Bittereinder: die masjien wil dans

I chatted to Bittereinder about their new album, Die Dinkdansmasjien, at the launch of Party At. Published in Perdebyon 18 February 2013. 

Jaco van der Merwe at Hatfield Square                                                                      PHOTO: Hendro van der Merwe

“Ek rap vir die eer van eerlik wees, elke lyn soos die pyn van `n geweer teen jou neus / ek weet dis als te hectic, maar ek skryf wat ek sien, Bittereinder vat jou orals soos `n dink-en-dans masjien,” says Bittereinder’s Jaco van der Merwe as he spits out the lyrics of “Die Dinkdansmasjien” to a sea of smitten gangster arms in Hatfield Square.

It was the launch of PartyAt, a new mobile application that shows you where all the events and specials are happening in your area. It was also the start of RAG weekend and the audience, which consisted mostly of cherub-faced first years, was being schooled in fat beats and thought-provoking lyrics.

It’s exactly what the Afrikaans hip-hop trio hope to do with their second offering, Die Dinkdansmasjien: make you ponder their expressive lyrics and have a good time while doing so.

“Instead of it being very intellectual, conscious rap, [some] people can come to the show to party and not get into the lyrics, and other people can get into it. It offers both without detracting from the other,” says Peach van Pletzen, one half of Bittereinder’s beat-making part of the machine.

This idea of the multi-faceted machine has taken on a presence of its own, almost as if it is the invisible fourth member of the band which has steered Bittereinder’s sound into a slightly darker, more menacing direction.

“There’s this machine presence, which kind of has a deep voice and I think that was kind of a running theme for a lot of the stuff we did. A lot of the stuff is kind of hard, gritty and industrial, and a lot of it is also quite fast,” says Louis Minnaar, the other cog that drives the beat-making piece of the machine and the man responsible for all the band’s visual elements.

“I just think it often makes for us, as producers, more sense to make a texture for lyrics that are slightly darker as opposed to quirky. We did the quirky, happy thing with `n Ware Verhaal and I think now we’re looking for something more dramatic,” says Van Pletzen.

Like `n Ware Verhaal, Die Dinkdansmasjien boasts a number of collaborations with music-industry heavyweights. “Jaco always says that part of hip hop is collaboration. He loves collaborating with people who are not particularly in the hip-hop genre,” says van Pletzen.

Cue Shane Durrant, the charismatic front man of indie band Desmond & The Tutus, the man whose loony stage antics have been described as “what Mick Jagger would be capable of had he grown up listening to kwela,” and probably the least obvious person to appear on an Afrikaans rap track.

But rap he does, under the alias of Kwaad Naas, the man who skops the track dood as he explains, “I grew up in the Moot, but my Afrikaans is limited to net `n paar woorde.” The song “Kwaad Naas”, which is about how Afrikaans and English people both slaughter each other’s languages, has become Bittereinder’s cross-over song of sorts into the English market, explains Minnaar.

Van Pletzen agrees: “It wasn’t the plan, but it’s important for English people to just take note. What they do with it is up to them. A lot of them are now listening to the album and some of them are getting into it and some aren’t, but at least they’ll give it a try.”

Another striking collaboration is an almost eight-minute-long track which features eight well-known South African writers’ thoughts on a particular subject. The impressive list consists of The Buckfever Underground’s Toast Coetzee, Hunter Kennedy, Ilze Ontong, MJ du Preez, Andries Bezuidenhout, Mavis Vermaak and Tom Gouws.

Were the Bittereinder boys worried about the risk involved in making a track so different to anything they, and anyone else really, has ever done before? “If you make an entire album of three-and-a-half-minute singles and hits, three, four months later, there’s nothing to hold onto. I felt ‘Regstreeks’ gave the album a certain depth and that’s very important,” explains van Pletzen.

One thing that certainly hasn’t changed is Bittereinder’s ability to put on an unmatched live performance (they have been nominated for Best Live Act at this year’s MK Awards). How can Bittereinder convince their fans to vote for them? “We’ll come to every little town and play a personal thank-you show, whether it’s to 30 people or 300 or 3 000,” says Van Pletzen with a smile.

Now if that’s not motivation, what is?

The Plastics: graduating with a bigger sound

This is the last interview that I did for Perdeby. Yes, I have decided that it's time to move on to my next adventure. The days leading up to the interview had me desperately wishing that The Plastics weren't going to be douchebags. Squeezing answers out of them would have been the worst way to say goodbye to what has been an incredible year. Thankfully, they were awesome. Better than what I hoped for. 

So, here it is, my final interview. 

The lights have switched off and the curtains have closed. 

For now. 

 For Pyramid's album art design, The Plastics got 15 creative minds together to paint/draw/design a piece of art based on a song on the album.  This was all done in a single day and was sponsored by Art Jamming in Cape Quarter, Sea Point. Below are some of the artworks. 

*** 

When Cape Town’s quirky retro indie rock and rollers, The Plastics, decided to call their second full length album Pyramid, they weren’t quite sure why. 

“What’s in a name, really?” asks bassist Karl Rohloff, quoting Shakespeare. “I guess afterwards you do think of ways in which it can work,” he says.

While the quartet initially liked the symbology behind the ancient mysterious structures, they later thought of it as a good way to describe their music. “Our band kind of has three sides to it. Rock, then we’ve got the more melodic, softer stuff, and then we’ve got the part where we experiment and play around, the indie stuff,” explains drummer Sasha Righini.

