does the influence stem from? I started writing the tracks at night when I couldn’t sleep after I finished studying in 2001. I had insomnia at the time - I was sleeping odd hours and looking for a job, which was tough. I just used the 80s synths and whatever I had available. Our garage was filled with weird electronics that I was into when I was a kid, stuff that my dad would bring back from his job at this government place; so I built some weird keyboards and had a few synths, drum machines and software. It was out of necessity really, because I couldn’t afford to record my punk music at a big studio. Also, I grew up with 80s music, and old synths just have that “80s sound”, so why fight it?! You had a really good response to the video for Hearts. Who came up with the concept for the video?
72
My friend Dave Meinert who works as a director approached me with the concept. It was after he had built a rig for some mini-shoot, and then put it onto our friend’s dog that he was looking after for the weekend. I think that it started as a joke, but then we met for coffee and people went crazy when they saw this dog with a camera on his back; they just couldn’t believe it. So I guess that response made him think of doing a full video and I had a track that fit the mood. We shot a story about a guy’s dog that escapes for a day and what
he gets up to, and worked a little storyline into that whole thing... It was like all the stuff I do - very DIY! Rumour has it your busy working with Francois Van Coke at the moment? And there also seems to be something with The Frown? I’m living with Kleinbaas (from The Frown) and I’ve played some shows with them. It was cool to see how he works and it has inspired me to try work with other artists, to expand and get some other input. Eve (Rakow) and I have also recorded some music together and I’m also working on a track that Francois did vocals on. I can’t say I’m very good at working with other people; I prefer doing my own thing, my own way, but sometimes it’s good to let go. Sometimes the results aren’t what you expected or wanted, but that’s just part of a creative process and it has got its own value. You’re originally from Cape Town, but have settled in Johannesburg for a while - which of the two cities do you prefer and how would you compare the scenes happening at the moment? I got a job at a magazine so I moved to Joburg and there was a cool scene happening at the time. That’s the main reason I started playing live shows with Johnny Neon. Unfortunately, that energy has since died and there’s not a lot of excitement in