Meeting Skillet face to face: What question will you ask?

It started with great timing and a Facebook status i stumbled upon: Skillet play at Freedom Festival 27 april, Cape Town Ostrich farm. Want to win tickets from me??

Now to give this some perspective, Skillet have for the longest time been my bonus favourite band… for many years of my life i listed four bands as my top 4: U2, Coldplay, R.E.M., Tree63 and then Skillet was next in line. So understudy in case any of the others stopped playing. And despite them having released something like 9 albums of which i have most of them, i think some of my favourite memories and moments still come from their first self-titled album and i hurt my neck plenty head-banging by myself in my room when the house was empty with the music turned full blast to the words of ‘I can’ and ‘My Beautiful Robe’

From ‘My Beautiful Robe’:

I was crucified with Christ
But how come I’m not dead
God gave me a cross
But I made my own instead

Complete Lyrics of ‘I can’

Looking on the sad times, the guilt and all the shame
I have learned to submit my existing hurts and pains
All the grief I’ve learned to set aside

‘Cause I am, I am, I am
Feeling underooted feeling undermined
Can this grace of God cover me this time?

When I feel the pain I know why I feel strange
When I hear the rooster crow I am ashamed
Jesus on the cross and this cross upon my back
I have learned to submit then I whine about my lack

Sometimes I drop my cross, deserve a little rest
That’s when I run to you and I nail your feet and your wrist

I’m feeling underooted feeling undermined
Can this grace of God cover me this time?

Do you really love my soul, even after I hated you?
Do you really know my name, can I really come to you?
Are you really more faithful than the changing of the seasons and the morning sun?
Do you really know my name, can I really come to you?
I can, I don’t care if the rooster crows
I can

The point being that i love this band and have enjoyed and appreciated their music for many years and so getting the opportunity to see them live in concert feels like a huge gift. Honest, edgy lyrics that really grab at the heart and the soul of the truth being discussed made for much incredible music wrestlings over the years.

Then Andrea Steyn [who you can get tickets for this amazing gig from] took it one further today by writing this question on my wall:

Do you want to have a chance to meet the band?

Do raiSINs have the word sin in them? Some questions just don’t need to be asked. So while ‘Do you want to have a chance to meet the band?’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘You will definitely have a chance to meet the band!’ i’m gonna go with Jim Carrey on this one from Dumb and Dumber… “So you’re saying there’s a chance?”

And so, whether or not it actually materialises or not, i thought it would be a fun activity either way to invite you to help me compile a question list so that if i was to meet the band and get a chance to ask them a question or two, what questions would those be?

Skillet fans, this is for you. If you got to meet the band and had the chance to ask one question, what would that be? Leave it in the comments section below and who knows, if this happens, maybe yours will be one of the fortunate ones to go live…

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Sadly, i got this message today: I have unfortunately bad news, that the concert has to be postponed until the summer time. Big upset with some organisational thing I wasn’t privy to. – And so, for the time being it looks like this will be on hold, but in the meantime you can keep your questions coming…

Make a AnecNote of this!

So my friend Kevin Smuts [who has been one of my biggest cheerleaders in general life matters over the last three years while we were in Americaland in particular – side note: very encouraging to have cheerleaders! who are you a cheerleader to?] is part of an a capella band that he started called AnecNote [which is an amazing name altho i feel like i contributed at least 87 viable alternatives when they were going through their name-finding phase… so close… i helped weed out the bad ones, perhaps.

Anyways, being Kevin i suspected they would be good. He is a super talented muso and hoping to make movie music some day [pay attention Hans Zimmer!] and i’ve heard his stuff and i never doubted for a second music-wise it would be any good.

But an a capella band? Apart from Graham and Christine Weir’s most incredible Not the Midnight Mass who i got to see live on a few occasions back in the day, what other a capella groups spring to mind? That’s right. None. So talent evenings or school shows perhaps, but that’s about it.

Anyways, tbV and i got to go to a show on Sunday night after a day of Improv workshopping for me and house-warming for us both and by the time it came to ‘going out to social event with a bunch of people we would probably kind of know but mostly not really’ we were not super amped. But i did want to see Kev and support the band and so that clinched it i think.

