Shadowclub's nod to the past

                                                                                                                                                                               PHOTO: AJ Howard

“Sorry to interrupt, guys,” says a nervy fan as he walks up to Shadowclub. “I just want to say awesome work on the new album.” 

He looks as if he’s mustered up all his courage to walk up to the band and recite the speech he has prepared. 

“Jacques, awesome vocals. Really sick lyrics,” he says to vocalist and guitarist Jacques Moolman.

As he moves on to drummer Isaac Klawansky, he looks up, as if searching for what he wants to say next. 

“Isaac, sweet drumming. I don’t know much about drumming, but it fits really well.”

And for the grand finale, he turns to bassist Louis Roux. “And, um, if you’re not the best bass player in South Africa, then I don’t know who is. I love your lines. I’m also a bass player. I love your work.”

“That’s so nice,” says Moolman as the declaration of adoration comes to an end. “That’s what’s happening at the moment. We haven’t had that in such a long time. It’s a nice morale boost to have these kids coming and saying, ‘Fucking great album.’”

Shadowclub is at Pretoria’s Arcade Empire for the launch of their new album, Goodbye Wild Child, their second offering since their 2011 debut, Guns and Money. When it came to their follow-up album, the band had it all mapped out. They were to record with label Just Music’s in-house producer Matthew Fink at the beginning of the year so that they could have the album out by mid-2013. But things didn’t go according to plan after another musician booked and paid for studio time before them and Just Music’s newly signed artists took precedence.

“You expect to go into studio and you start readying yourself. In that experience, you live in studio. You mentally and spiritually prepare yourself and then it never happened,” says Moolman.

Shadowclub was forced to put their plans on hold for a few months, although they admit that the delay was for the better as it allowed the songs for their forthcoming album to brood for longer. “I think it gave us time to hone the tracks more and just get them tight and realise more and more what was going to work and what wasn’t,” says Klawansky.

                                                                                                                                                                           PHOTO: AJ Howard

While the holdup was frustrating, Klawansky says that the timing worked out perfectly. “I don’t think we would have made the same album and I think we love the album that we made, so we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Having more time to polish the tracks for Goodbye Wild Child didn’t make writing the album any easier for Shadowclub as Roux says the prospect of coming up with new material was daunting. “But then we got into a good space and the tracks just came out,” he says.

For Moolman, the problem was a bout of writer’s block that left him in a quandary about what to write lyrically. “I had just gone through a huge emotional experience that I can pull a lot from. I had to channel the experience and put it into words the best way that I could,” he says.

The often fatal second-album slump didn’t get the better of Shadowclub though. Instead, questioning themselves and being able to deliver the album that they did despite this gave them the confidence boost that they needed. “I think that’s what the pressure was, whether it was going to come out nicely or whether anything would come out at all. Now what we know that it can happen we’ll be fine,” explains Klawansky.

Like Guns and Money, Shadowclub recorded Goodbye Wild Child live so that they could capture the feel of their often sweaty, feverish live performances. What they did do differently was spend a lot more time on post-production to ensure that each track is perfect. They also worked on an entire song at a time, instead of recording guitar, bass, drums and vocals separately. “Before, maybe all the vocals sounded the same because they were done in one day, all the guitar tones sounded the same,” says Klawansky. “This time, everything has a bit of a different feel.”

This time around, Shadowclub has also experimented with writing some unexpected melodic ballads. Moolman says that he was tired of the raw punk-rock sound that characterised Guns and Money and wanted to try something different. The first step in this direction was with the track “Suddenly”, an inspired Radiohead-esque track that oscillates between a slow, chilling falsetto and a massive, hard-hitting roar of riffs. From there, the band moved on to writing songs like “Magic Wand” and “Mocking Bird”, realising that they had the ability to paint a different kind of picture without the dirty, fast-paced assault of sound that they are known for. Out of these ballads, “Dirt and the Rubble” has proved to be the most popular with fans. Initially written for Moolman’s solo project when he was out on his father’s farm, it sees him lamenting the loss of a girl to the nightlife.

