Sharing the stage with international and local acts, Kevin Gibson lends his winning drum rolls and kicks to just about every musician on the scene.
Based in Cape Town, but originally from Durban, Gibson’s early life was, surprisingly, spent ducking and diving the limelight.
“I would go by the name Kevin G long before Kenny G,” he chuckles as we chat after his gig at the Mahogany Room. “I also used my middle name, Stewart, in case they found me because I was really supposed to be going to the army. I had to serve; if they found me I would have been arrested.
“During apartheid it was compulsory for every white boy to go to the army after school. At the time I was trying to keep a low profile. I was trying to get work, yet I was scared to be seen so it was a Catch-22,” shares Gibson.
Although schooled in music at various institutions, Gibson started out at the Darius Brubreck College in Durban.
“I saved up to study at Berklee in Boston, Massachusetts. I’d saved up enough to go for a year in 1986, but that was the same year PW Botha gave his famous speech and the rand dropped, so my year was cut down to two-and-a-half months.”
Gibson later received a scholarship to the University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida.
“I stayed there for four months. Again, I didn’t have a work visa, but there wasn’t much work for musicians at the time.
“Eventually the musician’s union found out and threatened to tell emigration, so my buddies thought that if they resigned they would be helping me, but all that did was bring more attention to me. That was the period from when I left school till 1994 – I couldn’t settle, always moving around.
“Darius said to me to wait it out because he had the same situation in Vietnam and, in fact, if it wasn’t for him I would have gone to the army. I ran out of options and money and Darius was influential during that process.”
He attributes his influences to the radio he listened to as a toddler.
“I would play along to the radio – Springbok Radio and a black radio station that played all the soul brother stuff. A neighbour gave me a double vinyl – the whole of side four was a drum solo.
“My mom says my grandmother gave me a tin drum and I would bang the c*** out of it,” he chuckles. “I was just meant to be a drummer, no two ways about it. I started working at 13, wedding gigs on the weekend.”
Gibson made his way to Cape Town in 1989, teaming up with Gavin Minter and playing gigs at Galaxy and other spots.
“We used to play original music – Gavin’s music didn’t even fit into a genre – a Jamiroquai kind of sound, funk and rock, so we didn’t get too many gigs. At the time I had just R60 to my name and couldn’t go home so I just stayed in Cape Town.
“It was difficult. I got guest spots and would play with Winston Mankunku – I would cross over to jazz. This leads to a bohemian lifestyle, living day to day, you can’t rent a flat, you can’t settle.
“It’s taken a while to become a bit more conformist.”
Gibson still seems that withdrawn kind of person as I ask if he thinks he has changed in any way.
“It was instilled in me. Being a drummer is not to outshine the lead person in a group. It’s 50 percent a supportive role and the other 50 percent is that they’ll hire you if they like you. All the people I have played with I have met through the university system.
“Why I’ve been able to make a living out of drumming is because I enjoy playing all types of music. I don’t discriminate.
“Youtube is my teacher nowadays. I check what the younger ones are doing today to stay relevant.
“I’d rather play a good version of music I might not like than a bad version of music I like.
“Gone are the days when you could just rely on your talent. You have to spend as much time as doctors do when studying medicine for their craft.
“Musicians say: ‘Ah, there’s no money’, but are they working as hard as someone doing medicine? Approach it like a law degree.”
On a rich journey of a thousand words travelled thus far, Gibson says: “I’ve only just started.”