The Hollow Body: Johannine review

This review was originally published in Perdeby on 15 April 2013.

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                                                                                                                          COVER ART: photo taken by Luca Vincenzo

“You say drinking from my cup feeds your soul/ Fills you up/ If drinking from my cup makes you whole/ Then why did you stop?” croons Cape Town folk musician Jonathan Velthuysen gently on “Holly (You Gotta Wonder)”. His almost puzzled delivery of the last line is moving, as if through his subtle probing, he is trying to make sense of the unexpected end of a relationship.

It is piercingly personal lyrics like this that take centre stage on Velthuysen’s debut album Johannine and for his first offering, the man who goes by the name of The Hollow Body has put together a collection of songs that is stripped down of all pretence and treated, instead, with layers of intensely personal reflection.

Together with his scratchy, sometimes nasal voice and the sparse musical accompaniment provided by the warm, rollicking strum of his guitar, Velthuysen delivers an album that will more than delicately tickle the fancy of folk lovers.

The thing is, Velthuysen’s lyrics aren’t just unabashedly honest. They are delicately crafted words of poetry too and he uses this songwriting process to purge himself of all the things that life has thrown at him.

“Hymnal Retreat” is a tender elegy written for Velthuysen’s father who passed away some years ago. The uncluttered intro sees him admitting that he is weighed down by the sorrow that he carries on his shoulders and the misery on his brow and that he doesn’t know if he can move forward. His solution? “And maybe someday/ Through these lullabies/ I’ll see clearly my way back home,” he intones gingerly before the track becomes more jaunty as the pace quickens.

On “For Tonight”, Velthuysen’s voice echoes that of The Tallest Man on Earth as he sings about the intoxicating and sometimes dangerous hold that someone can have on you, while on “Don’t Mistake It”, he lowers his voice to a soft, low purr that breaks into an impassioned plea at the climax.

Johannine is the kind of album that you want to listen to in a steaming bath with a glass of wine. It’s the kind of album that stops being just a collection of songs as it begs you to engage with it. It’s the kind of album that allows you to mould your own meaning around this phrasing or that guitar growl. In fact, it’s the best kind of album.

RATING: 8/10

Read the interview I did with The Hollow Body here. 

The Hollow Body: "I need to sing songs to remind me, to remind me of everything."

The Hollow Body at Arcade Empire                                                                                  PHOTO: Hendro van der Merwe

There’s a biting chill in the air at Arcade Empire’s acoustic evening. As is starts raining, the few people who were sitting at tables outside flee indoors for cover. Those who were lucky enough to avoid the downpour are talking noisily over cheap beer.

The chatter becomes an irritating buzz that competes with Jonathan Velthuysen’s soothing drone as he takes to the small, sparsely lit stage in the corner. The indifferent audience doesn’t seem to bother him as he moves his broad shoulders this way and that, tilting his head back slightly, feeling every note that he effortlessly strums on his guitar.

Velthuysen has been having a fiery love affair with the instrument strapped around his shoulder for many years. Flickers of it may have started when he picked up his mom’s old Hofner guitar at the age of 13, but this relationship permanently changed after he came across one guitar in particular while living in Scotland.

“It was just a phenomenal guitar,” says a slightly reserved Velthuysen, his admiration for the string instrument still evident. “It made me realise how average I actually was at playing instrumental music and it also inspired me to start singing.”

When he returned to South Africa in 2009, Velthuysen did just that. He formed a folk rock band called Stepdog, which released an EP called Amy After Dark in 2010. The band enjoyed a pinch of success but eventually broke up. Velthuysen wanted to go it alone, so he dubbed himself “The Hollow Body” and steered his sound in the bare, unfussy direction of folk music.

“I’m not very comfortable with pretending and I find that [folk] is one genre that I can write in, sort of as an idiom,” he says. “I can just be who I am and sing what I want. It’s just easier.”