                                                                                                                                                                             PHOTO: AJ Howard

Roux says he knew that it would be a hit when the band performed the song at Brickfields in Carfax. “There was this girl in the front row. She had her boyfriend behind her with his arms around her shoulder and he was kissing her neck and she was just staring at Jacques throughout the whole song,” he says to an explosion of laughter that erupts from his bandmates.

“Our mate Gareth Wilson went from calling it a tear-jerker to a panty-thrower,” adds Moolman, who says that while “Dirt and the Rubble” is incredibly simple, it’s essentially a love song that everyone seems to be able to relate to.

Moolman’s lyrics have always centred on a character who comes into some kind of conflict with the world. But compared to Guns and Money, the character who penned the lyrics on Goodbye Wild Child is quite different. “For the first album, it was booze and drugs and sex and the nightlife. I think I lived in the night. It was that guy telling all the stories. But these? I mean, I wrote about stuff that I’ve gone through, and coming into my new life, my new way of seeing things and believing in things,” he says.

In this way, Shadowclub has used their second album to bid farewell to the more reckless versions of themselves. “We’ve all had aspects of craziness in our past and we’re all a lot more settled and mature. It’s a nod to what’s happened and where we are now,” says Klawansky.

“I used to call myself a wild child,” says Moolman. “I was going for the wild child experience and I got it and it almost killed me. And I was like, ‘Cool, I’m shaking your hand. Goodbye.’”

Music for the waist down

This interview was published in Perdeby on 29 July 2013.

                                                                                                                                                 PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

Taxi Violence’s fourth studio album Soul Shake sees the Cape Town quartet cranking up the noise to produce unadulterated, raucous rock ‘n’ roll, a feverish ode to what made the band so popular when they started out almost a decade ago.

Perdeby sat down with George van der Spuy (vocals), Rian Zietsman (guitar), Jason Ling (bass guitar) and Louis Nel (drums) to chat about their rip-roaring fourth release.

At the beginning of the year you guys came up with 30 new songs for the second half of Soul Shake. How do you go about choosing which ones make it onto the album in the end?Rian: We kind of jam it out.
 

George: And do pre-production.
 

Rian: Ja, pre-production is a very vital part of making an album, I think. You check which ideas work and which don’t, but then on the other hand, we have one song which is a combination of a whole bunch of things that didn’t work together. Now I think it’s my favourite song on the album.
 

George: It’s weird. You listen back to it during pre-production and you can hear what other people hear because when you play it, it’s very different. You’re enjoying the jam and you’re in the vibe but when you listen back to it, it doesn’t come across in the same way as you feel it. We found a balance between what we really enjoy and what sounds good on CD.

How did writing an acoustic album before this influence the writing of Soul Shake?Louis: I wouldn’t say “influence”, but I would say it definitely helped during the songwriting process, because in the past we used to write songs in the rehearsal room with very loud amps and loud drum kits and stuff. They came out well but for the acoustic album we wrote on acoustic instruments and the majority of this new album was also written on acoustic instruments in a basement, so you have to kind of like pay attention to the quieter side of the song. You can’t hide it behind just bashing drums and lots of distorted guitar. It’s a very cool way of writing because if your song translates on an acoustic instrument, it will definitely translate being played loud and brash but not necessarily the other way round. In terms of songwriting, our acoustic album helped us a lot.

You guys have opted for songs with a simpler arrangement this time around. What brought this on?Rian: Simple is always best. Once you start overthinking something, I find that it loses the essence of what you’re trying to do in the first place. Although we did spend a lot of time honing the songs, there were certain aspects of it that we weren’t that familiar [with] or sure of when we went into the studio and jammed it out there and took some guidance from Rusti, who was recording it with us. I suppose that’s where the simplicity comes from, the fact that it was new to us as well. When I listen back to some of the stuff, I couldn’t even remember playing it or doing it and not because I was drunk.
 

Jason: I think for us, we’ve been around for a while. We’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work. I think that that’s something that we’ve learned now.
 

George: We kind of took a lead from our influences like The Stones and The Beatles and [those bands] are really simple. There’s no real complicated stuff and if you can write a simple song that translates well, then you’ve done your job instead of trying to complicate things.
 

Jason: You don’t need to be different for the sake of being different.
 

