Afrikaans pop music has always been one of extremes, people either view it as a blatant embarrassment or a brilliant patriotic form of artistry. Whatever your views are the fact cannot be denied that the likes of Steve Hofmeyer, Kurt Darren and Bok van Blerk are not only icons in this genre, but giants in the South African music industry as a whole. They have exposed this niche market as a gold mine and are by far outselling their competitors. Obviously this has inspired countless ‘musicians’ to venture into the Afrikaans pop genre and as a result produced musical products of vomitous quality.Thus, at the one end of the spectrum you had the harder musical leanings of Fokofpolisiekar and Straagtligkinders and at the other end you had the ridiculousness of braaivleis anthems. And in between those two poles there was a market who wanted Afrikaans pop music that was musically contemporary and lyrically compelling. Or basically in other words, they wanted Afrikaans pop music that is cool. Their calling has well and truly been answered by Die Heuwels Fantasties. I found out more about Die Heuwels Fantasties’ songwriting process, their inspiration and their unique music videos.
NepTunes: How did the writing process work? Did you work with the synthesizers yourselves?
Hunter Kennedy: Pierre and I wrote the songs on acoustic guitar. Earlier today he actually said that the vocal melodies are exactly the same as we initially wrote it on guitar. But then the idea was that we would totally strip it (guitar) away. Pierre and I listen to pop, hip hop, 80’s hits and stuff like that so it was pretty obvious that we weren’t going to do another rock thing. And then we asked Johnny. I don’t think Johnny was necessarily going to be a part of the band, he would just have created the tracks for us.
NepTunes: Are you going to approach the writing process for the next album in the same manner?
Hunter: Well, Pierre has gotten software now.
Pierre Greeff: We now have a basic production setup. So I think we will approach it differently than the first time.
Hunter: Maybe we will create a soundscape ourselves.
Pierre: But I think it will basically stay the same. According to us Johnny is the genius that gets the sound right.
NepTunes: Hunter, where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics for all of the different projects that you are involved with? Do you go into a particular mindset when you write, because each project touches on different themes?
Hunter: Yeah I think so. Fokofpolisiekar is basically personal matters and with aKING Laudo and I write together. Obviously you speak to different people about different stuff. For me it doesn’t always feel that they are about different things. Heuwels doesn’t really have a specific lyrical reference, which I enjoy. We have fun with the lyrics.
Pierre: Like Stralerjakkers Spyseniere. (Laughs)
Hunter: We were like should we do it. Then it was like fuck yeah. So with Heuwels we have a lot of fun. For example: “Onder die wilgerboom kom ek vermom in jou oordrom.” (Lots of Laughs)
NepTunes: What musicians inspire you guys in the electronic, pop and hip hop genres?Hunter: I don’t really listen to modern electronica. I like Justice. But electronica is a difficult genre to pin down. When I think of electronica, I think of Fischerspooner.
Pierre: I think we draw a bigger reference from pop. And you know pop nowadays in general is electronically driven music.
Hunter: Not that we have mastered the pop genre, but I think it is our biggest reference. Stuff like Postal Service played a big part. As you can hear from the album we listen to a variety of music and that’s exciting for us, not because a record label really puts you in a box, but because we did everything ourselves we had a lot more freedom. And we take chances. When we wrote Klein Tambotieboom and were planning to release it, we didn’t think that people were necessarily going to like it.
NepTunes: Your music videos have a low key production and traveling vibe. Can you tell us more about that?
Pierre: You know making music videos is not always fun, so primarily it all started with us shooting everything in HD with a friend’s camera. And with the last two, Klein Tambotieboom and Sonrotse, the production value has been lifted in the sense that we shot on 16mm and we went to exotic locations and flew in a private jet.
Hunter: To start with we didn’t have the money. Fokofpolisiekar just spend a fucking huge amount of money on a music video and that didn’t necessarily translate into sales. So we just tried to approach it realistically. So then we went with that whole concept of Jack Cadillac on the road. Like those Kings of Leon viral videos they released, before the release of their new album, it was also basically just them fucking around. I think that was cool, because it gave people more to attach to.
NepTunes: If you had the required budget, which elements would you then incorporate into your live shows?
Pierre: I would like to have back up singers and a bra section as well as dancers.
Hunter: Yeah, full show Kanye West style.
Pierre: We have stripped everything down. Johnny VJ’s when we play and that’s cool, because those visual elements are already featuring more prominently than in other bands. I think it is a move in the right direction.
NepTunes: What is your favourite Heuwels Fantasties song to perform live?
Hunter: For me Noorderlig is a cool song to perform live. I like the space of the song.
Pierre: I like Leja, with its R & B groove.
NepTunes: Do you have an eye on the future in terms of new songs, an album or a music video?
Pierre: Yeah, I think you should just keep on writing.
Hunter: It took us two years to write the first album. So we’re in no rush to do anything right now. We have plans of doing covers as well as recreating the album in English and sending it to Europe for testing. But we’re definitely going to take our time. We feel that this album has legs, so we’ll go with it for as long as possible. And we’re going to make a video for every song on the album.
Andre Kluyts - NM
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