Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Drax Projects Hilarious Koru Lounge story!

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

We catch up with Shaan and Ben for Drax Project: Being credited in a Lord Of The Rings Movie! There new tour Is it Jono... Or Ben? How they made the "Up The Wahs" song on the spot! And this chaotic Koru Lounge story had us in TEARS!!! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, with the Jono and Ben podcast. Cheers to Dilma, making the world a better tea. We've got Ben and Sian from Drax Project with us in the studio. Nice to have you guys here. It's great to have you here. Now, before we get into the very exciting tour you're going to be doing over summer, I need to talk about Hobbiton. Oh, let's talk about Hobbiton.

I've been waiting to talk about Hobbiton my whole life, honestly. Now, you guys, all I saw was a couple of you were there, Ben. You were standing next to Sir Peter Jackson getting a photo. Oh, he just wanted a quick pic, but yeah. Because there was a whole bunch of people, Sir Peter Jackson, and then you standing. Was there a moment where you were like, how did I end up at this particular point?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was pretty hectic. And for Matt as well. Matt is the biggest Lord of the Rings fan. Like every long flight we take, he watches Lord of the Rings fan. Like every long flight we take, he watches, he watches Lord of the Rings. I'll watch it again and again. He loves it.

He'll watch the extended director's cut. Right. Yeah. He can, he can, he can just recite the whole thing. He's like, oh,

12 hour flight to America. Sweet. I get to watch all three Lord of the Rings. Watch them all again. I mean, they're great movies. Yeah. By the way,

Ben was supposed to be there. Uh, that he, he sang a song in the movie. Yeah. Wait, did you? Yeah. I mean, they're great movies. By the way, Ben was supposed to be there. He sang a song in the movie. Wait, did you? Yeah. He's the last voice you hear when you watch the entire movie. So the new movie?

The War of Rohirrim. Oh, yeah. We're going to ask the connection to it. So that's awesome. Matt is also in the list of when the credits start running, the first list of the main voice actors. He's the last name. Wow. He would be the main voice actors, he's the last name. Wow.

He would be loving life right now. He's the Dunharrow captain. Dunharrow captain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's pretty cool. So that was an amazing, amazing experience. Oh, yeah, it was sick. Going to Hobbiton, all the stars there from the new movie as well.

Yeah, bro. We headlined the Shire. It was sick. Oh, my God. How cool is that? Yeah. We headlined the Shire. It was sick, dude. Andy, How cool is that? We headlined the Shire. It was sick, dude.

Andy, Andy Serkis was there. He was hanging out. Stop. Yeah. And he, he was, he plays a saxophone apparently. And he was just side of stage, like kind of headbanging the whole time. That's so cool. Oh my God.

You didn't give him a saxophone. It was like, join in Andy Serkis. Oh my God. When we got off the stage, he was the first person there. He was like, hey. It was awesome. Yeah. It could have been

Drake's project Featuring Gollum Yeah I know We're going to hang out With him in London next year When we go there hopefully So that would be awesome

That is incredible The guy who If you watch Succession The main actor From Succession was there It was incredible Wow incredible He was awesome

Yeah he was chilling So is that the first Because you're about to go on tour Around summer Is that kind of The first event That's kind of the first one. Yeah, yeah.

That's really setting everything up. Yeah, that was our rehearsal. So you go from the Shire, you know, rehearsal, rehearsal in front of Sir Peter Jackson, people like that. And then where do you go after that? Straight out to Middle Earth. Straight out to the rest of Middle Earth. Right around. We've got Black Barn.

Yeah, in December. In December. 21st. Always just such a good spot Then where do we go We got two shows at Waihi Beach My hometown Which is fantastic One of them sold out though

Yep One sold out Is that your family Yep Yeah Yeah All 400 of them No

Then well we got Cora Glenn on New Years Yeah Which is mean And then Mungify and Or Kuda Oh Mungify sold out though Sorry Yes Can't keep plugging gigs That have already sold out New Year's which is mean and then Manga Fire and Okura Manga Fire sold out though

sorry you can't keep plugging gigs that have already sold out sorry Butler's Reef Okura that was actually

probably one of my favourite gigs of last summer was that gig it was pretty awesome and then Great Barrier Island as well yeah that's a little

little easter egg thrown in there that's a plot twist that was a recent one that was sick you said that was your favourite gig is it true have you gone on Yeah, that's a little Easter egg thrown in there. That's a plot twist. That was a recent one. That was sick. You said that was your favorite gig.

