An interview with Taxi Violence

It’s midway through June and I’m off to meet with Rian and Louis to discuss the new Taxi Violence album, The Turn that was, at the time currently in the works. We (Louise, their publicist and I) meet up with the Louis and are shortly joined by Rian at High 5 and then move next door to Vida.

Settling down at Vida, we start chatting and Rian’s first question is about Twitter and how to get more followers. Louis lights up a cigarette and settles down to listen. After discussing Twitter for awhile we get started with the interview.

Louis and Rian’s friendship is apparent, from the constant banter and the fact that they have known each other “since before we started shaving. We were in a band together in school” says Rian. Louis then continues the story “we were in a band with our ex-bassist and then he disappeared, like really disappeared, when he did he played with George but that band broke up. Then our original band got back together again and we were amped to rock; all we needed was singer, but George refused” Rian interjects again “he refused at first, there were some vibes, but he got over it.”

The band name Taxi Violence “is nothing revolutionary” explained Rian “it was picked one day when we were sitting eating cereal and watching cartoons; it just fell off the couch. They were two words that sounded punchy together” Louis then butts in “we chose it because Fokofpolisiekar was already taken.”

Their first show that they played out of town (in Port Alfred) was “interesting, we went off in Louis’s car to this festival-if you could call it that-there were about 100 people at any given time, it wasn’t much of a festival” laughs Rian “anyways, we got there on the Friday and only played on the Saturday-so by the time we were supposed to play we were pretty drunk, we had a 30 minute slot and I thought we timed our set perfectly” Louis adds vehemently “it was timed perfectly!” Rian then continued “suddenly, midway through our one song, the sound went off, a bouncer came out and chucked us off stage. The lead singer of the Finkelsteins (who happened to be the MC) then came out and started slagging us off; I’ve never seen George so angry…” “It was a bad show” concluded Louis.

Their influences are “The Venga Boys, Roxxette” and Rian jokingly adds “and Billy Ray Cyrus.” Louis continues more seriously “we draw influences from a lot of different stuff, although we all like rock, we also listen to a lot of different music. George used to be a dub DJ so he’s very much influenced by electronic sounds; George and Rian also grew up on Hendrix and Pink Floyd, whereas Jason and I grew up on The Beatles and Radiohead.”

Their album Untie You Yourself was a massive success and was re-released, although “it is a lot less glamorous than it sounds” Rian adds “I was hoping it would sell out, in South Africa you are never assured of having cd sales so you pick your numbers conservatively; they didn’t sell out as we had 100 thousand copies” “no, we had 500 thousand copies” jokes Louis and then adds “it sort of just happened…”

As for making it in the music industry Louis says passionately “I’d love to make a living off what I love, it’s any South African musicians dream.”

When onstage “we find there is a kind of energy when we perform; it just happens. It’s not there when we’re offstage, but when we are onstage we create it, the infectious effect it has on people” Louis adds “it’s my way to escape…”

We then switch to talk of their upcoming album and their excitement is apparent. “It’s going to be huge” Louis then turns and points to the billboard across the street “we are going to be on that billboard.”

“The vocals haven’t been recorded yet, but when we played it back I had a definite favourite, then it changed, but Church Going Man is a standout track” says Louis of the new songs. Rian prefers “the more experimental stuff”.

What they are looking forward to most with regards to the new album The Turn is to be able to “have worked so hard,  and to finally get it (a labour of love) to the fans”

They were scheduled to play a festival during September in Germany “but it got cancelled, although the tour will still be happening, just in October” when talking of touring when asking who the messiest is, Rian suggests Louis, who then looks thoughtful and concedes that it might be him. Louis says “we’re pretty clean guys, we make the beds and stuff” so they make good guests then? “yes” Louis answers laughingly. The unanimous answer to who talks the most rubbish on tour is “George” Rian adds “when he gets on a plane he just gets all lame”.

With The Turn released to critical acclaim, the band are doing it their way and they are doing it right.