Category: Music

éVoid come out of the shadows

Post author By Nils van der Linden
Post date October 25, 2014
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The last time éVoid had done a full South African tour, PW Botha was president. The brothers Erik and Lucien Windrich were 20-somethings with a thing for beads and face paint. And their politically charged, African-flavoured ethnotronic songs were considered subversive enough to warrant police attention – and popular enough for jumping fans to cave in the floor of Stellenbosch Town Hall.

That was 30 years ago – an eternity in the music scene. So the siblings were understandably a little worried about doing it all over again to celebrate their self-titled debut album’s anniversary. No need: all 10 of their August homecoming shows were sell-out successes.

Tags éVoid, erik windrich, interview, lucien windrich

Interviews Music

ProVerb: his time has come

Post author By Nils van der Linden
Post date October 24, 2013
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Family first. A simple philosophy, sure, but one that makes perfects sense if your professional life’s as packed as ProVerb’s, the rapper/’Idols SA’ host and co-producer/TV presenter/voice over artist/radio DJ/master of ceremonies/amateur cap collector.

“I have no problem turning down a job completely because I need to be with my family. I think you have to be able to draw that line – it’s impossible to balance the two equally,” says Ona’s husband and Ditshupo and Kgosietsile’s dad.

Tags all access, idols, proverb, Tebogo Thekisho

Interviews Music

Candice Heyns: turning the tables

Post author By Nils van der Linden
Post date April 18, 2013
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Candice Heyns is hooked on music.

‘When I search for music on the net, I’m like an addict – I can literally sit for hours,’ she laughs. ‘I’m constantly looking for new artists and new sounds.’ It’s not surprising, then, that Candice has forged a career in the music industry, first working behind the scenes in promotion and management before she launched her career as a solo DJ, one half of electronic duo Blush n Bass, a radio and TV presenter, and a budding businesswoman.

Tags blush n bass, candice heyns

Interviews Music

Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse: drumming up applause

Post author By Nils van der Linden
Post date April 9, 2012
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‘You never stop learning,’ says Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse, a few days after his 60th birthday. ‘You learn from the past, the present and the future, which keeps your mind evolving and helps you discover a new person in yourself.’

He should know. His insatiable curiosity is behind a music career that, over the course of five decades, has seen him be a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, industry commentator, arts and culture advocate, jazz club owner, 46664 ambassador and even Eighties pop pin-up (complete with prerequisite Afro and black leather garb).

Tags burnout, equinox, hotstix, jazz, sipho hotstix mabuse, southern sun

Interviews Music

Nik Kershaw revives the ’80s

Post author By Nils van der Linden
Post date February 25, 2012
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Can’t tell Nik Kershaw and Howard Jones apart?

Don’t worry — nor can Kershaw’s infant son.

The affable singer chuckles as he tells the story: “I’ve got the CD of the 25th anniversary gig Howard did because I played on it. The front cover is a picture of Howard, and my son pointed at it and said: ‘daddy’.”

Tags chesney hawkes, nik kershaw, rewind festival, the one and only, the riddle, wouldnt it be good

Interviews Music

Howard Jones is still standing

Post author By Nils van der Linden
Post date February 24, 2012
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He may have lost the big hair, but Howard Jones has lost none of his passion for music.

“I still really love to play live and I’m touring constantly,” he says on the phone from England. “As long as I can get up on stage, I’ll be doing it,” he laughs.

“It really is good for me because I have this heritage of hit songs that people know and it’s such a pleasure then to play them for people so they can join in, sing along, and recall a part of their life with the songs.”

Tags Howard Jones, new song, rewind festival, things can only get better, what is love

Interviews Music

Watershed are laying new tracks

Post author By Nils van der Linden
Post date February 2, 2012
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Watershed have spent the past two months touring South Africa. Some would call that a slog. They call it laying down new tracks.

“What we wanted to do with this tour was go out on the road and just go back to that thing that got us into the industry, why we do this. And it’s because we love singing, we love playing music, and we love touring,” explains the group’s frontman Craig Hinds.

Tags Craig Hinds, Interviews, music, new-music, rock, Watershed

Interviews Music

Johnny Clegg: great spirit, great heart

Post author By Nils van der Linden
Post date January 9, 2012
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Elephants march in unison. Giraffes gallop across the plains. A hippo yawns. A lion sleeps. And intercut between the music video’s stock wildlife footage, a brighteyed and curly-haired young white man with an acoustic guitar performs traditional Zulu dances, shows off his stick-fighting skills and sings of his search for the spirit of the great heart.

“There’s a highway of stars across the heavens / The whispering song of the wind in the grass / There’s the rolling thunder across the savannah / A hope and dream at the edge of the sky / And your life is a story like the wind / Your life is a story like the wind.”

Tags impi, johnny clegg, scatterlings of africa, spirit of the great heart

Interviews Music

Shadowclub step into the light

Post author By Nils van der Linden
Post date January 4, 2012
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From recording and launching their fiery debut album ‘Guns And Money’ to supporting Kings Of Leon on their South African tour, 2011 was a busy year for blues-rock trio Shadowclub. And they couldn’t be happier.

“It’s feeling amazing,” admits frontman Jacques Moolman backstage at Synergy Live in late November. “We’re working really really hard and we’re riding the wave that came when we signed our record deal at the beginning of the year.