[cue tbV and brett fish being blown away]

Because basically that is what happened. Not only are they musically fit, but they brought the funnest vibe you can imagine and it was a completely insanely amazing evening. Comprising five very different but extremely talented individuals, currently going by the names of Leah Adams, Emma de Goede, Morné Kahts, beatboxer supremo Daniel Nambassi and my main main Kevin Smuts, they rocked the house. If you’re in Cape Town, you need to make a plan to see them – having already played at TEDx, Kirstenbosch, 5FM and a bunch of other places.

i have some video clips [and you can find more on their site and on the You Tube] to give you an idea of their talent and diversity, but these really don’t do their live performance justice – fun, frivolous, a little bit cheeky and adventurous as they basically finished off the evening pretty much half making up a song and just giving it complete wings.

Here they are covering Titanium by David Guetta ft. Sia:

Then they took a dab at Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off:

And finally Problem by Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea

Don’t you just want to pick them up and eat them? Well you can’t, so stoppit! They have a strict non-cannibalism policy when it comes to themselves as band members. You can however find out a whole lot more about them though…

You can stalk them at their web page over here, on the Tube of Youing over here, on that most Instant of Grams by clicking here, or on the Twitterer as @AnecNote and you can even get hold of an original never-before-worn AnecNote t-shirt to display yourself as a true Groupie or AnecNotie as they are not called. 

Have you ever heard AnecNote live? How would YOU describe their gig?

Streeps ahead of the rest.

If you go and watch just one show during the Cape Town Fringe festival happening over the next ten days in Cape Town, then go and watch another one as well and let is be ‘The Brother Streep: Stand-up Musician’ at the Dragon Room, which is happening every evening for the next four nights.

Witty, catchy, laugh out loud funny in places and just completely silly and clever, this five person version of the two man band that has been bringing mirth and merriment to audiences around small venues in South Africa for years [in between writing theme tunes for Pop Idols, appearing on the Graham Norton show via satellite to sing their homage to Anna Paquin and being the Steri Stumpi jingle song guys].

You don’t want to get caught sitting in the front row because they might get up close and personal with you [although not in a die-from-embarrassment Corne and Twakkie way] but you also don’t want to get caught sitting in the back row cos lead singer Simon Streep might actually [like he did last night] pick you up on your chair [i doubt he would have managed it with me] and carry you to the front as he did for some poor [but lighter than me] woman last night. Although wherever you sit, you will still be expected to sing along with them when they whip out their generic school theme song that perfectly describes your time in that institution where Geography told us clouds were water based natural phenomena, while Computer Literacy informed us clouds were places for storing data [so confusing].

What you will get is an evening of fun and silly and very clever [or was that painful? or both] word play that will no doubt have you smiling and laughing and tapping your feet.

With moments of perplexion [it’s a word!] as they sing a song titled ‘The day after Christmas’ which is all [obviously] about people watching sport to see fights break out, or fight amongst themselves about whether they will sing a song about Restaurants or Politics [with the five person band somehow managing to be cut right down the middle on that one] and even a balladic love song by Dylan Streep on his love for Disney princesses – don’t be fooled by thinking you have what they’re about until that very last line and yet another AHA moment.

And even when they mess up. No, wait, was that a mess up? No, it’s part of the show. Or was it? They  do it so creatively, or was it that they planned all that beforehand? That it is so hard to tell. The Improv and scripted moments go so hand in hand that it all feels like a spaghetti bowl of assortedflavourments.

There may be better shows at the Fringe [they will suggest that to you themselves] but i doubt there will be any quite as fun. And go prepared with your hundred bucks to get one of their newly produced cds [they may mention it for a moment from the stage] so that you can be taking these catchy songs home with you and sharing them with your family and friends.

Don’t miss out. You really should go and watch the Streeps, ahead of the rest.