At the same time, Velthuysen also began learning how to build guitars under master luthier JA Tredoux, founder of the Stellenbosch Guitar Company. It’s an incredibly long process to build a guitar, says Velthuysen. He has spent the last two years learning how to craft the instrument and will more than likely still be an apprentice for the next five years, depending on how quickly he can perfect his skills.

“There are a lot of finer things that take a lot of time to get a feel for. When it comes down to it, a lot of it is problem solving because things don’t always turn out the way you want and then you have to improvise. That takes a long time to learn,” explains Velthuysen.

                                                         PHOTO: Hendro van der Merwe

The very guitar that he performs with is the first one that he made. Velthuysen had an idea of what he wanted to do but being a novice, he didn’t quite know what he was going to come out with. He says: “It took me a couple of months to come to terms with what I had created. It’s like anything, you gotta get used to it. It’s a very unique guitar and it sounds good.”

Velthuysen also used his self-made guitar to record his debut album as The Hollow Body. Johannine is an album which allows his rough, scratchy voice to explore how he has come to terms with several events that have drastically shaped his life.

“It’s just a collection of moments of inspiration. And also, some of it is just a painful reflection on it,” he says of the intensely personal nature of his lyrics. The painful reflection Velthuysen is referring to is the death of his father in 2005 and the ending of a serious relationship not long afterwards.

Is songwriting a cathartic process for Velthuysen, then? “It’s essential, absolutely essential. That’s why I do it,” he says. “My motivation isn’t that people are going to like it, really. I’m always happy if people do but I just find that I need to do it. I’m not comfortable with not doing it. I tried it.” 

Velthuysen is speaking of a time when he thought that he would get another job and just play music on the side as a hobby. “I just found it very, very hard to stay balanced. I need to sing songs to remind me, to remind me of everything.”

Read my review of The Hollow Body's debut album, Johannine, here. 

April's Mixtape

I started this monthly feature in January and then I kind of forgot about it.

Oops.

So, I'm asking you to forget that I forgot and listen to April's mixtape.

Enjoy!

1. alt-J feat. Mountain Man- Buffalo
 
2. Jake Bugg- Two Fingers  
3. Paul Banks- The Base  
4. Future Islands- Cotton Flower  
5. Shotgun Tori- These Birds  
6. The Hollow Man- Old Adam  
7. Gateway Drugs- Summer Time featuring Fuck You  
8. Spoegwolf- Loerie  
9. Christian Tiger School- Third Floor  
10. Iron and Wine- Upward Over The Mountain  
11. Theophilus London- Calypso Blues Theophilus London - Calypso Blues by TheophilusLondon  

12. Imperial Mammoth- Requiem On Water

The Hollow Body to tour up north

Gauteng, say hello to Jonathan Velthuysen. He is the man behind The Hollow Body, a wonderfully unembellished folk act from Cape Town. The good news is that he will be paying us a visit this week when he sets off on tour to promote his debut album, Johannine. "It all began as an experiment with old gear and testing mics on guitars and went on to become a full album of songs overdue for release," says the musician's Bandcamp page of the album.

Man, I'm excited.

Here are the tour dates: 

02.04 - Waiting Room | CPT
https://www.facebook.com/events/234494050030183/

03.04 - Arcade Empire | PTA
https://www.facebook.com/events/226375130838990/

04.04 - Wolves | JHB

05.04 - Railways Bar | JHB

06.04 - The Library, Brazen Head | JHB
https://www.facebook.com/events/439674339453769/

You can also listen to Johannine below. If you like what you hear, you can buy the album off Bandcamp. The best part is, you get to name the price. 

You can't say I don't look after you.  

Tell Your Story

I love how Oxydo Eyewear jazzed up their posters for their new campaign called "Tell Your Story". 

 

New music: Jeremy Loops- Down South (Live)

Jeremy Loops opening for Xavier Rudd at Parklife Joburg.