Yeah. Is it true? Have you gone on stage multiple times and said, this is our favorite crowd? Yeah. Do you lie to us? No, I never say that. No, you never lie? No, I just say like, oh, you guys are pretty loud,

or you guys are good singers, but I never pick and choose. You always say, like, you make a point that this is real fun well it is yeah but you're like if the gig's good then it's like oh sean's having a good time he's like this is just oh this is awesome so you know so you know we're having lots of fun guys i think i'm quite honest yeah but i'm not i don't i mean i wouldn't be honest if it was bad though i'm only honest if it's good okay so if he doesn't say anything because we are we actually i think one of the first times we met you guys

was at a MediaWorks gig when MediaWorks was still like a big TV thing was it just wait where was it it was down I think in the viaduct as well

but it was you guys were awesome oh the cloud yeah it was the cloud but it was such an amazing day that I think all the crowd

were outside and it was just us and you on stage and we loved it Jono and I loved it but I think it was just

pretty much a concert for us, me and Jono, you know. We had a great time. You know what? I think I remember that because we had a conversation about doing poos in the Kuru Lounge. Do you know how we got there? I do, but I don't know why we got there.

Yeah, yeah. And I sent a couple of photos of me in the Kuru Lounge doing poos. Yeah, you did. And I was literally thinking about that the other day. I was doing a poo in the Kuru Lounge. And I was like, I should take a selfie. But when we say that not in the middle of the lounge,

like in the bathroom area, like we're talking about. Scan your ticket, please, sir. What are you doing? We still have our group chat. Yeah, we started a group chat about it think if we fight it out a little bit Jono or Ben Jono or Ben This is you guys and this is me in the koru lounge doing poo.

Wait, why do I have my bag and my jersey on? How did you have your bag on? It's kind of fucked up. This is really taking a turn. Wow, is that what guys talk about on group chats?

Jono or Ben. It sounds more of a Jonah or ben thing mate yeah i was thinking of random things at concerts we're gonna play some audio that you guys you guys ended up playing like a you guys played some audio of you guys in concert um up the warsaz song. Now, this came from another tour that you guys did where people just started yelling out Up the Waz, right? Yeah, we were doing... Shall we try and pull this back? So we decided that something that we should try and do

is make up a new song on the spot, on the gig. Because we do this thing on social media. We post videos on socials of us doing these blind beats where we leave the room and all make our own parts we have we have we know the key and the tempo so the song is gonna kind of kind of work hopefully and then we put all the parts together anyway we just want to do a version of that live so basically it was like I'm standing on stage we like what's what should we make a song about and someone shout something out and I have to make the melody and

the lyrics like on the spot Wow Ben walks on stage starts be like what's what should we make a song about and someone shouts something out and i have to make the melody and the lyrics like on the spot wow ben walks on stage starts playing guitar to what i've done then sam and then matt so we by the end we have like a full song that's very cool yeah so we did that challenging for you guys on stage as well honestly probably the most stressful for sean it was so stressful because i'm standing up there the whole thing's on me yeah but i was the one who suggested the idea so so I had to do it. Yeah, it was very stressful. Do you, you know, as a performer, because obviously you don't do that straight away,

so you're playing some other songs, but do you have it kind of in the back of your mind going, oh God, I've got this thing coming up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's what I've been doing. There are a couple of them where you turn around and he's like, oh God, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. It was real stressful.

And it would really mess me up for the rest of the gig because I'll be, because like, when you're performing a song you've done before, you're in that headspace. You're like it's like repetition. And and then and then suddenly you'd be like, cool, creative mode. And I have to completely make something up. And my brain's gone to the other side. And then once that's ending, I'm like, OK, cool.