Rian: At the end of the day, if you want to make a living out of this, you can’t be a musician’s band. You kind of have to challenge your audience in a certain regard but you still need to show them a good time without going to class when they come to your shows. They’re coming to rock out.

Jason, you were a lot more involved in the writing of Soul Shake. What was that like?Jason: It was cool, but it’s like ...
 

Louis: Don’t be modest.
 

                                                                          PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

Jason: Louis and Rian were doing Beast and George took time off for Wembley. I don’t have a side project so I’m always writing music. I brought a lot of ideas to the band and the songs wouldn’t be the same without them but I mean, instead of just jamming them out, we started with the basics of structures and chords. Louis brought some ideas and Rian as well.
 

George: And George.

                                                                        PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

Jason: And George. Sorry George. Just checking if you’re awake. When I joined the band, a lot of the songs were still from the previous bass player and a lot of the songs were carried over to the unplugged album, so as a band, these 11 songs are pretty much us. Except for one, it’s a cover but it has pretty much our flavour to it.

George, you write your lyrics in studio. Am I right?George: I don’t write them in studio. I write them during the recording process because as Rian said earlier, sometimes there’s little things that change in the studio. “Brainmash” for instance. He [Rian] did something different on the guitars and it was a totally different chorus and once I heard that, it inspired me to write a different chorus that’s a lot more catchy. It helps to write with stuff that sounds a little bit more proper but you always have a basic melody down and sort of an idea of what the ideas are going to be like. I just refine it during the recording process.

Is there any significance behind the album title, Soul Shake?George: When we set out to do this album, we wanted to do a party-rock album, get back to our original roots of just rocking out because our unplugged album was chilled out. That’s where the whole “soul shake” thing comes from. We want to move you from the inside and the outside. Music for the waist down. You don’t have to think about it too much but it hits you [there].

There’s a little story behind “Singing Monkey” – something about a smashed-up guitar. Can you tell me a bit more about that?Rian: A mate of ours was on some film set and one of the props was some cheap-ass Fender Strat copy. One of the things they had to do with it was to smash a guitar while filming, but whoever did it didn’t do it properly – it was still working. It had one of the tune knobs missing and that string had to be on a certain pitch so I tuned the rest of it so that it would fit in with that string and it ended up being an open tuning so you could strum it easily. I think [Jason] Ling and Louis had left one night after rehearsal and George and I were still hanging around. He was jamming this little lick on the thing and I saw what he was doing and took that and he started singing over it and that’s how it came about.

New video: PHFAT | House of Clashes

Electronic rap trio PHFAT will be dropping their new album Happiness Machines in five days. Today they released the first single off the album, "House of Clashes" and in true PHFAT style, they've made the track available to download for free.

Download "House of Clashes" below: 
 
Watch the "House of Clashes" music video below:



PHFAT are also embarking on their Happiness Machines album launch tour at the end of this month too.

26 July Cape Town | The Assembly | With Felix Leband, Seafood, Mr Sakitumi, Hyphen & Button  Bashers

27 July Pretoria | Arcade Empire | With Felix Leband, Fuzigish, Hawkword, Michael Lesar, King   Rat, David and Goliath, Tympa, Destrukto, DJ Mammi Watta

Hard copies of the album will be on sale for R170 on the night if you are feeling generous. It comes with a 16-page booklet designed by Jason De Villiers. Otherwise, you can download the album for free. Easy as that. 

Shortstraw: Good morning, success

This interview was originally published in Perdeby on 20 May 2013.

                                                                                                                                               PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

Just over a year ago, quirky indie-kwela quipsters Shortstraw were the little-known band that was playing the opening slot on a bill, only really known for their spoof song that pays a hilarious homage to actor Keanu Reeves and for dropping the deplorable f-bomb in the chorus of “LYSAGFY”.

Fast-forward a bit and the picture looks quite different. First they nabbed the coveted award for best indie band at this year’s MK Awards after going head to head with local genre heavyweights like The Plastics and Ashtray Electric. Then they opened for Brighton rockers The Kooks, a night that turned out to be an icy battle of the elements under a bridge in downtown Jo’burg, easily the perfect setting to mark this pinnacle in their careers.

