Converse positions its global Rubber Tracks competition as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity offering emerging artists the opportunity to: record at awesome studios; work with world-renowned producers and sound engineers; and gain access to industry-leading technology.
Fresh from the newly-developed studio in Boston, Massachusetts, I ask one of the inaugural Rubber Tracks winners, Cape Town-based Diamond Thug, to vouch for the initiative’s success in delivering on those objectives.
“It was like a candyland for musicians,” says guitarist and backing vocalist, Adrian Culhane.
“I was unbelievably impressed,” confirms Danilo Queiros, Diamond Thug’s bassist and producer. “They’ve got a Neve desk, which is easily one of the best desks in the whole world. The sound is unbelievable. Every piece of equipment there… at some point they said ‘oh hey, do you wanna play this 1976 Precision Bass?’ I’m like: ‘Ja, okay, I’ll play that. It’s only worth about 10 times the amount my guitar’s worth.’
“And you owe them nothing at the end of the day. They have no rights to any of your music, they literally send you out of there with your songs and you can do whatever you want with them. We can’t even describe the experience, really. I would recommend any band enter these kinds of competitions. There’s not a single thing I regret.”
“Well, I lost my phone in an Uber,” admits Ted Buxton, Diamond Thug’s drummer and newest addition to the band. “That was bleak.” Ted’s endearing absentmindedness aside, it sounds like Converse Rubber Tracks is everything it promises to be and more – something we’ll hear for ourselves when Diamond’s Thug’s first EP is released in late January (“maybe early Feb”) next year.
“We’ve got the two singles we recorded in Boston,” Danilo begins, “which’ll be treated as single releases, but they’ll also go onto the EP – along with a few of our older releases, the live version of Slow Down, and the two new tracks we’re going into Digital Forest Studios to work on with producer Darryl Torr.” (Who, by the way, was 2014’s SAMA Award Winner of Best Producer of the Year for his work on Gangs of Ballet’s “Yes/No/Grey”.)
Observing their set in the Erdmann Contemporary Gallery above Blah Blah Bar later that night, it’s clear Diamond Thug’s come a long way in the two years since they started out as a duo of Danilo and Chantel van T on lead vocals and keys.
“It’s been an interesting process,” says Danilo. “Things used to be very electronic, and then Adrian joined and we started going a little bit more ‘live’. But we didn’t have proper drums, so it always felt a bit weird.”
“And then Ted joined about 8 months ago, and now this whole sound is new,” explains Chantel. “In terms of what our later songs are sounding like, they’re quite different to our previous releases. Definitely more professional. Most of our old releases have been bedroom recordings.”
Friday night’s gig didn’t pull in crowd numbers worthy of the performance we witnessed. Nonetheless, those who did make it out were moved enough to demand an encore after hearing the two new tracks Diamond Thug’s planning to record later this month: ‘Mind’s Eye’ and ‘Long Way’.
Both of which were evidence of how the band’s tightened up their celestial sound (recently described as “sipping on the milky way”) in ways that simultaneously make you want to act on aspirations you journalled when you were 16, but also just forget it all in favour of dancing the night away, somehow.
Better yet? Their relentless dedication to giving this thing a real go makes them one of the most promising acts to watch in 2016. They’re all in. And that’s rare.
“We’re all committed to the idea that if this is what we wanna be doing, we need to be really doing it. As often as we can,” confirms Danilo. “We want to make this into a career: we want break into other markets and get our music out there, across the world. And that’s something you can’t achieve too easily, especially if you’ve got a day job.”
Chantel – who, as a five-time SA archery champion, Western Province Latin American dancer, student of quantum physics, and qualified permaculture designer, should know a thing or two about dedication – agrees. “You’ve gotta hustle! If you’ve got a permanent day job, for me at least, it makes it a lot harder for you to face this thing. Sure, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do to get by – but, as far as possible, only to a degree – otherwise you’ll just be distracting yourself.”
Committed, as they are, to the ideal of not distracting themselves from carving out a sustainable career path as musicians, I’m curious about the processes and practices they prioritise, creatively.
Adrian – who, according to his bandmates, is hands down the most technically talented (Chantel: “Adrian can play almost any instrument. He was like one of those baby geniuses”) – claims “you can get inspiration from anywhere, man.”
“What we’ve learned as a band this year is how much we can learn from other people,” Danilo confirms. “We watch a lot live performances of big bands we really like – FOALS, for example – to see how they’re making their drums sound like that, how exactly they’re executing that synth…I think what we’ve learned is that as much as creativity is important, it’s also about just doing what you do for a certain amount of hours every day. I know Chantel tries to write as often as she can.”
“Innately, I think I’d get frustrated if I didn’t do that,” she affirms. “I’ve become a lot more aware of it this year: honouring the craft and all that – if you wanna be doing this thing full-time, you’ve just gotta be putting in the hours.”
Check out Diamond Thug’s live performance of ‘Slow Down’, recently recorded at the Converse Rubber Tracks studio in Boston, here, and then find Diamond Thug here, here, or here to hound them about getting that EP out sooner rather than later.