And then and then they're like, OK, next song. And I'm like, oh, shit. It was honestly it was a terrible idea. But it was really fun. We made some cool songs. Yeah, we actually got a bunch of them. We never posted. Well, I imagine the crowd would get into it, though.

You know, and it's something special for them. This is one, this is from Perth, was it? Yeah, yeah. Someone yelled out Up The Waz. Obviously it wasn't. Up The Waz. Up The Waz. I'm sitting in the bar.

Playing my guitar. Up The Waz. Up The Waz. What was it? Bit of swearing, sorry. Sounds good. And then you guys were saying you went back to Perth and they were like, are you going to play the Up the Waz song? I was like, well that was not a recorded song Probably not It's not a song They made us play it

They did, they just started screaming Up the Waz, play Up the Waz You know how people type on their phone and put on their Boy, this is what people do That is a top five drac song for me is that a good thing or a bad thing it sounds like damn it the next one's about poos in the it's the most fun though i mean maybe not stressful like obviously you know when you make songs on the spot but the performing side of things you know yeah it's pretty i'm like i I think, yeah,

the best things in life come with the most difficult things. So it is very fun when something that's like, oh, is this going to work, works? It's like, oh, it's mean. It's like writing a song in the studio when it's all coming together. It feels great. But yeah, it is extremely stressful

and I don't want to do it again. Okay, so why are we doing it on this tour when they're about to head around the country in december drax project uh we might do it we might do it mitch james as well too one of the last times you'll get to see him as well for a couple of gigs yeah yeah yeah so we're lucky to have him there that's gonna be a real hoot uh now before we go i just want to chuck something at you drax facts these are true or false these are just facts not about you actually this is about just Just facts I've found Or have I found From the internet

Or have we made them up I just thought Drax Facts Kind of works as a name So you guys can decide together True or false With these statements Alright Oh shit

In a botanical sense Bananas are berries And strawberries aren't Yeah that's true That's true Well done Yeah That blew my mind too

I know It's been lied to Who thought that Yeah That's exactly Apparently I literally. That blew my mind too. You thought to a stick. I know. It's been lied to. Who thought that? Yeah, that's exactly. Apparently. I literally couldn't even understand what you said. I know. I'm trying to like read.

What? That's a bit. My brain was going, what? Bananas are berries and then actual strawberries apparently are not berries. Because the seeds are on the outside. That sounds like a conversation you have at the end of the night. Yeah, after you've played up the wires. All right.

Okay, next one. I thought this was going to be facts about us. No, no, no. I thought it was too easy. I think we're going to know these, but I don't know. Okay, true or false. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from space without a telescope. Nah.

Well done. You guys are good at this. Way too small. Okay, the unicorn is Scotland's national animal. Nah, no way that's true that's true that one yeah there we go that's ridiculous that's what i thought do you want to know something else yeah about scotland is that they're one of the only they they they are the only country that uh coke isn't the most popular drink oh really i think yeah what is it

oh they've got their own yeah oh is it not it not a beer? No it's like a caffeinated um friggin thing. Like a soda drink like basically a drink a fizzy drink. Yeah it's like the best hangover cure ever. Wow okay oh well that was your facts better than my facts Aaron. Both humans and giraffes have seven neck vertebrae, despite the giraffe having a longer neck. Yes, that's true. Oh, well done. She's good. And finally,

Drax Project won't be touring this summer. True or false? That's false. That's false. Yeah, that is false. That one's about you guys. I get confused about double negatives. We're playing gigs.

Yeah, I play some gigs. So you can check out all the details at the hitstockcode on NZ. It starts December 21st and goes into January as well. nice to hang out with you guys nice to reminisce about random group chats we need to fire back up again I think I'll be in the quarter lounge later today

so I'll send you a little post the problem is I'm not on a member, I have to tag in with Jono so that's the thing, so it only goes if Jono or Ben yeah so that's why it's called Jono or Ben that's right, it's never going to be me we'll probably remove you from the group chat. Yeah, probably.

Fair enough. Hey, lovely to see you guys. Always fun catching up.