Most recently, and perhaps most importantly, Shortstraw have released their follow-up album, Good Morning, Sunshine. Not unlike their debut album, You’re Underfed, I’m Wonderful, it presents a collection of boogie-inducing beats that make any crowd jive joyously as they sing along to the bodacious hooks and choruses.

What they have done differently is up the afro-influence ante by making the distinctive skiffle-like beat that characterises kwela music prominent throughout the album. 

   

“We’ve made a concerted effort to take an influence for this new one, which was the kind of afro vibe, and that strung together some of the songs that weren’t necessarily influenced by that,” says frontman Alastair Thomas.

Good Morning, Sunshine was written collaboratively by the whole band, a process lead guitarist Tom Revington also credits in giving the album its dance sensibility. “Songs would start and finish in the band room,” he explains.

“If all five of us are contributing to a song, there’s a good chance it’s going to be loud,” bassist Russel Grant adds.

 By December last year, Shortstraw had about half the tracks for their second offering. To write the remainder, they went to Verkykerskop in the Free State, which allowed them the time to focus solely on making music. 

“It was about getting out of Johannesburg, which I think was very important because otherwise we would have been quite distracted,” says Russel of the reasons behind their platteland getaway.

                                                                                                                                                 PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

                                                                                                                                                 PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

“We would have been together [on tour] regardless, but it was nice to be in a creative space with creative people,” says Alastair.

But did the Shortstraw boys feel pressure to get the writing of the album done in a mere week? 

“We knew we wanted to organise this whole tour and have the album ready, so we kind of worked backwards from that deadline,” says synth and keyboard player Gad de Combes. Without that pressure, he says, it all came easily.

There was a great moment during that week in Verkykerskop, says Tom, when the band was narrowing down the tracks for the album. 

“I remember looking at the list and thinking, we’ve got a good selection. It’s not like we’re struggling to fill up an album. We’re struggling to choose which ones to put in, which is cool. It’s a good space to be in,” he explains.

For Russel, the great moment was during the week that Good Morning, Sunshine had to be ready and everyone in the band was ecstatic with the final product.

 “I think if we had problems, we would’ve delayed things and really made a point to change it, but it just worked out that we were all happy at the right time,” he says.

While Good Morning, Sunshine still offers the witty lyrics that characterise Shortstraw’s sound, some of the tracks on the album suggest that the band has grown into a more mature sense of humour. 

“We’ve been writing songs for quite a while now. I think it’s just a natural progression,” says Alastair. 

“The more you do anything ...”

“... the more refined it gets,” says Russel, completing his sentence.

Gad wants to clear something up. “Look, there are still things that make us laugh on the new album...”

“But it’s not as much toilet humour,” says Alastair, his bandmates laughing.

Another thing they all agree on is that the process of creating their second album has brought Shortstraw closer together something evident as they complete each other’s sentences.

 “I spend more time with these guys than I do with anyone else,” explains Alastair.

Says Russel: “I spend three, four times a week with them when I’m not working, so these dudes become your ...”

“... bros,” says Alastair.

“Your besties,” agrees Russel, provoking yet another explosion of laughter.

Read my review of Shortstraw's album, Good Morning Sunshine, 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. 

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.  

Woodstock Mafia embark on Born Wild Tour

Cape Town's Woodstock Mafia attempted a tour up north at the end of last year but if there ever was a band that had a bout of bad luck, it's these chaps. First their single, "Rebel Dreams" was leaked before its official release date and then they got stranded in Cape Town thanks to 1time (remember that debacle?).

Fear not, fans, because the band are embarking on their Born Wild Tour this week. Below are the tour dates.

You're welcome.

Thursday 28 March:
SPLASHY FEN, KZN
22:00 - Grant Erskine Main Stage
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/157101244449431/

Friday 29 March:
THE BOHEMIAN, JOBURG
with Shadowclub
9pm, R50
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/132220146957956/

Saturday 30 March:
ARCADE EMPIRE,  PRETORIA
with Dave van Vuuren and Jet Black Camaro
9pm, R40
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/550306678336662

Friday 5 April
MERCURY LIVE, CAPE TOWN
with Goodnight Wembley! and Man as Machine (JHB)
9pm, R40
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/events/160835410735751/

Listen to "Rebel Dreams" below: 

Ashtray Electric: an exercise in WTF

This interview was originally published in Perdeby on 11 March 2013.  