Either way, they are wholly content with not having a clear-cut answer. “Pyramids, themselves, are completely unexplained. Us not being able to explain the name is fitting,” says lead singer Pascal Righini laughing.  

Best Pretenders by Roann Louw

Underwater Kite by Baden Moir

The Plastics’ vague, laid back approach to the name of their latest offering may seem slightly ironic but they are really far more focused on the actual music, something that’s evident as they sit down with Perdeby to chat about Pyramid before getting on stage to launch the album at Arcade Empire.

Pyramid was recorded in two parts at Dreamspace Recording Studios. Four songs were recorded at various stages in 2011, while 2012 saw The Plastics going back into studio to record the rest of it. Over the last two years, the band ended up writing over 30 songs for the album. They intended on writing a surplus of songs so that they could be brutal at the end and scrap anything they didn’t think was good enough to make the cut, with the long gap in between giving them the time to do this. “I think because it took such a long time, it gives the album a bit more depth. We had a lot more time to actually think about it. Going in for three weeks and tracking it all and getting it all done, it has that sound of three weeks of our lives as opposed to the sound of two years of our lives,” says Sasha.

Another advantage of having the luxury of time is that the band got to ease into working with producer Shai Hirchson, whom they have never worked with before. “I think we figured out our dynamic with him better by the time we went back to it, so we felt the relationship was a bit stronger,” says Pascal. 

Underwater Kite by Cassandra Leigh Johnson

Hallway of Mirrors by Lauren Waller

 On The Plastics debut album, Sharks, the sentimental love song “Caroline” was one of the slower, ballad-like tunes on the album. With Pyramid, they are careful not to veer in that direction, choosing instead to stick to their concoction of “dancepopfun”.

“Personally, I wish that ballad music was bigger but I don’t think people are that into it. I love soppy, old, super-slow songs and as a singer, there’s something very inviting about putting a performance together like that, but it’s not something that’s worked for us. Our sound is more modern than that,” says Pascal.

They have, instead, used Pyramid to explore more psychedelic influences, courtesy of the use of different effects pedals. Self-proclaimed devotees of The Beatles, The Plastics say that they like the way in which the iconic band used the studio as an instrument to make music that sounded different. “Music is one of the few art forms that you can conjure up feelings in people. It’s the interesting thing about how you can use the studio to change the mood of things so dramatically. We tried to use that as best as possible,” says Pascal. “The psychedelic influence is just trying to be experimental because you want to keep it fresh for yourself as a band as well,” adds Karl. 

Girl, You're Nothing Like A Woman by Hanno Van Zyl

Sooner Than Later by Jade Doreen Waller

The album also sees The Plastics’ first attempt at an ambitious 10-minute long song, “Mud and Money”. The song came about after cleverly putting together what the band came up with after numerous lengthy jam sessions. “Recording it was the biggest challenge but when we wrote it, it actually came together quite quickly,” says Karl. How difficult was it to record a song of this nature? “Different time signatures and tempo changes was a big thing because you’ve got maybe five different tempos in the song and we wanted to jam as much of it to the click track as possible but we didn’t know how long each part was going to be because we were still working it all out in the studio, so Sasha had the tough job of drumming to 10 different tempos,” says Pascal, looking at nodding Sasha whose half-smile invites commiseration.

Does the band consider the song their magnum opus? “Not at all. We’re very proud of it and we love it but I think from doing it, we’re excited to try and do another one or two, or even longer songs,” says Pascal quickly, making sure to clarify his point. “My dad is into long songs and I was really excited to show him and when I asked him what he thought, he said, ‘Ja, not a bad first attempt’, says Karl to an explosion of laughter from the other band members.   

Mud and Money by Inka Kendzia

Out of This Town by Swain Hoogervorst

  

Earlier this year, the MK Music Video Project announced that The Plastics were one of 12 artists who will get the chance to make a music video commissioned by MK. With a penchant for videos based on school hall dance-a-ramas showing gawky teens busting even gawkier dance moves, it will be interesting to see what the band has to offer.

“We can tell you that we are not really in it, and its got animation in it, and it’s going to be rad,” says Sasha.

“We haven’t found another school hall,” says Karl.

“No, we’ve graduated. Prom is over,” adds Pascal.

You get the sense that, with the release of Pyramid, the band has done just that. They still sound like The Plastics, but with their more mature, layered sound, they have graduated into a class of their own. 

Rat by Lorraine Loots

Rat by Peter Crafford

Stereo Kids by Gary Cool

Who's the fairest of them all?

Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart recently graced the cover of Interview Magazine. Say what you like about Snow White and The Huntsman, but these photos are beautiful. 

Interview: The Graeme Watkins Project

Here's the interview I did with The Graeme Watkins Project a few weeks ago. Remember to click on the image to enlarge it. 

Enjoy!

Open publication - Free publishing - More da march

Dan, The Man

Guitar genius Dan Patlansky played at Arcade Empire on Friday night. His performance was ridiculously good. I have honestly never seen anything like it. I watched him with my mouth agape for most of the show. I'm not going to say too much more about it because I did an interview with him for Perdeby which you can catch along with the album review I did on 23 April. Until then, just know that it was mind-blowing. If you missed out, I have only one thing to say to you. Shame.