“Hopefully when I come to The States, I can eat a lychee,” BENEE tells Consequence over Zoom, dappled in morning light in her home in New Zealand. The fruit for which her new EP is named is scarce in her home country at the moment, she explains, meaning the sweet, tart, food that’s always been her favorite will be even more of a treat once she’s able to get her hands on one again.
LYCHEE, out March 4th, is the latest from BENEE, who was born (and introduces herself) as Stella Bennett. Many listeners may associate her with a very distinct time and place — her breakout track, “Supalonely,” exploded at the very beginning of the pandemic first over TikTok, then over streaming and radio. This means a huge amount of her growth as an artist took place while most of the world was at home, and she’s itching to get back on the road and see the true, tangible results of it for herself on tour.
Her upcoming tour, which will weave through Australia and Europe before making its way to the US, kicks off in March. “It’s a little bit of a level up from where we were when we toured last time,” she says, explaining how Pinterest board aesthetics have developed into real-life visual accompaniments for the show. Her band, who has been with her since 2017, is beyond ready to play again.
There’s a dichotomy that can sometimes be difficult around seeing a song blow up the way “Supalonely” did. For an artist, it’s understandable to not want to be defined by one piece of work (despite the positives associated with “going viral”), especially for someone like BENEE, who is itching to write and create.
