Helen Herimbi
The sun has been blazing this summer and Tortured Soul want to help you enjoy it. The American live house music band is one of the headlining acts at the inaugural Jozi Sunshine Festival which will take place at Marks Park in Johannesburg on December 13.
Artists like American neo-soul singer, Musiq Soulchild will be joined by The Soil, Tresor, Majozi and Louie Vega amongst others. The full-day festival is brought to you by Breakout Management and powered by Kaya FM Dance Ritual and the Castle Milk Stout company.
Having been to the country a few times before, Tortured Soul frontman, John-Christian Ulrich rose just before 6am Los Angeles time to chat with me because he says he loves South Africa so much.
The drummer and singer-songwriter who penned Mzansi fave, Enjoy it Now, said “South Africa is the best place in the world to come to because it’s the world capital of house music and it’s cool because so many people know our music so they reciprocate the love.
“People must expect an… energetic show,” he continued, “We’re going to do a bunch of the classic songs a lot of the people in Johannesburg know as well as a few songs from the latest album. It should be really fun.”
The latest, and sixth, album is called Hot for Your Love Tonight and is the offering of Tortured Soul’s current band line-up which includes Ulrich as well as Jordan Scanella (bass) who replaced Jason Kriveloff in 2010 and Isamu McGregor (keyboard) who replaced Ethan White in 2014. White had already taken a break from the band when he died early this year. It’s been rumoured that the last Tortured Soul album was inspired by him.
But Ulrich sets the record straight: “He was a huge part of the band, one of my closest friends and my business partner. He did a lot and dedicated most of his time to building the band to where it is now. It’s not inspired by Ethan, but the honourable thing to do would be to dedicate the album to him since he was a part of the band for so many years.”
With regards to the sound of the album, Ulrich says “we were messing around with it and taking it into the disco realm. We wanted to experiment with other vibes with the content and with the tempo.”
Another new aspect of the band’s journey is their collaboration with MiCasa, Come a Little Closer, which is on the South African group’s latest album, Home Sweet Home.
“We’re going to have a version of that song on the digital release of the Tortured Soul album in the first week of December” he shares, “so we can’t wait to get there because it’s going to be awesome.”
Catch Tortured Soul at Jozi Sunshine Festival at Marks Park in Johannesburg on December 13. Tickets are available at Computicket. The group will also be in Cape Town on December 16 and 17, in Joburg on December 31 and in Durban on January 1. Visit the band’s Facebook page for tour information.