 

Let me help you avoid those Word Crimes [with a little help from Al!]

i am a big fan of Weird Al Yankovic and if you don’t recognise that name then WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Move out from under that rock you’re under and hang out with Uncle Google and get educated…

From probably his best music video for ‘Fat’ [the parody of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’] to classics such as Amish Paradise, Smells like Nirvana and The Star Wars take ‘The Saga Begins’

More recently there were two exceptional pieces which saw him take on “Ridin” by Chamillionaire and re-inventing it as the Geekfested ‘White and Nerdy’ and the little bit more quite appropriately  ‘out there’ version of Lady if-anyone-was-asking-to-be-parodied-by-Weird-Al-it-was-me Gaga transforming her weird ‘Born this way’ into the possibly weirder ‘Perform this Way’

All this to say, this week he came out with a new song turning the chart-topping uplifting clap-filled ‘Happy’ by Pharrell into ‘Tacky’ posing questions about “wearing stripes with plaid” and “instagramming every meal I ever had” which was good and fun and silly and contained traces of Jack Black, Eric Stonestreet [Modern Family] and the stalkery lady from ‘Flight of the Conchords’…

But then, THIS HAPPENED!

I stumbled upon a new song of this coming album which takes the below-the-belt-but-way-too-catchy Robin Thicke ‘Blurred Lines’ and weaves it into an acceptable and commendable and brilliant piece of insane wordplay and i seriously am thinking that Word Crimes might be my new favourite Weird Al – it is SO SO good…

Check it out and then forward this to all your teacher and grammar police friends…

i hope you enjoy this as much as i did – definitely deserves multiple viewings – it is fantastic, and no i was not being sarcastic…

New [to me] songs that are rocking my world…

music played such a huge role in my visit back to South Africa that we have just returned from.

the first was a gift within a gift. we were given the use of a car by two people [only one of whom i actually knew before the trip and hadn’t been in contact with for about 15 years til a week before i posted a ‘looking for a car’ ad on Facebook] who decided that for a month they could work with one car and so gifted us their other one.

as much as that was the hugest gift ever [thank you Kerstin and Carl Fourie – Kerstin used to be one of the youth girls at the church i worked at about 15 years ago] they left a worship cd [a mixed cd they had made out of other worship cds they own] in the car and until we realised there were other cds in the cubbyhole which took a few days, i listened to that one again and again and really loved the opportunity to be immersed in worship, especially when it was just me driving alone.

two songs in particular stuck out and i kept on meaning to Uncle Google the lyrics and kept forgetting and the one time i remembered the only thing that came up was Belinda Carisle’s ‘Heaven is a place on earth’ which it very definitely wasn’t.

finally i remember to write the lyric on my arm and discovered pretty quickly that it was a song called ‘I will be blessed’ [anyone that knows my feelings to the word ‘blessed’ will appreciate the irony] off the extended version of his album ‘Every Kingdom’.

i’m not sure if there is an official video to the track because this is all i found, but i find it completely haunting and mesmerising and it just really stuck in my head and heart:

 

the second song, i still don’t know what it was and will have to bug Carl and Kerstin someday to list every song on that album so i can track it down…

the second occasion was when i was invited to a Christian Arts presentation by my friend Nurden Cross who used to be from Sarepta during my Newsong Festival days…

i got the chance to watch clips from a number of upcoming christian songs and movies and there is definitely some good stuff to be getting excited for. the band and song that particularly moved me was by a band called The Rend Collective Experiment and this song and video called ‘Build Your Kingdom Here’ off their album, ‘Homemade Worship by Handmade People’ which i just LOVE LOVE LOVE for the energy and enjoyment that these people exude as they worship God:

 

so yeah, two great experiences with two great songs [well, three if i could remember the other one] and actually on the last day i was driving back from tbV’s folks having dropped something off and trying to find these songs and came upon ‘You are holy’ [You are Holy] which i think is by Michael W. Smith of all people and it just completely reduced me to tears – i find that song so powerful, but just the happening of ongoing worship music happening around me was such a strong and precious memory of my time in South Africa. Was given an iTunes voucher for my birthday and am definitely going to hunt down both those albums when i have a moment.

thank you South Africa, and South Africans for those gifts…

 

 

Upcoming muso interview: Meet Jordi van Dyk

Chatting to Jordi van Dyk, up and coming musician from KZN in South Africa and recent winner of  the recent Converse ‘Get out of the Garage’ competition [in which he won the chance to record an EP and perform overseas with his band]  i got the chance to dig a little deeper into who he is and what he is hoping to achieve…

[1] To start off, Jordi, tell us a little bit about yourself – you’re writing the inside cover of your autobiography, what kind of info and fun facts will appear there? 

