BLACK MARKET RIOTS

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WERNER ROUX
WEBSITE: http://www.blackmarketriots.com/
COUNTRY: South Africa STYLE: Alternative / Rock / Punk

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED WITH MUSIC AND HOW DID THE BAND START?

DANIE: We have all been playing instruments like any other school kid do when they are young. The dream and the skill is the main element for every kid that age. We all have been in bands before we started this group in which I think it makes it easier for us to work together. All of us have very different influences but mainly it sticks with a good feeling in the music. We started off with a different bassist, Riaan Scholtz. Riaan and I wanted to start something serious and I found my old friend Shaun (we had a school band together). Very eager to join but we had a serious problem in finding a great guitarist. Eventually we found Pierre on facebook (yes it does work).

After 10 months of gigging, having fun and hard work Riaan decided to go overseas, in which we had to find a new bassist. This is where Nic jumped on the bus and we can truly say it’s been a great experience having him on board! Think the key element in having a great friendship in a band is to be honest and open hearted to all of the members feelings…oh how gay! Hahaha! So in other words…we like being super nasty to each other….yeah a great hate relationship works for us!

WITH ALL FOUR MEMBERS BEING INVOLVED IN THE SCENE FOR A WHILE NOW; IS IT STILL A BIG GAMBLE STARTING A “NEW” BAND EVEN IF ALL THE MEMBERS ARE EXPERIENCED MUSICIANS?

SHAUN: It is a bit of a gamble considering you will either make it or not. If one is really dedicated to your music and you enjoy what you do, it makes it a little easier looking past all the money that goes into starting things out. That is normally where a lot of bands end up drawing the line and throwing in the towel. Nobody ever said it was easy to start a band, everybody just sees all the famous musicians on television and think that they have life so much easier than everybody else. They don’t realise how much effort goes into putting up a decent performance night after night and all the preparation it takes behind the scenes.

Getting back to “gamble” or “no gamble”, if you set your sights on accomplishing your goal it will be a “gamble” that will pay off in the end.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST MUSICAL INFLUENCES OVER THE YEARS AND HOW DID THOSE INFLUENCES IMPACT THE WAY YOU MAKE MUSIC TODAY?

PIERRE: My influence has always been guitar themed. And what all of these bands have in common is the fact that you can feel the music they're making. Not just the sound system that’s really loud, you get a certain sense of "oooh yeah" when you listen to it. I'm pretty sure it's the same for the rest of the band. And that's pretty much what we are trying to do subconsciously. We make music we like, music which gives us the "oooh yeah" feeling.

The beauty of making music together is that all our separate influences shines through in the new concoction and we end up with a genre we like to call “our own”! We don't try to make commercial, or socially acceptable music, we just mould it around what we like and experiment as much as possible, trying to surprise even our most loyal fans with new tunes they didn't expect.

YOU HAVE A DEBUT EP THAT WILL BE LAUNCHED ON THE 19TH OF SEPTEMBER AT AANDKLAS. HAVING RECEIVED MONEY TO RECORD THE EP BY WINNING A BATTLE OF THE BANDS, THE SONGS ON THE EP MUST REALLY MEAN A LOT TO YOU?

DANIE: Obviously we have played these songs over and over at every show we play. By now we can probably do them behind our backs but when we hit the rehearsal room it always keeps us moving. No matter how old they might be its always fun playing them. It is strange to think that one of the tunes we played on the final of the competition was a brand new song back then and now we just finished off a video for it.

I guess new songs makes you more excited to write and explore more. Over all the songs we played in the comp means a lot because it made us winners…so the sentiment stays right up in the top shelve!

HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP THE RECORDING PROCESS FOR THE EP; AND WAS IT A CASE OF RECORDING TWO SONGS A DAY IN THE SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME YOU HAD TO RECORD?

SHAUN: The whole recording process was really exciting but stressful at the same time due to the fact that we only had 5 days to record 7 songs. We decided on seven songs so that we could at least release an EP and not another 3 track “demo” or something.

It was a bit of a mission to try and squeeze 7 songs in 5 days but fortunately we knew the music and the actual recording went quite smooth. Some songs went really quickly and some songs we at least had a bit of time to play around with different sounds and so forth. From there it was off to mixing and mastering and when we received the end product we were very satisfied.

WINNING THE BATTLE OF THE BANDS MUST HAVE CERTAINLY BOOSTED THE BAND’S CONFIDENCE. IS YOUR LIVE SHOW STILL “EVOLVING” INTO SOMETHING BETTER OR HAS THE BAND FOUND ITS COMFORT ZONE ON STAGE?

PIERRE: We don't really plan anything out when we go on stage. The only little pep talk we have is "just go out there and have fun, no matter how the crowd is!" and that's exactly what we do. We thrive on a big crowd, like at Oppikoppi and the battle of the bands, we just go ape and I'm almost sure that’s one reason we pulled it through in the end. People can see we're having a fun time, making them have an even bigger jol than we are!

