When the country went into lockdown at the end of March, quirky local musician David Scott was stressed and anxious about not being able to work for the foreseeable future.
But a change of mindset, expanding his skills and making his content available in the digital sphere saw him getting attention from the likes of international actress Sharon Stone.
“She shared one of my parody videos on her Instagram stories and then I noticed my online following increase dramatically,” Scott, from live electronic act The Kiffness, told The Saturday Star this week.
The local music producer and artist has used the time under quarantine to create humorous and catchy tunes which has been widely shared in South Africa, Portugal, Spain, the US and elsewhere.
His latest offering, Mevrou, which shares the uniquely South African trauma of a non-English pupil having to present an Afrikaans oral to their teacher resonated with his local audience so much that it reached number one on the South African iTunes chart.
“Mevrou is a song that I made last year and I think it’s done so well because it’s something a lot of people have gone through and have not enjoyed.
“It’s hard enough saying a speech in your mother tongue, but having to say one in a language you hardly understand was quite traumatic as a schoolboy, so I thought I should take this traumatic experience and turn it into something that is fun and nice to listen to and that was the inspiration behind the song.”
Much of Scott’s recent success with his musical parodies came, ironically, as a result of the lockdown, when stressed-out people around the globe were looking for content to distract them from health crisis.
“Before the lockdown I used to tour and do live shows, but then I found myself with a lot more time on my hands, so I made this music as a creative outlet and also just to keep myself sane,” he said.
“Parody and comedy music comes naturally to me, but now that I had actual time to focus on it, there seemed to be an audience for it especially during lockdown, people were looking for things to take their minds off the hardships.”
Some of Scott’s most popular lockdown parodies included Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, described by many as “The Best Song in the World”; Ek Wil Tops Toe Gaan in Level 2, which celebrated the end of South Africa’s second alcohol ban; Quaranqueen, sung to the tune of Abba’s Dancing Queen; and I Get Locked Down, his twist on Chumbawamba’s Tubthumpering (I Get Knocked Down).
But his comedic and musical offerings during the countrywide shutdown were not all well received.
His controversial spoof of SA’s national anthem titled ’Nkosazan’ Dlamini Trafficker,'’which lamented the ban on the sale of cigarettes, was described as offensive by many, including Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina, who called Scott out on Twitter for the tune.
Despite the backlash, Scott insists that this won’t stop him from tackling important national issues through his music.
“Sometimes I say things that I know a lot of people are not going to like but it feels important for me to say it,” the musician insisted.
“I put out stuff with no expectation of what people are going to say, I just kind of do what I think feels right and I trust my gut, and if people support it, that’s great, but I don’t always expect that.”
While Scott and fellow musicians can once again perform for audiences under relaxed lockdown regulations, The Kiffness man insists that he won’t abandon his online offerings.
“I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t enjoyed this time exploring different avenues by doing the parodies and increasing my online audience but nothing compares to being in a room and feeling the energy of the people and enjoying the vibe.
“It’s all a balancing act.”