 ***

                                                                                                                                           PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

“Somebody tweeted the other day that they’re glad to see we’re out of our hiatus. It’s like, what f**king hiatus are you talking about? I don’t know where you’ve been, but we’ve been playing,” vents Ashtray Electric guitarist Rudi Cronje, clearly irked.

Not only have they been playing, but Ashtray Electric have recently released new material too and, true to their moniker as indie rock mavericks, they opted for an unorthodox approach to the whole process.

Truth is, Ashtray Electric have since their inception spat in the face of the mainstream music industry and given commercialism an abrasive middle finger before walking out the door to do their own thing.

The band decided to produce, record, engineer and mix their fourth offering themselves. The result? WTF, a tantalising five-track EP that still totters between being angsty and alluring, while making way for a far more gritty, experimental sound.

“This time around, we didn’t allow ourselves to dig so deep into the actual process. It was always an exercise in spontaneity. There wasn’t too much time to think about stuff and we sort of sat back and saw what would come out of it,” says bassist Reggie Nel.

                                                                                                                                         PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

Rudi agrees: “Maybe there’s a lot to be said for not thinking about it too much and four guys getting together to make music. Literally, that’s what it is – four guys getting together and making tunes.”

“I think we were just keen to throw something out there with a bit of attitude and just say, ‘Well, we’re still around. We’re still writing the songs that we want to write,’” adds frontman and guitarist Andre Pienaar.

Unusually, WTF was given away for free. Fans could sign up for the EP, which meant that once it was released, they got it in their inbox as a digital gift.

“Because it’s digital, your response is a lot quicker, instead of waiting for it to be distributed, stocked in the shops and then for people to buy it and put it in their car and listen,” says Rudi of the benefits of giving WTF away online.

Andre says that doing things the way they did meant that there was no pressure on the release because the band didn’t have to be concerned about selling enough albums to cover things like studio costs. “It’s out there. If people like it, cool. If people hate it then … ”

“ … who gives a f**k?” says Rudi, finishing Andre’s sentence.

One thing that hasn’t changed though, is the way Andre pours out sexy yet afflicted lyrics over a microphone. “I’ve always said that writing is a lot cheaper than going to a psychologist,” he says.
“Unless there’s a piece of me inside of it, I don’t want to create it. There’s zero point.”

                                                                                                                                                PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

If there was ever a song which reflected this, it’s “Looper”, which is almost like a piece of performance poetry, with Andre reciting the lyrics, allowing his natural stutter to take centre stage against a musical backdrop. It starts off with staccato-like drums that echo his erratic flow of speech.

“The rad thing about what we do is that you get to do scary stuff. Writing and recording it wasn’t too stressful because I recorded it in my room, but playing it – I mean, we’ve played it like, what, 12, 15 times and performing it is still f**king frightening. I won’t lie,” admits Andre.

“I remember after the first time we finished playing it, Andre said to the crowd, and he doesn’t really talk a lot on stage, he said, ‘Thank you. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.’ That was quite rad,” says Rudi, sympathising with his band mate. “I mean, it’s hard for the rest of us. We don’t understand how these things influence the people who write it and especially, like he said, that is a piece of someone else put into a piece of music. Even though it’s not you, you’re still a part of it.”

The conversation turns to the weight of creating an album. Is it perhaps a bit outdated and are EPs the way forward? “I think if you’re going to do a full-length album, you’re going to need a full body of work that you want to release,” muses Andre. “There should at least be some kind of line drawn through it that you, as the band, try and bring something, whether it’s a message or a sound or a theme. There has to be something about that album that makes it have a beginning and an end. EPs are nice when you don’t really know what you’re doing but you are just keen to f**k around a bit.
 When you’re really passionate about doing something f**king rad, you can do an album.”

                                                                                                                                                PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

Reggie adds that, “People are sort of going through singles really fast. It’s so easy to quickly buy a single online and enjoy it for like two, three weeks and move on to the next thing. I think there is a subculture that is forming and people like to just sift through music really fast, but there is still a lot of weight in an album.”


