Gangs Of Ballet continue to talk about their reinvention sans bassist Hardus De Beer and their pending pursuit forward.
TK: When you recorded in Joburg, did you feel more pressured for time compared to your experience in Durban?
Jono: Every time we do go to studio, you always set out a plan, like completing drums in 3 days and placing everything perfectly and then the next 5 days you’ll track something else and then we’ll have a whole week at the end free, but it never ever ends up like that. You always end up scrambling at the end and think of getting the most important thing done and you’ll try sort out the rest later. So in terms of studio time, I don’t think it changed the way it unravels. Joburg was different; we were working in some more established studios so we weren’t really running around too much at Openroom.
Josh: Joburg was hectic, we tracked our debut EP at Universal, and I think we had a very small window to do it in, and we had a lot of stuff with gear going wrong. So it meant we needed to do everything in 12 days, which is really nothing. For Part 2, Rusti was actually man down for the first week, so we had to reschedule 3 weeks of recording down to 2, so we were left in a similar boat compared to our debut, plus adjusting to a new studio, but once we got going, it definitely chilled out.
Brad: We haven’t had a crap recording experience yet, other than deadline frustrations, but I think that’s part of the course. We’ve been lucky to have been involved with great guys that believe in us. We haven’t had to deal with someone that you feel like they’re only there because it’s their job. For this last one, we were like “Guys, we can do this,” so we’ve never had a negative experience and thankfully so because it can get really expensive, like you basically pay big cash to have a kak time.
TK: I could imagine the impact that’ll have on the music as well, right?
Brad: Totally dude, totally. Music’s like a sponge. There’s an unexplainable part of music that absorbs everything around it. It’s weird dude, but it just translates.
TK: Geographically, you guys have persistently stayed in Durban, despite the recent specific challenges its music scene faces regarding a lack of venues. I’ve noticed how more and more artists are pushed to create their own events, spaces and endeavours for live performances themselves. Have you felt a pressure or temptation to relocate yourselves due to these challenges, or have they incentivised you to stay and contribute more to the Durban scene?
Jono: I don’t think relocation has really ever been something that we’ve seriously considered. I think travelling within South Africa really isn’t that hard, a part from the leg from Durban to Cape Town. Travelling around has been fine and to be honest, the lifestyle in Durban is just killer. But it is quite hectic, in the Durban scene, there’s some really good and creative stuff coming out of Durban at the moment. The sad thing is that there are no venues, and the amount of risk and cost involved in committing to conducting your own show is quite hectic.
Josh: We’re pretty involved with some of the up and coming guys, and I actually saw one of them at Gateway the other day. He was saying that he’s got a lot of radio play and stuff going on for him, but he was just saying the struggle is real. He’s really struggling to get booked and whatnot. For Gangs, I think when we launched ourselves I think it was a timely thing. We got booked a ton and I think now, 5 years in, we’re fairly established and now allowed the luxury of living and basing ourselves in Durban and travelling out to wherever we’re booked, whereas a lot of the guys that are coming through are battling with that. The guy that I was chatting to was actually looking at relocating to Cape Town, because it’s just so tough in Durban. If Gangs were to start now, I don’t know if we’d be able to stay in Durban.
TK: Regarding new technologies like live streaming, pyrotechnics, drones, you name it, have you guys considered adopting any of them to maintain, grow and adjust your live set?
Brad: We actually have looked into some of that stuff. The other day, it was an absolute jol on 5FM with Roger Goode. Things like live streaming is an obvious one, but in terms of show production, a lot of it comes down to the price tag. Everyone loves the clever theatrics on stage but you’ve got to buy or rent that and get it there and back. Some guys, like Goodluck, tend to pull it off really well but to my knowledge, they seem to be the only guys who are really taking live production around with them, I think it’s because everyone else thinks they cannot afford it.
I also don’t think we’re short of ideas either which is frustrating. Certainly on the digital sides of things, that’s definitely in our future. I’m really interested to see where the next 5 years are going to go in terms of radio, because cars are being built with wifi routers which takes a lot of power out of radio’s hands. I think the next few years will be quite telling.
TK: Your latest music video for your single ‘Something’ is exceptionally eccentric and quirky, we absolutely love it! Working with Tomfoolery, was the idea of the video to emphasize the process of creating art and just how mouldable that process really is and, in a sense, touching on the band’s changing direction?
Brad: Well, the story behind the actual song is that it’s easier to tolerate someone other than celebrating who they are. Tolerance has this expiry date on it. Part of the writing was around Australia’s Got Talent, where it was the usual thing: you look at someone and you’re like “I’m not sure about this guy, he looks a little bit like the lift doesn’t go to the top floor.” You weren’t too sure what he was going to do, but he said he dances. So it’s basically this concept of looking at someone, and you can’t really put your finger on him, but there is something about him that you love.
So we found this guy, Tzvi Karp, he’s a designer. He creates unique pieces and he’s got an amazing way of looking at the world and one of the things he said was: “I hope I never see anyone wear my clothes while I’m alive,” that was his thing. He never wants to be mainstream, he’s just an amazing human. I think the concept of the video is really celebrating those people, particularly artists, who may be misunderstood and you actually just don’t see how amazing they are. He was this perfect poster boy for that.
Probably to a fault, we’ve been a little bit too serious as a band and we actually aren’t serious dudes but socially we’re actually quite casual. All of our videos have been sort of slow motion, narrative, emotive things. So as a band, it’s certainly the most fresh video we’ve done and it definitely puts a question mark on our next one, like “Where do we go from here?” We’ve had such great feedback from ‘Something’ that we wonder if that’s something people are really connecting with, so we have been chatting to videographers.
TK: On a more of a sombre note, how has continuing as a band been like without Hardus? Is there a particular obstacle that comes to mind?
Josh: I think it’s funny, I think we’ve played some of our absolute best and worst shows. This is going to sound really blunt but the highs of not having H in the band means it’s easier for us to travel around. Logistically, it just is easier. The absolute lows are obviously that we don’t have him. How we’ve done it is Jono is now playing synth and synth bass at the same time.
Brad: He’s literally half our sound.
Josh: Yeah, so he’s quite hectic. We went through about a year of Jono’s system just crashing on us in a show which is so hectic. It’s so strange because that becomes an emotional blow, where you stop enjoying live sets because you’re just waiting for something to go wrong. That was a serious low, but we’ve sorted it out.
Jono: I sat that computer down and gave it a talking to.
Josh: It’s been a bit of a process finding our feet again and enjoying live and making sure it’s interesting for people to watch. I still think it’s cool, I’m still enjoying the 3 piece. When it happens, it happens man. We come off the stage, we’re on a high, it feels good, you know? More and more we’re getting into the groove of it.
TK: Future plans you can touch on, perhaps, at your pace, an inevitable tour abroad?
Jono: Last week we started our album launch tour, so we’ve just been focusing on Part 2. Certainly next year, we were actually talking about it last night, we’d love to go and do a trip. You’ve got to do it hey, at some point you’ve just got to commit and give it a go. We’d probably hit Europe first.
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