I’M midway through a phone call with Athens-based musician and artist Ben Montero when I hear the sound of scribbling in the background.

“Are you drawing something?” I ask.

“Um.” He pauses. “Yeah, always. Just doodling.”

“What are you doodling?”

“Now?”

“Yeah.”

Another pause.

“Um, there’s some creatures, and there’s a little bird with a microphone going, ‘Where do you get your inspiration from?’”

I’m the little bird.

•••

BORN in Melbourne, Ben (or Bjenny or Benny) has lived in Athens for the past few years now.

I first met him in the early-2000s when he co-fronted a band called Treetops, who were making buoyant Teenage Fanclub-esque pop at a time when double-denim nu-rock was pouring out of places like Ding Dong Lounge, The Duke Of Windsor, 161, and Cherry Bar.

Ben was an outlier even then – a lover of soft rock long before acts such as Mild High Club, Toro y Moi, Ariel Pink, and even Thundercat were making it cool again. When everyone else was devouring Interpol and The Strokes, he was championing The Zombies, The Beach Boys’ Smiley Smile, and Frank Valli’s The Genuine Imitation of Life Gazette, a forgotten psych concept album conveniently left off Jersey Boys.

“I’m just always in my own world and I’m lucky people say hi and jump in.”

After Treetops disbanded, Ben spent three years making a solo album, The Loving Gaze, and started a new outfit called Early Woman with Spider Vomit’s Hannah Brooks. Around that time his online collection of doodles, Ben Montero Sketchbook, developed a cult following that’s swelled to nearly 90,000 followers. It’s not hard to see why.

His cartoons are honest, vulnerable, funny, real, and deeply relatable, especially for anyone that’s ever felt socially anxious or unsure about the place in the world (ie. most people).

In one panel, two birds ponder one of life’s great mysteries in bed: “Where did the boys actually go in Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’?”In another, he perfectly encapsulates what it’s like to feel out of place at a cool party.

“I’m just always in my own world and I’m lucky people say hi and jump in,” he says.

Ben’s art has appeared on posters and record covers for the likes of Kurt Vile; POND; Ariel Pink; Mac DeMarco; and GUM, aka Tame Impala touring member Jay Watson, who co-produced the second Montero record Performer. The album is as triumphant, busy and colourful as its cover; full of personality, zany touches, huge pop moments and more talkbox than Frampton Comes Alive. (OK, maybe not.)

I reach Ben on a beautiful weekday morning in Athens. The sun is shining and he’s thinking about heading down to his local taverna later for some octopus.