“It gives you a backbone, you know? I think all of us love putting an album on and listening to it and going on the whole journey that an album takes you on, because that’s why bands write it. That’s the reason that they put it together and it’s put together in a certain way and it portrays a certain time of your life,” says Rudi.

What journey does WTF take you on then? Well, that’s probably best described by Rudi’s parting words at the end of the interview: “See you later for some chaos.” And chaos it is, but of the most delightful, head-spinning, shoulder-grooving, foot-tapping kind.

Read my review of Ashtray Electric's EP, WTF, here.

“As long as we’re writing, there will be Fetish.”

 This interview was first published in Perdeby on 4 March 2013.

“Everything that ever involves Fetish always nearly falls apart,” says frontwoman Michelle Breeze, tilting her head back in nervous laughter. She’s talking about the band’s tour to promote Little Heart, their first album in ten years.

But fall apart it didn’t, and as Fetish finish the Pretoria leg of their tour at Arcade Empire, a fan comes backstage to proclaim his adoration for the band. He wants a photograph with them and a signed CD, of course.

“On the cover or on the disc?” asks guitarist Dominic Forrest.

“Wherever. Just sign it. Please,” he says emphatically, as if the question is frivolous. He’s probably been waiting for this moment for years, much like everyone else who worshipped Fetish at their peak in the 90s and who genuinely mourned when the band crumbled in 2002.

Before the internet democratised music, before Belville spawned artists like Fokofpolisiekar and before Jack Parow made kommin cool, there was another band with a cult-like following: Fetish.

The band burst onto the local music scene at the same time that alternative rock erupted in South Africa. There was a music revolution in the pop-dominated market and Fetish was at the forefront of it. They offered something different, a sound that was dark, edgy and contemplative.

Along with that came unmatched live performances with the gamine-like Breeze intoning the most undisguised lyrics. You would find yourself just standing at a Fetish gig and listening. Listening, and watching. No dancing. Breeze’s commanding presence wouldn’t allow it.

The band’s success snowballed after the release of Fetish in 1997, So Many Prophets in 1999 and the Shade of A Ghost EP in the same year. They opened for bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Lenny Kravitz, Goo Goo Dolls, Skunk Anansie and The Cure. It seemed as if they were destined to go far or, at least, as far as a local band can go, and that was exactly the problem.

Fed up with the tiny South African market that saw their music career plateau, Fetish decided to give the overseas one a go. Breeze and Forrest made London their home and, with band members scattered all around the world, that was the supposed end of Fetish.

Now, years later, after getting an offer from Cape Town’s Digital Forest Studio to record again, Fetish have made a much anticipated comeback. “We hadn’t written together in about five years, but it took on a life of its own, really. There was nothing forced about it, which was nice,” says Forrest about the band’s reunion.

All the tracks for Little Heart were written in London in the two-month period before the band started recording in Cape Town. The recording process was also quick, with the entire album taking just two weeks to record. This brought about a more stripped-down, gritty, guitar-driven sound that still sounds like Fetish, just minus the electronic sound that underpinned their sound in the 90s. “It’s rawer than the earlier ones because it was done in such a compressed space. You also get a bit more of a live feel to it. I know everyone says that,” says Forrest looking at Michelle and laughing, “but it’s true.”

That’s not the only thing that has evolved about Fetish’s music, though. Breeze’s songwriting has, inevitably, also taken a slightly different direction. “I think my perspective is more outward-looking instead of that much inward-looking. There’s more of a consideration of the world that is going on around me,” she says. And this shows, especially in “Paper Skies”, a collaboration with Shadowclub frontman Jacques Moolman about the London riots that Breeze experienced in her adopted hometown.

Johan Smith from Muse magazine once argued that Fetish were never able to reach their full songwriting and musical potential. He said that glimmers of their promise could be heard on 2006’s Remains, an album of unreleased songs and demos.

Do Fetish think that they have lived up to their potential? “I think it’s a continuous thing,” says Forrest. “We always think we can write newer, better songs. Every song we write just evolves naturally.” Breeze adds, “We’ve already been talking about the new album and how we’re going to approach it and we want to express different things this time and probably take the music direction slightly differently. You want to keep changing things, otherwise it becomes boring.”

