Here’s the final installment of my talk with machineri’s Sannie Fox and Andre Geldenhuys. You can read part I here and part II here. Here we discuss some of the music they’re enjoying at the moment, the state of South African radio, and the impact that the Internet might have for independent artists who are not getting aired through the traditional channels. Enjoy.
….
Craig Ritchie: “How has your music been received over here so far?”
Sannie Fox: “I’ve been in two other bands here and it’s really difficult to do alternative music in South Africa. There’s basically no radio stations where you can get this kind of stuff played.”
Andre Geldenhuys: “The Sony/BMG guys saw our videos the other day and sounded interested. It’s nice just to get some recognition in your own country.
SF: “I think maybe they don’t know what to do with machineri in this country, though. I mean, where does it go, where do you put it?”
CR: “Do you reckon getting your music out over the Internet or just by word of mouth isn’t actually going to help more? There are so many good bands out there that no one’s really heard of but people are sort of sharing their music online and getting discovered that way. You’re not hearing these bands on the radio. I mean, I don’t really listen to the radio at all anymore.”
AG: “I think there are a lot of people out there that feel that way – that no one really does anything about these bands and… who does listen to the radio?”
SF: “People actually do. Some people listen all the time and I don’t know how they can. I think about eight years ago I stopped listening to the radio.”
CR: “Another thing I want to do with each interview is ask whoever it is to recommend some music that they’re into. Maybe you could each just recommend one album you’ve been listening that you really feel other people should give a try?”
AG: “I would say Ataxia. It’s the side project of the guitarist from the Chili Peppers, John Frusciante, playing with the bassist from a band called Fugazi and another drumming kid. That’s amazing music. What would you say?”
SF: “I dunno man, it’s really hard to think of one, but at the moment I’ve really been enjoying Hot Chocolate. You know, I Believe In Miracles… I’ve been listening to their album and it’s just this disco funk soul blues, and I think it’s fucken cool. I think I’ve just been listening to their Greatest Hits album. But other than that, I’d say Josh Grierson.”
CR: “You reckon he’s doing some really good stuff at the moment?”
AG: “He’s like Ryan Adams… his voice is amazing, and his song writing is almost sort like country, but with his voice it just goes on to another level. Like Sannie’s voice, it’s amazing.”
CR: “Have you had training, or have you just sung for a while?”
SF: “I think I’ve just been singing for a really long time. I mean, I think since I was five I was already loving music. I loved dancing and I think I’ve just had music in me since I was very young. I started my first band when I was nineteen and that’s when I started singing as a vocalist. That band was Black Betty. It was a three piece folk band and I played acoustic guitar for rhythm. There was an electric guitar for lead and another girl on violins and backing vocals. That was awesome, real folk/Celtic stuff. Then we added drums and I picked up an electric guitar and we became Mama Know Nothing.”
CR: “You’ve spoken a lot about authenticity – your drive to have authenticity play a large role in your music. Do you think that’s something that’s common to a lot of people in the time we’re in now, in these big cities – you know, the significance of trying to find something real, something genuine?”
SF: “Well, you just look at the radio. It’s just trickery and bullshit. They keep putting out this bullshit that means fucking nothing. The music is not even using instruments any more, and they’re using this vocoder all the time, it’s fucking bullshit.”
AG: “You get a mic that, say you’re singing out of key and you’re meant to be singing in the key of C, it pitches your voice to the key of C so you can’t hit an off note.”
SF: “I think there’s still some really good music out there. There’s all these great bands out there but the music world has gone to shit. The bands that they let through and actually want the public to be listening to now… it’s so fake and shallow.”
AG: “It comes down teenagers.”
SF: “No, it comes down to money and consumerism.”
AG: “Ja, but they’re the teenagers – these are the songs they like. They go to a party and these are the songs they hear.”
SF: “It’s just that there’s no long lasting music that’s getting punted anymore. You used to hear John Lee Hooker on the radio, you used to hear Jimi Hendrix on the radio.”
CR: “Ja, it’s sort of interesting what you say there. I mean, of the last decade or so, where’s that superband, where’s that sound that’s going to define the last ten years…”
SF: “The nineties were the last of the good stuff, I think,’
AG: “For sure, but I think people also say that every generation. There’ll always be that.”
CR: “But don’t you think that with, say, the sixties and the seventies… that time was very alive with their music and what was popular music then is still what’s so classic now. I think what’s popular now is going to fade away very quickly.”
AG: “Ja, definitely, definitely.”
SF: “I think there’s going to be a resurgence some time soon though.”
CR: “Don’t you think the Internet is going to change this by opening up the channels of how music gets out there? I mean, I really think that it’s changing the existing power dynamics of those who get to determine what people listen to. This sort of viral way that, you know, I’ll tell people on my blog and they’ll maybe tell some people who then share the music with even more.”
AG: “Well ja, bands like the Black Keys – you’d never imagine them to be a band that becomes successful these days, but thanks to the Internet and how much they actually play, they do very well. And that’s also that very authentic blues. I think it’s just a matter of putting a band like that on stage – if people were to see it they’d enjoy it.”
SF: “But it’s actually just getting the bands out there in the first place. There’s so much room for generic music but there’s no one out there that’s actually trying to find something that doesn’t sound like everything else. There aren’t enough people pushing the bands and music that have got… an X-factor, a difference.”
CR: “Well maybe with the technologies we have now and how everyone is connected to the Internet all the time these days, maybe there’s place for an Internet-based radio station in South Africa that can stream these alternative bands’ music.”
SF: “I’ve been wanting to look into going to radio stations and find out about this, but apparently there’s no slot whatsoever for alternative music on South African radio. There’s just no place for local alternative bands, and how the fuck does that work?”
AG: “It’s all about the money, hey, and I think it’s government funded too.”
SF: “Ja but how much money are you going to lose by playing one hour of alternative music? It’s a bit immoral actually, in a country like this that has so many people producing alternative music but no one is providing any platform or foundation for it. I mean, what are we supposed to do to get our name out there. What example is there for us to follow? I mean, the Sprinbok Nude Girls… that’s what I’m saying, that was still the nineties -”
AG: “That was still the nineties and grunge was still king.”
SF: “Grunge is still king if you ask me.”
CR: “It just seems to me that the kind of people who would like that hour or two of alternative stuff have probably veered away from the radio completely now.”
AG: “Exactly.”
SF: “Ja, I certainly am not listening to the radio. I mean, it’s a bit of a catch-22. It’s really good in one sense that you no longer have to go to a record label to get all this money to be able to get your music out there. Now, with the Internet there’s this incredible window of opportunity where musicians can, for relatively cheap and in a short amount of time, make their own videos, record their own songs and sort of publish it themselves. Then on the other hand there’s the catch-22 because it’s an information overload – how do you get your stuff heard when there’s so many people doing this now.”
AG: “Look, I still believe that if you really are good enough and you put the effort in and believe in it, you’re going to make it. There’s so many bands that try and have a quick hit, don’t always play their best stuff but they still get away with it. I think that at the end of the day the best will always come on top for sure.”
SF: “It’s exciting times because it’s new for musicians to have this technology which empowers their stuff and opens up new avenues to get their music out. I feel… I feel like we do have the goods, we just need to get it out there.”
—
That concludes my talk with Sannie and Andre, thanks for taking the time to read this. machineri are playing tonight at the Purple Turtle on Long Street – check them out!
