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Foto Na Dans Interview

Posted on 30. Jun, 2009 by GabiGoldberg in Band Interviews, Music

Foto Na Dans is a band breaking the boundaries of Afrikaans music with their signature style that is “indie rock with a hint of electronic sounds”.

The band were all in school together at DF Malan in Bellville and all the band except LeRoi were in a band called Trompie is Dood at an early age–winning the Jip! Rockspaaider competition, but “that was 5 years ago. That was a different band from Foto Na Dans.”

Their name Foto Na Dans is “a neutral term, one that can be bound to music and visual elements “Dans” points to the music, and “Foto” to the visual aspects of the media….”

Their opinion of the music the music industry has also changed since their Rockspaaider days and Alex says “The whole industry has changed a lot. There is a lot more structure & support. There are more bands and there is more happening. It’s exciting.”

Their most heavy influences musically “is endless…Air, Radiohead, Muse, Mew, Hot Chip, Sigur Ros…everyone has many of their own influences…so between us the list is probably 100 artists long.”

Their first self titled EP had a very raw sound to it compared to the ‘futuristic’ heavenly sound on their latest album (Pantomime op Herwinbare Klanke). Alex says “with our first EP we had no clue what we were doing. We just went into studio and laid down raw tracks as we rehearsed them in the band room…On our later recordings we had more of a clue and started experimenting with electronic sounds.”

 

The band is “currently busy working on a new album and they have “about 8 songs written already and it is sounding really hot. With all the previous albums we had deadlines to keep as to when the album had to be finished. We are trying a different approach this time by letting the music and the songs determine the deadlines instead of other way around..”

Their planning to work on their new album then head overseas in July. They have collaboration with Flash Republic is on the cards, “which should be quite cool and the tunes are sounding kiff…so maybe people will be dancing to our songs in clubs…that’ll be awesome.”

The band has “dreams of making it internationally” and say “our short term goal is to make our new album our best ever and believe “the potential is there as the songs are sounding better than ever…also there has been quite a bit of international interest in the band and a few people are watching our new album to see what it does…and then we’ll just have to see from there…”

Their favourite thing about performing is “the energy. And being able to see that you manage to move people’s emotions with your songs…that’s a beautiful thing.”

The latest album is very innovative and has recieved praise by the media for this. The change in sound over all three albums shows their progression as a band; Alex says “the sound on the new album will be less experimental than our previous EP. Our song writing style has also changed and most of the songs are based around the vocal melodies. The songs are big…epic even…”

Le Roi takes about an hour to get ready before a gig and he was born with his afro. Dirkie is known to always talk rubbish. always. Alex lets loose on tour and is the messiest of the lot. The craziest things that happen at shows are the hidious wipeouts as Theuns is renowned for getting his ass bruised, but as for working on side projects-musically all of them pretty committed to Foto Na Dans…

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Tags: Foto Na Dans, Music, Music Review, South African music