Does that mean there’s a future for Fetish? “We definitely want to continue making music and I think the chemistry is really good for us as a band. That’s not really easy to find just anywhere,” says Breeze. “As long as we’re writing, there will be Fetish,” adds Forrest.

Perhaps the best way to understand Fetish’s journey is by listening to “Merry Go Round”, the second single off Little Heart. “Merry go round / merry go round / everything changes / pity we got off so soon,” sings Breeze in the song’s chorus.

Everything has changed, yes, but one thing that has undoubtedly remained the same is Fetish’s ability to create more than music. They create art and Little Heart is a perfect example of just that.

Watch Fetish covering Rihanna's "Diamonds" below. It's so much better than the original, you guys.


Fetish - Diamonds (Rihanna) from Ross Campbell on Vimeo.

Bittereinder- Die Dinkdansmasjien (Official video)

 Bittereinder at Arcade Empire                                                                                                   PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

Bittereinder's video for "Die Dinkdansmasjien" was released this morning. It's a wonderful live video, which kind of looks like it has an Instagram filter on it. Here's what the electronic rap trio had to say about it:

Bittereinder lovingly dedicate this video to TUKS FM 107.2, Pretoria's finest radio station, who made this song #1 in February 2013 before anybody else even had it on a chart. All 3 of us grew up listening to TUKS FM: respect to Elvis Hitler, The Preacher, Stav, Jaco Smit amongst many others. Pretoria in ons hart.

No, Bittereinder in ons hart.

Jet Black Camaro- Pass it on John (Official video)

Jet Black Camaro at Arcade Empire                                                                                          PHOTO: Christelle Duvenage

Jet Black Camaro have finally released another music video, and this time it's for "Pass it on John". It's a rather odd one that follows the day of car mechanics. Take a look!

 

Where to find Jet Black Camaro:
Twitter 
Facebook 
Reverbnation

Haezer ft. Tumi Molekane- Troublemaker (Official video)

Hundreds of sweaty electroheads crammed into Arcade Empire for the release of Haezer's 'Troublemaker' video on Friday night. Tumi Molekane lends his distinctive rhymes to the track, which tells the story of four badass kids from Khayelitsha with superpowers that they use to wreak havoc in the township. Good news is that the video was officially released today for everyone to see. Have a look, it really is impeccable.



Where to find Haezer: 
Twitter
Facebook

"Troublemaker" almost here

South Africa's electronic dance sensation, Haezer, is launching his debut music video for 'Troublemaker', a track off his EP, The Wrong Kid Died. The video is an afro-thriller set in Khayelitsha where four young children with destructive super powers wreak havoc on their town.
If the little teaser released a few days is anything to go by, it's sure to be a goodie.

'Troublemaker' will be released tomorrow night at Arcade Empire in Pretoria, and on Saturday night at Fiction Bar in Cape Town.

Watch the 'Troublemaker' teaser below:

Happy happy New Year

Civil Twilight at Arcade Empire's New Year's Eve party

Happy New Year, everybody! I trust you all rang in the new year appropriately. I had an amazing time at Arcade Empire's New Year's Eve Party. I'll do a proper post on it at a later stage, but I thought I would share my favourite photo from last night in the meantime. It was taken as Steven McKeller from Civil Twilight was walking off the stage after the band's performance. They were quite beautiful to watch, almost otherworldy. 

Also, in the spirit of the new year, I thought I would share a collection of Neil Gaiman's annual New Year's wishes. Enjoy!

***

It's a New Year and with it comes a fresh opportunity to shape our world. 

So this is my wish, a wish for me as much as it is a wish for you: in the world to come, let us be brave – let us walk into the dark without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces, even if we're faking them. 

And whatever happens to us, whatever we make, whatever we learn, let us take joy in it. We can find joy in the world if it's joy we're looking for, we can take joy in the act of creation. 

So that is my wish for you, and for me. Bravery and joy.

A decade ago, I wrote:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

And almost half a decade ago I said,

...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

(Found here.)