Wild ride to mark a milestone

MILESTONE: Cape Town rockers Taxi Violence launched their fifth album, Tenfold, in celebration of their 10th anniversary

MILESTONE: Cape Town rockers Taxi Violence launched their fifth album, Tenfold, in celebration of their 10th anniversary

Published Oct 15, 2014

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‘I’M sorry we’re late. Our GPS took us on a wild ride,” bass player Jason Ling, of the rock band Taxi Violence, apologises when we meet at Live – the Venue.

The Cape Town outfit are celebrating their 10th anniversary and to mark this milestone, have released their latest album, Tenfold.

Tonight decided to catch up with the guys during their soundcheck before their album launch at Live.

The members are George van der Spuy on vocals, Louis Nel on drums, Ling on bass and Rian Zietsman on guitar.

As we chat, it’s apparent that these guys are, first and foremost, friends rather than just band members.

They are explosive and electrifying as a live act on stage. But how have they progressed over the past 10 years?

Van der Spuy says: “We have refined it more than growing it, necessarily.

“After 10 years, you kind of take the best of what you’ve done and use that so it’s a distillation process.

“We don’t necessarily move with the times in terms of what’s popular at the time, we’re more like a band like AC/DC that have their sound and that’s it, you know. You either like it or you don’t, take it or leave it.”

With an impressive 10 years in the music business, Taxi Violence have certainly made a name for themselves on the South African music scene.

“We’re just in it for the right reasons. We’ve always been friends trying to be a band rather than a band trying to be friends. And that’s what’s important for us,” says Nel.

Van der Spuy adds: “Yeah, the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll will always be there, but that’s not why we got into it or stayed.

“It’s because we’re friends and like hanging out with each other most of the time.

“When we’re not playing together, we like to have braais or dinners or stuff like that, that friends do.

“Play Snakes and Ladders, Scrabble, go bowling. But at the same time, we do get drunk when we do all of this. It’s a bonding session.”

The guys believe the Tenfold compilation is 10 times bigger than their previous stuff, and that it’s their best work to date.

Explaining what the album represents, Zietsman reveals: “The thought behind it was that it would be appropriate for us to release something on our 10th anniversary, so we went about it with that in mind. We kind of took everything that we’ve learnt over the past 10 years and squeezed it into 12 songs.”

Shifting the conversation towards their highs and lows as a band, they all seem to enjoy recalling their greatest and worst moments.

Zietsman and Ling hate it when they’re wasted and mess up on stage.

Van der Spuy tends to forget his lyrics during acoustic shows. He laughs: “I just completely hit a blank and I can’t remember lyrics. It’s during acoustic gigs and when you say ‘exposed’… then you have to just freestyle. It happened the last time we were in Durban and I started singing a completely different song.”

We laugh as they each recall their most embarrassing moments. Nel even shares his disappointment when a festival like Tribe One cancels on you and don’t pay you for it.

“Yet, they paid Nicki Minaj R10 million and she got paid a non-refundable deposit.

“I heard when the news broke, there was a sound clip on Cape Talk when they spoke to Julius Malema and he said she must pay back the money because we don’t want R10m of our taxpayers’ money to go to boob jobs,” laughs Nel.

But, there are also plenty of highlights that Taxi Violence hold dear. From their European tour in 2009 to headlining festivals in front of thousands of people, the rockers say it’s always a great experience.

“Also, Up The Creek every year is always a highlight for us. It’s not the biggest festival, but it’s one of the best, in our opinion. And we’ll be playing Splashy again, for the second time, next year – that should be quite cool,” says Ling.

So what can fans expect from the Cape Town rockers?

According to Zietsman, they’re hoping to hit the European market again.

“Because we’ve got to spread our wings at some point. And last time was quite a positive experience for us. We’re gonna try to do it more often.”

• For information on Taxi Violence, visit www.taxiviolence.com

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