Feature Interview

State Society: A Like-Minded Band Of Brothers

I phoned Mike Pocock, the bassist for Gauteng-based rock band State Society, in the middle of one of the hardest weeks I’ve had in a long time. Within three minutes of chatting to him about Highveld thunderstorms and dancing in the rain, I’d forgotten about all the shit I was facing and eased into chatting to someone who I can really only describe as, one of the nicest guys working in our music industry.

As our conversation ventured into State Society’s recent and future endeavours, I quickly realised that the band was too compassionate, more concerned with spreading positivity and joy, than achieving a large degree of fame and success. As of late, pride and egotistical behaviour has become commonplace within certain musical sectors, so finding a group of people who champion humility is encouraging and a relief from said conceited self-importance. Their sincerity is heartfelt and it’s easy to see this through the type of music they made and where they choose to perform.

Their new album, set for release at the end of October and recorded at Anti Motion Studios in with Dave Grevler, is titled “Tall Tales and Fiction”. “The album is going to comprise of 14 tracks, which includes our cover of ‘Lonely Boy’ by the Black Keys. We love that song so much that we kind of just wanted to make it our own, so it’s a lot slower and a lot heavier than the original,” Pocock explains.

The album will be harder than their first but will still maintain that commercial appeal, as Pocock explains, “It’s not as bubblegum as the first album. It was more of a collective writing process between all the members whereas the first album was just kind of Cliff [vox and guitar] and Petri [drums]. It’s got a more progressive feel to it, and is a more mature album.”

The subject matter is all positive, or at least has a positive spin or conclusion to it. “There’s so much negativity in this world, that we don’t want to focus on that,” he explains. “It’s very introspective. Friends, family, life and love – that’s what it’s about.” The first single off the album ‘We Are’ is a primary example of this. The song captures each band members’ passion to make and spread positive music, doing what they love, whilst still having to work the 9 to 5 grind as so many musos do. But the overall feel is one of gratitude and honour to get to do what they love.

One of their upcoming shows is called “De-Stabilize”, in collaboration with Hoërskool Wonderboom Dansakademie, and will be staged at the Barnyard Theatre in Parkview in Pretoria. It’s unlike anything a South African band has done before. “It’s the first time we’ve done anything like this. We teamed up with Wonderboom Dance Academy and basically the team of dancers choreographed dances to our music, with a couple of other crowd favourites like ‘Mr Brightside’ by The Killers, and we’re even doing ‘Larger Than Life’ by The Backstreet Boys,” he admits, laughing. They’re all about creating different shows and experiences for fans, and furthering the art scene in the process.

To further their philanthropic status, they’re playing an event called “Rocking for Paws” at Rumours on the 10th of October which is geared towards raising funds for animals. “We’re huge animal lovers,” Pocock explains, “Whenever we can help out with any cause we believe in we definitely will. If we don’t support charity who will, you know? And we understand that not everyone always has cash to donate, but we can donate our time.”

At the end of the day, for State Society, it all boils down to their love for music and the power it has to change situations. “The dream for us is just to write music that touches people’s lives, that gets played on the radio stations and when people know the music, for it to impact their lives. Whether they listen to a whole album or one song, if they can know the name ‘State Society’ and like the songs then yeah, mission accomplished,” he beams.

It’s refreshing to hear an outlook that’s all at once charitable, innovative and supportive of the local arts scene. Countering an industry plagued by more egotistical figureheads than necessary is challenging to say the least, so I have immense respect for State Society’s endeavours and their humility and passion which speaks volumes.

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State Society