90% of our gigs have been at the UniBar, and we’ve had some very memorable shows there. Wollongong always goes crazy, they always love a good time and very appreciative of touring bands coming down and not just only stopping off in Sydney. We love it in Wollongong, can’t wait to be back. It’s an awesome town.

A big congratulations on releasing your second album Between the Head and the Heart last year. What was the writing process like? Do you have any favourite tracks on the record?

I actually had another album written before I wrote Between the Head and the Heart that I was going in to record. A few intense things happened in my life around the same time, and the album that I’d written just wasn’t speaking to me. Between The Head & The Heart all started around a song called I Like It Like, which was basically a message that I was writing for myself.

I was just kind of staring deep down into a mirror that was in my bedroom. I started to write a bunch of songs that are basically letters to myself to filter out all this noise that I had in my head. I’ve come out the other end feeling a lot more cleansed. I’m not really the kind of person to go and tell people what every song is about, but it’s been great to see people connecting with these songs.

You started playing live again last year, after two and half years off from touring nationally. What does it mean to you to be able to play live shows again?

I don’t want to sound cliché, but honestly, it means everything. People are like ‘oh do you enjoy the fame or people looking at you on stage?’, but it’s not so much that. When I watch footage back of me onstage, I genuinely don’t know why I turn into the person that I turn into, dancing around as I do. You know, people do yoga, people go to the gym, people go surfing, they do whatever they need to do to feel cleansed.

For me, every time I get off stage, I feel more cleansed within myself. To have that taken away for two and a half years, it was terrible. I hated it. I think the flip side of that is, when I used to not be on the stage, and when I would go to gigs, and I would connect with the band playing the songs that I love. Seeing people watching me and connecting with my music, it’s something that will never get old and I’ll never get over.

Losing touring was very hard for me. I hate having a normal routine. I hate doing the same thing again and again. I like being able to do something that’s different to the day before. Whether that’s just getting in the car and driving to a new place or being in a new town and meeting new people, that’s all inspiring to me.

Sounds like it’s instrumental to your own mental health. 

Yeah, it totally is. You know, everyone’s got their own avenues to help with their own mental health and for me, it’s playing music. It doesn’t matter whether I’m playing to five people or 5000 people. There’s something about playing live that makes me feel like a better human. 

I’m loving the new single ‘Stories’ (produced Alice Ivy) you dropped right before Christmas last year. Does that mean a third Boo Seeka album is coming our way?

It is. Third album is in the works! Stories was a bit of a funny process in the way it happened. We’d always been on festival bills together, but I’d never had a conversation with Alice Ivy before. I was a fan of hers and she was a fan of mine, so we decided to do a writing session and it was honestly one of the greatest days. It was two people that love writing music together and writing a song that made us both smile.

Whenever you go into these writing sessions, you never really think that someone in the room is going to go ‘I want to put this out in four days’. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone as shocked as Alice was that afternoon when I said to her ‘I love this song so much, I want to get it mixed on Sunday, upload it to Spotify on Monday and release it the next week’.

When I get to express something in music, it’s almost like reading a page in a book. I don’t particularly want to go back and keep reading that same page over and over again for six months. If it sits with me for too long, it gets stale. To put it out in the world and to show everyone this song we wrote in a day, that’s the way I love making music. 

Are there any Australian musicians you’re really enjoying at the moment? Who would you like to collaborate with if given the chance?

Oh man, where do you start?  I never really did collaborations in the first four or five years of Boo Seeka. I think if there was anything good that came out of the pandemic, it was musicians connecting with each other and finding this new way to write remotely. I get inspired by other music. I love getting something from someone that might just be a sheet of music that doesn’t have any lyrics, and I get inspired hearing that for the first time and then getting to put my flavour on top of it. 

I’m really enjoying Harrison Storm and Girl in Red. I also really like Kim Churchill’s new album that just came out, but I am biased because he is one of my best friends! The band that really blew me away when we played with them recently was The Terrys. They’re like the new-age Skeggs in a way — they have really great songs that I find myself whistling later. 

Now I’ve noticed on Instagram you’ve got another side project – Food Seeka. What made you want to start documenting your food creations?

It wasn’t me who started the whole thing! One day I randomly mentioned Food Seeka as a joke to my manager. He said ‘I’m going to buy that name now because I think you need to do something with it!’. I never really thought anything of it. He started an Instagram page, didn’t have any posts or anything like that. And then one of my best friends that I live with on Gold Coast, she took a picture of some food I cooked for dinner that night. I posted it and then I woke up the next morning with like two and a half thousand followers.

Once I got that nudge, I realised for something that I thought was going to be a lot of work really wasn’t because food is a huge part of my life. Whether that’s being on the road and going to local markets or talking to local butcher or seafood guy. I love trying the best restaurants but also trying to find who does the best cheeseburger in town, or the best fish taco. Documenting my food has just been another outlet for me to show people what I enjoy. 

Now that you’re touring regularly again, what self-care practices do you use to keep yourself well when you’re on the road?

I’ve surrounded myself with family. Most people would call them a team, but for me they’re family. From my manager to my agent, to Joe who is with me every day on the road. I think surrounding myself with the right people leads me to me being me and not feeling like I’m stuck. I think that’s the key thing for me; surrounding myself with the right people and having people that care for me. And who I care for.

Finally, what’s on the cards for Boo Seeka once your current tour finishes up?

No break for me! I’ve had a two and half year break and I’m over it! There’s another tour that’s going to be announced, but I can’t say too much about that yet. Just being constant with the release of new music I think. I’ve known people that have tried to pigeonhole me; I’ve had people that I’ve worked with in the past tell me that I need to just write electronic music or just do dance music. Something that I really think has allowed me to be me is just writing for what I want to put out and what I think that song needs to be. I want to show people who I am, and who I am is writing the music I love.

Tickets are on sale and selling fast – you can grab them here!

Saturday 25 February
6:00 pm – 11:30 pm
UOW UniBar