Do you ever get nervous doing interviews?
Yes but you need to be alive-open to new experiences, it's like performing. ..Constantly stepping into the unknown…you don't know what the audience is going to do…sometimes I don't even know what I'm going to answer… It's like writing songs you don't know what you going to write; the good songs don't come from your thinking it comes from life some visible place… What happens if I start to live like that-like how I write songs, what would happen if I met people like that? -just be open.
No not all the songs, a lot of the nucleus [of the songs] I will start, a song is a bit like a child, a growth process it develops at first you keep it close but then you have to let it grow up and let other people be involved in the process… the people around that child will influence it.
It basically started 3 years ago as a collaborative band, very open. I just wanted to create a space that could go out under one name…It started as a 15 piece band-Kirstenbosch was our first concert. It is distilled now, but we have kept the character dance, interesting instruments.
I met my French teacher a while back and she asked what I was doing? I said ‘I am in band called Hot Water' and she said ‘You were always getting into Hot Water in school…' There are many meanings to it you can look into another layer many facets, dynamics. It was really a weird trivial way the name came about we were pushing a huge cargo trolley and it just had Hot Water stuck on the side… And we said that would be a great name for a band…it flows.
You know sometimes people don't know what their meanings are, it will seem arb but it will reveal itself later to have a meaning. Sometimes you write a song and you think you know what's it about but often new meanings reveal themselves.
If you are not open to something new you are going to write something from your brain… the origin is not the brain, the origin for me is being open to new things. If I'm not feeling [a song] deeply then you are not going to feel it, the deeper I go down into myself the closer I get to the core of things and find the place where we meet [as an audience and band] .Especially as the word is going into a wobbly people are like oh shit we need to find another level.
We played in Holland, Waterpop a big park with a moat and the biggest windmill and they erected a massive SA flag… We sold the most CD's.
The response is different for different cultures, mostly the responses are pretty similar if we are doing our job right, and the aim is to find a way to make people comfortable and that they leave feeling uplifted.
There is a much bigger market overseas, a huge industry and I think they are interested in hearing South African music. There is a fine line between being too traditional and too pop, Hot Water is walking that line. It comes back to that question where is that space that people can connect?
I'm proudly South African but not to the point of being exclusive of others. I believe the core and energy of SA has a lot to offer and I'm proud of that. I feel Europe is calling for that energy that we have over here. If we don't feel happy with who we are then we are unhappy, that is about as Zen as it gets.
It's got a few names. We letting it percolate a little longer, we don't know exactly when it's going to go down. I think there are some really powerful songs we are becoming more confidant and we have more experience which allows us to deliver the songs. We are going to let it all hang out I think it's going to be a really good album.
No, I didn't, I didn't know what I wanted to do and I went into a very unhappy place it took me down to the depths… I'm grateful that I had realized in my twenties it was a massive crisis that brought me to that place.
I like engaging with people so it would be something along those lines I think music has really helped me transform the difficult feelings I have had. I think I would be in trouble if I didn't have music.
Jaluka, Jonny Clegg (loved his dance) There was such joy in him just before he danced. [Artists] that come alive on stage-to be alive that's the x factor of these musicians I saw Watershed at Kday really liked the live energy. The Dirty skirts drummer Mark de Menezes was our first drummer he was on our first album.
Cat Stevens I would bring him back to life, Paul Simon, Johhny Clegg.
Kirtstenbosch because it's in the middle of such a powerful space… Our first concert was at Kirstenbosch…we had just formed and we got that concert people didn't know how we got it.
Not yet we were approached with a deal but we turned it down cause it just wasn't the right one it wasn't the right time.
We are going for a month to Europe Holland and we are playing at the Hague Jazz Festival which is really huge for us, actually Hugh Masekela and Freshly Ground are playing the same concert so we have our work cut out for us.
Being alive, being there and being present on stage. I think this is what leaves an audience feeling good, feeling uplifted. I think this is what's needed I think this is what the band needs and what the world needs…So I guess that's the New Year's resolution to be alive… You don't need to be worrying about wearing a bikini to work tomorrow or not you are only here right now, you choose to be alive and life to be there.
Dynamic, Inclusive and open
I had a superhero book at home that I had when I was 9, the Marvel comics. There was this 1 character, arb character, he was pretty lame he could only swim under water and speak to fish and he was called Aquaman … ‘what are you going to do, save the world, no I'm going for a swim'. But if you are in Hot Water Aquaman is a good superhero to be so it all makes sense to me now.
It has encouraged me to be more open… life just happened right there it has taken me more out of my mind… and he is on the drums already.
I don't think a band is separate from society there is a link. I think a band is successful when it's serving something society needs.
There is a line form one of the new songs called Down South and it goes ‘You can be who you want to be' obviously you need to find who that is first.
What where we meeting about again, oh yes Hot Water, Hot Water, this is Aquaman signing off.
That's a great idea.
