I was 18 and armed solely with an acoustic guitar when I stood up and sang my first 3 impromptu songs to an audience of about 7,000 at a well-known music festival in South Africa, called Splashy Fen. After that, a whole new world suddenly opened up before me and I moved to Durban SA, the year after and formed my band, Caffeine Substitute. I managed to carve a musical career out of a then very limited and frustrating local music industry, with Caffeine’s acoustic and vocally driven rock sound based mostly around the acoustic stuff I had written.
In 1997 we were included on a local compilation, C-Weed released by Universal Music, which featured “Little Evils†as the opening track, and which is still subsequently being played on certain radio stations in SA today. During it’s 5 year run, Caffeine went on to record & produce two successful EP’s, and then a full-length album “For Medicinal Purposes Onlyâ€. Songs “Swirl†and “Solo†were playlisted on numerous radio stations in SA and peaked to the Top 5 on CBFM’s Alternative Chart, Top 10 on their Top 40 in the Cape, and in the Top 10 on East Coast Radio’s SA Single Chart, KZN. “Swirl†also received extensive airplay on 5FM’s playlist, a nationwide radio station, and Caffeine Substitute performed live on air on Barney Simon’s “5FM TDK Live Sessionsâ€.
We also played all the major music festivals (Woodstock, Oppikoppi, Southern Cross, Awesome Africa, Living Treasures and Quaver), were included on the “Gotcha Experienza†video soundtrack, and the second C-Weed Version 2.0 compilation (Universal Music), as well as winning the Kwazulu Natal region of the Friedjam.com nationwide Battle of the Bands competition.
The band split to pursue their own musical careers and I became very eager to change direction after spending 5 years playing rock music, so joined forces for one last time in SA with a DJ/Producer, Manoj Budhu. Together we produced a dance track called “Rumble†which was distributed to and played by some well-known underground DJ’s at 330, one of Durban’s famous nightspots for the dance music scene. I also provided live vocals for the song during Manoj’s set at the Intergalactic Experience, an electronic music festival event held at the Point Waterfront.
Since landing on UK shores, I continue to write, have hooked up with a few DJ’s here and there and put vocals to an RSPCA TV ad called “Promises†(which proved to be one of their most successful campaigns in terms of response!)
Onwards and upwards from here on out….