I like to think that I’m very spontaneous, music and the thought there of consumes my everyday. The fact that music could create a special moment between me  and a complete stranger  blows my mind. Perhaps it would also state that I love pasta and ice-cream  way too much haha. 

 

[2] You are about to head into the studio to record your debut EP, ‘An Ocean of Clouds’ – something like that does not just happen overnight. Tell me, is ‘being a musician’ something that has always been in your blood or was it a bit of an acquired taste?

I grew up in a very musical family. My dad a guitarist/artist and my mom a pianist. My mother always says I could sing before I could talk…but I don’t think that’s possible. I think music is a little gift my father left behind for me to remember him. 

[3] When was the moment you realised that this was bigger than just something that you really enjoyed doing and that there was perhaps the possibility of doing this full-time and making music a career?

Music is all I’ve ever wanted to do but the defined  moment was once I had moved out of my mothers house and away from the little  luxury it had to offer. I found myself in a tough situation having to live off the bare minimal but yet I was still very happy ,doing my music, although it wasn’t financially rewarding just yet. I found that if I could still be happy in such a tough situation/environment then surly this is what I should be doing.

 

[4] What would you say is the influence for the music you write, both in terms of lyric and style?

I guess it’s a combination of the music I listen to, people I’m inspired by, the ups and downs of life and relationship. 

 

[5] Do you have a ‘guilty pleasure’ of band or singer whose music you love listening to but who is completely outside of what others might expect or be okay with?

yeah! Haha Dire-straits, Simon and Garfunkel, Katy Perry….these are just a few. I’m just a lover of good Songwriters and story tellers. 

 

[6] Some artists like to tell stories through their music, some simply choose to paint pictures for the listener and others prefer to lead the listener on their own journey of experience that there may not easily be words to describe – which of these three do you feel your music comes closest to doing and is it something you intentionally set out to do?

I love to take people on a journey but then at the same time convey some sort of story. I don’t intentionally do this…it’s so weird, it just happens. 

 

[7] How do you envision your music career going forwards? Do you have some kind of end goal of three grammies and a Disney soundtrack hit or more of a ‘Let’s just do this and see what happens approach?’

I would love to win a Grammy haha but I have no expectations. Someone once told me that if you have expectations you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment. I’m just enjoying the journey. I’ll do my best and see where that takes me.  

 

[8] Outside of music, what or who is important to you in life and do you find it easy to create a balance between something that is a passion and takes up so much of your time and those other things?

Outside of music,my fiancé ,family, friends and a relationship with God are very important to me. It’s not very easy to find the balance  but I’m still in the process of figuring it all out. 

 

[9] As a person who professes faith in Jesus, what place of influence does that have in your music? Is there any message you would love to give to the Christian Music market in general?

I don’t believe I  make “Christian Music”. I don’t either believe that there is such a genre. I Love Jesus Christ And therefore make Christ inspired music. My music is about life, it’s about the journey and the different situations I face from day to day. So surely if I have a day to day relationship with him it would have influence on my music. 

Bono once said-” the  worlds greatest musicians are either running from God or to God”. 

[10] You recently got engaged to the lovely Mel Armstrong. Has she been around long enough to have some kind of influence in your work and does she play any role at all when you have a finished song you are wanting some feedback on.

You have no idea how excited I am to marry this beautiful woman! She definitely plays a huge role in my life and in my music. She is always available to give me some advice and have listening session. I have written a few songs about this journey we are on together. It’s an exciting year that lies ahead. 

 

[11] Lastly, do you have any words of advice for other young musicians who are working hard at being noticed and hoping to be successful in the music business one day?

My advice would be: Just because you don’t have a desk doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work hard. It’s not the easiest career choice but if it is your passion, follow it with all your heart! Find the musicians you look up to the most and learn from their strengths and weaknesses. 

Thanks a lot Jordi. To take a listen to some of his music head on down to his website. You can also follow him on the Twitterer – @jordivandyk

Jordi’s debut EP, “An Ocean of Clouds”, should be available in March 2014!