YOU PLAYED A “WILD CARD” SLOT AT OPPIKOPPI LAST YEAR. ARE YOU HOPING TO BECOME “REGULARS” ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT OR IS BUILDING A GOOD FAN BASE IN CAPE TOWN A BIGGER PRIORITY FOR THE BAND AT THIS TIME?

PIERRE: I think both aspects are important, and they both actually run hand in hand. If we build a fan base, we'll probably get bigger gigs and get noticed for festivals, and if we get into festivals we'll build our fan base, so it's a nice little ring-a-rosie we want to get on as soon as possible. We've signed with Mad Brew Productions a while ago and are expecting big things and awesome gigs from them, so fingers crossed!

IF YOU LOOK AT HOW OPPORTUNITIES COME AND GO, ESPECIALLY IN THE LOCAL MUSIC BUSINESS, CAN ONE SAY THAT THE BAND HAS HAD PRETTY GOOD LUCK WHAT OPPORTUNITIES ARE CONCERNED SO FAR; AND IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN LUCK DO YOU BELIEVE THAT HARD WORK HAS ITS REWARDS?

SHAUN: When a band starts out, everything that comes along might be seen as good luck, but to carry on being lucky, one needs to work a little harder and harder to find that bit of luck that comes your way. So it is a mixture of good luck and hard work. If either one of those are missing then things are just so much more difficult.

That is normally when one starts thinking that things aren’t going to work out for you, but if one keeps on focusing on what you want to achieve then for some reason a bit of good luck comes knocking on your door again. It’s a weird circle but that is obviously why the music industry is such an interesting place to be in.

WHO IS THE BIGGEST “CONTROL FREAK” IN THE BAND, THAT LIKES TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHING RUNS SMOOTHLY?

NIC: It would definitely be Danie. The band has named him 'dad' and he fills this position perfectly. He leads a professional life and the influence we get from that makes us eager and determined musicians, both on set and off. Determined to get on stage and give the audience our very hearts.

YOU HAVE FINISHED SHOOTING YOUR FIRST MUSIC VIDEO FOR THE SONG “MACHINE” AND BY THE TIME THIS INTERVIEW GETS PUBLISHED YOU WOULD HAVE SHOT ANOTHER VIDEO. TELL US ABOUT THE CONCEPT FOR THE “MACHINE” VIDEO?

NIC: The music video ties in with the song which is people unwilling to conform to standards or ways others would have us be. We had the privilege to work with video staff who had the same insight as our concept. It's a vintage set and every member doing his own thing separately and later on resulting to Danie being a finished product and packaged, "the machine people want".

THE BAND HAS A REALLY GOOD “IMAGE”, WITH A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE AND ALL. WHO DOES ALL YOUR DESIGN AND PLEASE TELL US WHAT THE SYMBOLISM IS BEHIND THE BAND LOGO WITH THE RAISED FIST AND CROWN OF THORNS?

DANIE: Well Danie handles all the marketing and graphics for the band. Guess it’s his little fun of freelance freedom. It’s very important to keep people interested in what you do or how you are represented in the media. Luckily this works out for us so far.

The symbolism behind the logo….strange but works well with our name. Black Market Riots stands for fighting with courage in something you believe and strive to be. So the fist is the symbolism of this statement. The crown with thorns represents honesty and purity. There is no connotation to religion but we would like to let people know that this is no message against religion or any other blasphemous message. None of that! Just a symbol of believes!

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE BAND AFTER THE EP IS LAUNCHED?

NIC: It has definitely been an interesting and busy time for us but we're not taking a break anytime soon, only upwards and outwards which is song writing and an album on the scene as it's all compiled. We would probably do another launch because we finished two music videos. Hard work has gone into this EP and production. Hopefully this makes a mark on the local music scene and once you have got your foot in the door one must make work to push it wider which we're here to do.

ANY COMMENTS; THINGS FANS SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR OR PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO THANK?

DANIE: Well as been mentioned, we have our EP and Music Video launch on 19 September at Aandklas, Stellenbosch. This is an event, which we have been working hard at so pop in to see what’s going to happen. Pre-order cd’s available for R50, which includes entry for this event, otherwise R20 cover and R70 for the EP. After this we will post all footage and vids on the net for your face to feed on!

We would really like to thank all of the crew who worked on the EP staright to the Videos. So here the list goes:

Uys Visser at Franschhoek Studios, Julian Bach, Lapdust Studio, Media Film Service, Annie’s Wardrobe, Panalux, Props to the stars, Artichoke and the main man Conrad Mostert for his unbelievable vision and hard work for these Vids.

And thanks to you Niel!