Indie electro-dancehall duo Bonjay came to our attention a few years ago and have enjoyed considerable local and international buzz since then. But it’s taken until now for them to drop their first official release, the Gimmee Gimmee EP (independent). What the hell took so long?

“It was a combination of things,” says vocalist Alanna Stuart over brunch. “Basically we were treating it more like a hobby and thought eventually it would pick up on its own. 

“The turning point was getting a manager and starting to think more about the big picture.”

“Basically it was us being clueless,” laughs DJ Pho, aka Ian Swain.

The long delay may not be such a bad thing. Sure, the MySpace era saw countless acts rising to fame without a real record, but many of those bands found themselves prematurely locked into the sound of their demos instead of being able to grow naturally.

Stuart paid her dues back in Ottawa as an R&B singer, but embracing her West Indian heritage and writing songs in patois – which she does in Bonjay – was still a major leap for her, not to mention figuring out how to combine it artfully with indie rock influences.

“My dad was adamant about us knowing how to articulate ourselves clearly in standard English so that we could go to university and get good jobs. Growing up, any attempts I made at speaking patois were mocked horribly.”

On Gimmee Gimmee, Stuart also slips in another West Indian dialect at the end – a freestyle in a secret language known as “gypsy.”

“You know how parents spell out words they don’t want their kids hearing? Once we learned to spell, my mom and aunts would speak gypsy until, of course, we learned that, too.”

benjaminb@nowtoronto.com