It's been a wondrous year for Jeremy Loops so far. He opened for Australian musician Xavier Rudd in both Joburg and Cape Town, he nabbed the award for Best Solo Act at the MK Awards last Sunday and then, this week, he announced that he's off to tour the UK and the States in May. With every reason to be in a celebratory mood, Mr Loops decided to release his track, "Down South", for free. It was recorded live for Balcony TV in Joburg.

This one, he's going places alright.

Download "Down South" below.  



Watch "Down South" being played live at on Balcony TV.

 

Breathe Sunshine African Music Conference

The Breathe Sunshine African Music Conference is a two-day conference taking place on 1 and 2 April in Cape Town. It aims to share information between people involved in all spheres of the African music industry through a series of workshops, panel discussions, presentations and exhibition stands. There will also be a networking lounge an a concert showcasing the best of Africa's musical talent. 

I caught up with Trenton Birch, Founder of Black Mango Music and Founder and Director of the Breathe Sunshine African Music Conference to talk about the growth of the African music industry, the challenges his team faced in putting the event together, and music apartheid in South Africa.

Breathe Sunshine African Music Conference team outside Cape Town City Hall. from left, standing, Thabo Mobo, Trenton Birch, Shameema Williams; seated, Daniella Nathoo; on the ground, Marco Wielander. PHOTO: Black Mango

 

 Why did you feel there was a need to start a music conference like this?

I spent a number of years in London immersed in the UK industry and pushing SA music into Europe and I started to see a big increase in interest in music coming out of Africa, especially South Africa. I've been back two years now and while the industry is growing fast, we are incredibly fragmented and there is no unity. The world is waiting for us to step up but to do that we need to [be] a lot more organised and trained to support the great artists coming out of the country. I have, and always will be, deeply passionate about African music and believe it has such power to unite and empower Africa. I put the idea to our team and they jumped all over it.   

Being the inaugural conference, what challenges did you face in organizing the event?

The usual challenges of running a first time event have been experienced. Getting sponsors on board is the toughest because the event doesn't have a track record. But we've been lucky that SAE Institute Cape Town and Markham took a leap with us and we have so much industry support we know that it can only grow from here.

Why do you think the African music industry still lacks the skills and network of our international counterparts?

There is lack of real training in Music Business. Most people fall into it and learn as they go along. Also a lot of people get into the industry for the wrong reason. They think it’s one big party and while it is certainly a fun industry to work in, it is also very complex and you have to work really hard to make things happen. We are getting better all the time but we need to try harder. Artists also have a role to play and need to school and empower themselves in the business side of things. It’s no longer acceptable to be an artist without some sort of knowledge of how things work. 

"It's our strength that has become our weakness." 

The conference also strives to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves. How will it help the three charities that you have selected?

We are working with local community groups and charities to ensure young people on the ground working in the industry are getting exposed to knowledge. They are the future and [are] too easily forgotten. So the role of the conference is to facilitate music business dialogue but also help people grow and learn through knowledge transfer.

Our workshops are under the banner "Empowering Your Art" and supported by our educational partner SAE Institute who are a global creative media technology school with a huge legacy in education is this space. They are aimed at young people wanting to get into the industry and up-skilling those who are already working in the industry but need more practical knowledge. They are hands on and embrace the rapidly changing industry.

Siyabonga Mtembu of The Brother Moves On spoke at the Moshito Music Conference last year, saying that SA music festivals, promotors, record labels and music media make "racial assumptions" all the time. Do you agree with what he said? How do you think are solutions to this music apartheid?

Absolutely agree. Our industry is still polarised by race and genre and we need to get over ourselves and embrace the diversity that we have here. It’s our strength but has become our weakness. The solution is for everyone to start opening their minds and letting go of pre- conceived ideas that have been pumped into our heads via cultural colonisation. And if we can't get ourselves together to break these barriers down how can we expect the general public to do so?

For more information about ticket prices and the panel discussion schedule, visit the Breathe Sunshine African Music Conference website and their Facebook page.