The New Mustangs

After creating a bit of mystery, The New Mustangs have launched this month, hoping to make a serious mark on the local music landscape.
The band decided to create an online presence before they started playing live shows earlier this month.
“I think it’s important to cover all your bases,” says Calvin Siderfin, the band’s bassist.
“We also wanted to get our name out there and get people curious about the band. Because of this I believe people will make an effort to come to our shows,” he explains.
Calvin, Paul Freysen (vocals, guitars) and Pieter Fabricius (drums) have been playing together for about four months now.
Calvin describes their music as “three piece rock ‘n roll with simplistic, energetic sound”.
He says it’s something they hope people will move to at their shows. He calls it “Leg twitching and head bobbing music”.
“We try to make things interesting, without overcomplicating it,” Calvin explains.
Paul writes most of the songs while Calvin helps with structures and bass, before Pieter adds the drums.
“It’s not too difficult for us to find inspiration, as we all have a
passion for music,” Calvin says.
“Good music inspires me, and I’m sure I can say the same for the rest of the band as well,” he adds.
The three share a vision for their music.
Calvin says: “Pieter and I played in a band before and we also went to school together.”
“Paul and I met at the beginning of this year, we soon realized we had similar vision about what music we both wanted to play, so we just pulled Pieter in and took it from there,” he adds.
Their name started as an idea, before it developed into “The New Mustangs”.
“Paul threw out a few names, among them was ‘The Mustangs’,” Calvin says.
“I really liked it, but I believe there was a band in the 60’s with the same name so I said, how about ‘The New Mustangs’?,” he adds.
“We liked it, it stuck.”
The band’s plan for now is to play as many shows as possible and record an album in the near future.
They will be performing at Blizzards in Durbanville on Saturday 28 August, along with The Sleepers and Taxi Violence.
On Monday 30 August, they will be playing at Mercury in town.

Tailor Hill

Tailor Hill are “Going Up” calling for “Attention” for their debut album, Consciously Contemplating Chaos.
The EP, which is being released this month, was an independent project and was a year in the making.
TygerBurger first interviewed the band a little over a year ago after they came second in a battle of the Bands competition.
The band have since won a competition and come second in another.
They used the prizes from these battles to start production on their six-track EP.
Tailor Hill is made up of Cornel Botha (vocals and acoustic guitar), Julian Adshade (electric guitar), Remano De Beer (bass) and Matthew Hutton (drums).
The theme of Consciously Contemplated Chaos has been carried throughout, from the album artwork to the songs.
The cover features an original Hermann Rorschach ink blot, with a Henry Grey’s anatomy diagram on the back.
Cornel explains the album as: “The thoughts of Tailor Hill, if they were an entity.”
The band worked in their mixing studio, 12Eleven Studios and Remano and Cornel have set up a label called Metasystem Music.
“Metasystem refers to a single entity defined by all its parts,” Remano says, relating it to the little things that make up a successful band.
He says on this album, the band went for a raw style, Reminiscent of 90’s garage rock.
The band say they grown together in the last year.
“Our styles are all coming together,” explains Cornel.
Remano says the band is writing new material and want to go from a garage band to being played on radio.
“We are stepping up our game,” says Julian.
The band are planning to film a music video in the near future and to spend time promoting the EP.
Fans will be able to get the songs from the new EP from various sources.
Tailor Hill will use the BEEPTOME service where fans SMS TAILORHILL to 39622 to order & pay the CD with their cellphone and get it delivered to their door. They can also visit http://beeptome.com/cds/.
In the next two weeks they will be with Rhythm Online Music Store where individual tracks can be purchased and downloaded. Visit http://rhythmmusicstore.com for more information on this.
Fans can also vote for and download their first single Dear Jane on Mxit.
For more information on Tailor Hill, visit http://www.tailorhill.com.

New song writing winner…

Blouberg muso, Matthew Roux, writes life in his songs.
“I observe everything,” he says, adding that he draws inspiration from the relationships of people around him.
Clearly it has paid of as he is this year’s winner of the Barleycorn Song Writer’s competition.
Although Roux has been playing guitar, he has recently come back to performing after a bit of a sabbatical.
“I didn’t really have much to write about till last year,” he explains.
Roux explains his music as acoustic melodies with a pop approach but points out that the obvious label for him would be singer/songwriter.
He has played at places like News Café and Obs Café, as well as art galleries.
“I want to play at least once, if not twice a week,” he says.
Roux explains that he currently has a base of 12 songs and while he has already played six live, he wants to throw the rest into his sets one by one.
“The idea is to build a following around the songs,” he says.
Outside of music, Roux, like many musicians, has a day job and a family.
“My challenge is finding time,” he says, referring to his music.
He doesn’t see this lack of time as a bad thing though and points out: “Constraints are a good thing because they force you to focus.”
“If I had all day in a room with my guitar, I wouldn’t be as creative,” Roux says.
He also believes this mean you can’t throw anything away and that everything should be recorded.
Roux believes that that access to social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace easier for both musicians and fans.
“The web is the difference,” he says, adding that people now have access they would otherwise never have heard.
He explains that before, people would have to go to places like the Barley Corn to listen to new music.
Roux has set up a website, which he will build around the EP once it is ready, in about two months time.
In the mean time, fan can visit his Facebook page or watch his videos on YouTube.

