Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
Well, I’m currently touring entirely on my own, so my trusty Nissan Murano fits the guitars, merch, and other essential bits while leaving space in the front passenger seat for my portable coffee machine and framed photos of my baby cat, Willow. My previous carriage was a late 90s Chevy Express Conversion Van, tan in colour and unpredictable in nature. While we drove it from New York to New Orleans and back, anything could happen, usually relating to steering failure, electrical faults, and miscellaneous poltergeist activities. It probably had around 200k miles before I traded it in to avoid certain death. I still miss it, though.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
With difficulty. As a gluten-intolerant, somewhat picky pescatarian with various other allergies, I thank The Lord for RX Bars, Salt and Vinegar chips, and those cheese and fruit “platters” you get at Starbucks. Mercifully, some venues or promoters tend to force-feed me real food just before the paramedics would need to intervene.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I don’t actually break strings regularly, but they do seem to die of natural causes far too soon. Yeah, when you’re touring with a small tribe of various acoustic instruments, it does get expensive.
Where do you rehearse?
My current one-person show allows me to just rehearse wherever the mood takes me. I find that showing up at the “Hair Products” aisle at my local Walgreens with an acoustic guitar can also double as an actual live performance when bookings are slow. You can usually find me there on Wednesday mornings around 11 am.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
Oh dear heavens. Truthfully, the earliest song I can remember writing was an acapella ode/dirge to unrequited love, written in my very early teens. The awful title was something like “Far Too Long” with the equally awful opening line being “It’s been far too long – my escape from sanity”… A truer word has seldom been spoke. Suffice it to say; the song has never left the shoebox under the stairs.
Describe your first gig.
I had the exceedingly good fortune to play my first gig to an actual crowd. I was busy recording my first album as The Awakening, which was a self-financed and, therefore, very slow affair, executed over an eternity of weekends. We somehow got one of the unreleased album’s tracks onto the radio, thanks to our recording engineer brazenly giving it to a DJ. So that helped land the show at a venue called The Fridge, which was located in a huge industrial space at The Gasworks in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jenni’s bass was unplugged for the first half of the first song, and my mic died halfway through the second song, but it was an absolutely amazing experience (despite the bassless intro and my running off the stage to grab another mic). I vividly remember sound-checking and the very first time I strummed my guitar and heard it at deafening volume through the glorious overkill PA system. Good times.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
My last official day job was running my little record label and studio back in South Africa. I still run it (Intervention Arts) today, but at this point, it is just to facilitate releasing my music. Back then, we distributed thousands of local and international CD titles to stores, represented a gaggle of local bands, and had a fantastic time immersed in music, concerts, theatre, and all things art. It was also a time when my war on sleep was in full swing, and I probably aged five years for every year lived.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
Like most artists, all the download income and most of the physical product income died once streaming took over. There is definitely more of an emphasis on live performance and licensing to try to stay afloat now, and while I love performing live, the pandemic certainly shook that ship. But I think part of the adventure of life is adapting and finding new ways to do what we do. My main goal is still creating the best work I can and connecting with people meaningfully. I suspect the future will continue to focus on the experiential aspect of it all, so I’ll keep up with the yoga and hope I’ll be on stage into my seventies to finally pay off those student loans.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
I think I’ve always known that the most important thing is to create for yourself and leave marketing and all of that out of the equation until you are ready to share the work. Despite knowing that, I’ve lost my way many times, either through editing, limiting, or bending what my instinct is telling me to do. It’s been said many times before but truly following your passion is a magical thing.