LIVING up to their name, Rise, a Durban eclectic rock electronica band, is rapidly mounting up the successes.
Their more recent achievements include opening for the hit electronica band Goldfish twice last year, a number of their songs have made local and international playlists and they will feature on 5FM’s Live at 5 on February 19.
Better known for the song Be the Change, which has been released on East Coast Radio and three radio stations in the UK, the band is also remembered for their earlier hits like Stay (Good Hope FM, Highveld Stereo), Summer’s Gone (Heart FM, Levi Radio in Australia) and All We Have Is Now (East Coast Radio).
After just four years Rise – comprised of Kerry Wood, Colin Peddie and Martin McHale – now find themselves on the verge of releasing their second album, which will be mixed by Neil Snyman, who has worked with the likes of The Parlotones, Mango Groove, The Springbok Nude Girls and Prime Circle.
The secret to their success is having a crack team of Wood on vocals (who has worked with David Birch, Steve Fataar, Syd Kitchen, Wendy Oldfield and Yvonne Chaka Chaka); Peddie (of Butternut fame) on guitar and DJ McHale on decks.
Wood said it was in fact Fataar who inspired her to start singing. After singing at a few gigs with him and on one of Kitchen’s albums, she met more and more local musicians and was invited to sing for them, causing her career to snowball.
“In 1998, I joined the acclaimed band Butternut, performing at top music events across the country. And later the group guitarist’s Colin Peddie and I worked on launching my solo career and my first single in 2003,” the vocalist explained.
Over the years, Wood and Peddie mixed their music from a home studio. A request one day for McHale to remix their sound and add some house flavour to it resulted in Rise’s formation.
After remixing Stay, the song was released on the 3-30 album by Exultant Records in the UK and this resulted in a sound the team wanted to keep.
By 2009, with a combined 50 years’ experience in the music industry, the trio decided to launch themselves as Rise and their careers have been on an upward spiral ever since.
Not only is their music being played on radio stations locally and abroad, but the band is also receiving more recognition from the music industry.
Peddie, whose musical background includes being the founder of the indie rock band Soul Vitamin, a member of the jazz funk outfit Paradigm Slip and a performer in several musical theatre shows including The Guitar That Rocked the World, said electronica is where his heart lies and that, in his opinion, South Africa can no longer compare with the world musical stage as we are creating our own sound.
“There is no comparison anymore. If you look at bands like Saran Gas – they came from Pietermaritzburg, went to the US and became one of the biggest bands. The Parlotones are doing world tours, Jessy Clegg, Prime Circle…
“So the sound coming out of South Africa is much better and setting the standard. We (South African music) are competing on a world stage,” he said.
lRise’s second album, titled Water on Canvas, will launch sometime in March.