Are you experienced?

Australian synth lothario Donny Benet is back, and redefining what it means to be romantic, writes Karl Puschmann

HE’S A little bit older and a little bit wiser, but the new album from Australia’s mustachioed synth lothario, Donny Benet, shows he still has one thing on his mind.

“At the end of the day, people still want to have sex and still want to be involved with somebody in a physical and romantic relationship,” he says from his home in Sydney.

Following his breakthrough record, 2018’s The Don — a brilliant album of 80s-styled synth funk, postdisco paired with unabashedly bedroom-minded vocals that were primarily concerned with the thrill of the hunt and/or hopeless romanticism — the songs on Mr

Experience reflect a self-assured world view and a mature confidence, both in their lyrical content and lush musical scope.

“The Don was written when I was in my mid-30s,” he says. “For a brief period I was concerned I’d painted myself into a corner. When it came time for Mr Experience, I was heading towards 40 . . . it was tough, what would I write about?”

Being a happily married man, he’d looked at his friends’ lives for

The Don’s single-minded lyrical inspiration.

“I had friends who were in relationships that didn’t work and they parted ways,” he explains. “There was this brief period where they were playing the scene a bit.”

Their “nightmare” experiences had influenced songs on The Don like Love Online and Santorini, but his attempt to replicate their Italodisco flavour for Mr Experience, his fifth album, proved unsuccessful.

“Of them, 95 per cent ended up in the reject folder because I didn’t believe in them. I had to step back and think, ‘What’s happening in my life and my friends’ lives?’,” he says. “I started looking at artists who were in their early 40s, like Robert Palmer and Bryan Ferry, who had success back in the 80s, and what they were writing about.”

After checking in with his mates again, he noticed a pattern of change in their outlook and behaviours.

“Things were happening in their lives, they were becoming a lot more self-assured and confident. They weren’t necessarily conforming to tradition,” he explains. “You don’t need that. If you’re confident and love yourself and where you’re at, you don’t have to worry about what people are expecting from you. Once I got that perspective on what to write about it came easy.”

So, whereas on The Don he was making his best case for a romantic liaison, Mr Experience instead has the aura of one who lets the

“diamond in his smile” do the talking, as best amplified in the dance floor-filling, Chic-styled, disco-funk of the album’s title track.

“There’s that confidence there. It’s somebody who’s been a lot of places and seen a lot of things they can’t unsee,” he says, laughing. “That’s who Mr Experience is. That’s the vibe of the album.”

This vibe shines in the urgent, synth-powered, sexwith-the-ex of One Night in Paradise, the tropical jazzy adult contemporary of Negroni Summer and the smooth, after hours, whistle-led groove of

Girl of My Dreams. And while Benet’s lyrics are often funny, rooted in wordplay and double entendre, he’s certainly not a comedy act singing comedy songs.

“No. I’m a romantic cynic. When I first started to do Donny, it was the whole shoegaze scene with these pretty, indie guys singing their hearts out and pretending to be blues singers. For me that seemed like a real act to put on,” he says, recalling the early days of his Benet persona, back in the late 2000s.

“I’m pretty cynical about getting up and really singing ‘oh, oh baby, I really love you’, something heartfelt like that. You have to have a bit of humour and a wink to write a song like that. Unless you’re completely a dreamer. I wanted to go for that but with a wink.”

With his 80s-styled take on love, sex and relationships coupled with his seductive music videos featuring gyrating hips, openbuttoned pastel shirts, slicked-back balding hair and boudoir focus, is Donny Benet redefining what it means to be a sex symbol?

“That’s a heavy burden to shoulder,” he says, laughing. “I went bald pretty young and I try and keep fit but I don’t have the body of a Greek Adonis. It’s more a boldness or a confidence. We’ve all got faults and insecurities about ourselves. We’ve got what we’ve got so we may as well be comfortable with it . . .”

Then speaking from a place of experience he says, “confidence is usually the most sexy thing. I think anyway.”