Battle of teen bands

Teen bands will be given a chance to showcase their talent beyond their garage jam sessions by entering the first Teen Band competition.
The competition, which is being run by Teen Fest, will see the top three winning bands perform live at the teen festival, which is being held at Ratanga Junction on Saturday 18 September.
A further round of nominations will take place on the day and the overall winning band will go on to perform, alongside other top local acts, on the main stage.

Thousands of teens are expected to converge on the theme park, for the one-day event, which will offer a wide selection of youth relevant products and services to tweens, teens and their parents. Teens can expect everything from gadgets, adventure sports, health and wellness, fashion and accessories, career advice and information on gap years.

“The contest will highlight the best and most talented teens across Cape Town,” organiser of the event, Paula Janse Van Rensburg said. “This is the first event of its kind to represent this market. It is an event for tweens and teens, we want them to be involved in all aspects of the day.”

Interested teen bands can submit their demo video or audio on the “Top Teen Band Search” Facebook group. Fans of the page will be able to nominate their top band and the best three acts will be given the opportunity to perform at Ratanga Junction on the day of the event. The crowd-nominated overall winner will go on to receive a six-month booking deal with Kega Events and Artist Management, who manage of Llevado and a number of other top young local acts.

Other highlights for the day include a Teen Entrepreneur and Green Teen competition. The winner for each category will receive a stand on the day and a website to further market their product. The school with the winning entry will be given a stand on the day. Each 1×2 metre stand is valued at R2 000. Submissions for call to entry close on 31 August.

“Teen Fest aims to provide a safe space where tweens, teens and their parents can socialise, learn, explore, hang out and have fun,” Janse Van Rensburg said.

Exhibitors who are interested in showcasing their product or service at the festival should contact Ru-Mey Rheeder on 021 556 6052 for further information and to obtain an exhibitor form for completion.

To find out more about Teen Fest,, visit http://www.teenfest.co.za.

Symphonic Rocks

Having heard metal band, Metallica, play with a full symphonic orchestra, I was quite keen to see what Andy Mac had up his sleeve when I first heard about Symphonic Rocks.
Andy pulled together local musicians like aKing, Louise Carver and Just Jinjer, to play alongside a 65 piece symphonic orchestra.
Conductor, John Walton, painstakingly wrote out the music or ach song chosen by the bands to be performed, a process that took him six months.
Sponsors were apparently nervous about whether the concept would work in South Africa, but tickets for the show sold out 10 days before the day, something that very rarely happens in Cape Town.
Whether the audience were there to see their favourite band or to experience Andy’s idea, I doubt anybody can say they walked away disappointed.
Some live shows are felt deeper than others and Symphonic Rocks touched my soul in a way that is difficult to explain.
The sounds flowing from the stage enveloped me in a sense of passion and filled me with a serene calmness.
When Ard Matthews started singing What He Means, I was covered in goosebumps and by the time he got to the chorus I was unashamedly letting the tears roll down my face.
Imagine, if you will, a sold-out Grand Arena, singing along to the sound of an orchestra: “Peace, love, more tolerance…”
I have heard a lot of beautiful things in my life, but I have been racking my brain since Saturday night, trying to think of something to trump that.
The atmosphere in the Arena seemed to be one of respect for the musicians on stage.
I have no idea if this was part of Andy’s plan, but Symphonic Rocks reignited my love for the orchestra. It rekindled it, if you will, and I can only hope that it does the same for other music fans.
As an art form and music genre that is being shunned by younger audiences, I think Symphonic Rocks was the best way to introduce orchestral music to a new market.
By the time I walked out of the Grand Arena, I wasn’t quite sure what had hit me.
It was as if I had witnessed something ground-breaking, and my brain way still trying to process it.
I’m still hearing the hauntingly beautiful sound of a full string section ringing in my ears and every time I think about the show, I get cold shivers.
Andy says after the success of Saturday’s production, they are planning to make this an annual event, and I strongly suggest every person should try to experience what I’m on about.
Until the next show though; I’m going to see how long I can hold on to my symphonic high.

Apologies

I must duly apologise for neglecting my blog over the last few weeks.
I intend to make up for it, however, by uploading a stockpile of posts over the next few days.