For the adventurous ones, the misfits, the crazy and entertaining rebels who can speak their mind, dance, be mad and celebrate what life has to offer.
It took me an entire year to document local bands from Cape Town and Stellenbosch who share a love and talent for music. I photographed a number of bands,(Retro Dizzy, Arc the Forest, The Poor Princes, The Vanilla,and more) in order to discover how music shapes our identity and personality, how these musicians formed one identity as a group and what makes this identity different to them as individuals. I further looked into how this impacts their performance as well as their fans’s individualities. In order to show that one can experience the true chaos and creative force shared with the audience and the bands, I photographed behind the scenes, as well as live performances of these different bands and a number of creative portraits of certain musicians.The aim for this project is not only to be able to connect with music and capture how music is a cultural expression of our identity, but also show how important it is to support local bands.
What is the meaning of music and how does music culture influence how we represent ourselves and relate to society?
My year project began at a live concert that took place at Aandklass in Stellenbosch. A conversation began with a friend of mine about how the sweet melancholic noise pop of Medicine Boy exists in a sombre world of its own. Lucy and Andre’s voices are intimate, filling the bar with heavenly sounds and every individual that was there, stood in front of the stage in admiration. I could not help but notice the extreme impact this particular band had on me and on my emotions at the time. In all its complexity, music can be seen as a living, breathing mechanism that touches one's soul, creating certain feelings of wonder and excitement. When listening to a piece of music that I enjoy, I cannot help but feel connected to the instruments, the artists and the lyrics. It has been my experience that music not only helps me learn, but also helps me grow.
This project became an interest of mine as I am an aspiring musician myself and I have always wondered if fame and performance was mostly an act or if the musicians were who they are on stage, in reality. I believe that bands create an identity that is true to themselves as individuals and as a band, and they perform for themselves and for the love of music. It is refreshing to see local musicians today, performing and sharing their music with the rest of us, no matter if we like their music or not. In my opinion, music therefore speaks for the individual, and those who relate and understand it, will listen to it.
