How are preparations coming along for your new album, Journey Through The Shadows? When does it hit the stores?
We completed the final touches in January, the album is out in South Africa beginning May and released worldwide on 8 May.
Why the decision to go with a German record label on this one?
The album is still relatively independently released in South Africa, the UK and the USA, but we decided to license it to a German label for the entire European region and a separate entity for South America. This way we can focus on three territories on our own and have two other entities focus on the rest.
What can fans look forward to on this album - what direction did the music take you in?
It’s a guitar-driven album paying homage to the music that inspired and continues to inspire us, It combines elements of Indie, hard rock, blues and country all packaged together with pop sensibilities.
Any themes that stand out on Journey?
The themes we write about, and continue to write about, are the human journey and the journey of civilisation, encompassing all the high and lows of the experience, but celebrating the fact that we get to live this amazing opportunity which is the human experience.
I believe you guys recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro - how did it go?
It was extremely tough, but an utterly rewarding experience. All four of us made the summit to Gillmans, and Neil and I walked a further two hours to a higher peak called Uhuru.
You did this to raise awareness for Africa-UNiTE. Could you tell us a bit more about this cause?
It’s an initiative to raise awareness, and hopefully finance, to combat abuse against women and girls on the African continent. The statistics and facts are alarming and the problem is unfortunately on the increase. Climbing Kili was a metaphor for the struggle that faces this particular cause. This awareness campaign was not about paying lip service to some cause; it embraced the adage that “Action speaks louder than words”. Hopefully the initial groundwork has been achieved, but only sustained efforts with render true results.
You are also on your way to KKNK - looking forward to going there again after a few years?
Yes - very much so. The first and only time we played we were a very small, insignificant band playing in the tent in the afternoon. KKNK is a historic festival and we're thrilled to be playing there.
How big is your Afrikaans fan base?
Very big, and very loyal, and as four souties we're very grateful for the support the Afrikaans community has shown us.
Any plans for another Afrikaans cover in your future?
We've flirted with the idea of doing an entire Afrikaans album, but right now our overseas schedules and album releases have kept us too busy. Some conservative people in the Afrikaans community feel it would be wrong for us to do an Afrikaans album, so unless we can create a masterpiece we won’t release it. Many of our Afrikaans fans would love us to do something in their mother tongue, but we're very aware that we would also be opening ourselves to a lot of criticism. The way we see it is that we would be celebrating the culture, not condemning it, and even if our diction/articulation may be slightly incorrect it would be coming from a pure place. We are, after all, South African, which means even if our mother tongue is English there are a lot of “Afrikaansisms” that have moulded who we are – ultimately we're shaped by our surroundings.
After KKNK, where will you be off to next? When is the next overseas tour?
We will spend April in South Africa, promoting the release of the new album. May, June and July and parts of August and September we will spend abroad touring the new album.