Yes to Gangs of Ballet

Congrats on reaching number one on the SA iTunes Chart. What were your reactions when you first heard this?

Gangs of Ballet: Thank you. High Fives and hugs. It didn't really feature on our radar at all really. We were so busy getting everything done. It came out on pre-release and then, 12 hours later, we were number one. We were so stoked. It's amazing, absolutely amazing.

Album title "yes/no/grey", is this a comment on indecisiveness or living in a world with no definites and no right or wrong?

I think, lyrically, the whole album really fits in that space. We're quite interested in the grey areas in people's lives, that uncertainty; a lot of people are scared of uncertainty, but if you embrace it, you find the yes and no, you sorta make sense of it all.

"yes/no/grey" has a very eclectic sound. In the age of iTunes where people download songs rather than albums, do you feel like the cohesive album has become irrelevant?

That's an interesting point actually. We've always wanted to create songs that could be played on big stages and stadiums, like that has always been where we've aimed. We still want it all to fit together, but we're still trying to figure out exactly what our sound is. If everything sounded the same, because there are four us, we would probably get a bit bored. I think it's a pretty good reflection of us as four individuals coming together as a band.

What was it like working on the album with Darryl Torr and Michael Brauer?

It was the first time working with a producer for us and Darryl is quite a qualified dude, like he's done quite a lot of stuff; he's a really good musician. So I think that was a good move on our behalf to go to work with him; he brought stuff out of us. We didn't actually work with Michael Brauer, this has been severely misquoted in press releases. The album got mixed at Electric Lady Studios, which is Michael Brauer's studio. It was mixed by his assistant Ryan Gilligan. Nothing goes out of his studio without Michael's signature, so he is part of the process, but he didn't do the physical mixing. The mastering was done at the Mastering Lab in California. We were very hands-on with the EP, so this process was quite different. Not that we weren't hands-on this time, but you sometimes have to step back a bit and say this oke knows what he's doing.

You've been with EMI for about a year now. What difference does being under a label make to the music producing process?

Radically, I reckon there are music labels out there working in the music business and you can either fight against it or with it. Our label manager, Kevin Grenfell, has been amazing - he's dispelled every horror thought about the music industry; he's just been incredible and fought on our behalf and with Universal buying out EMI we are now Universal artists and it's been a really good relationship.

You had a great response to your EP with much radio play. What do you attribute that success to?

We're still trying to work it out. Honestly we don't know. We always say there some things you can control and some things you can't and what we could do was practice and write songs. So that's what we did and we practised for a year before we hit the stage so we had some substance and we were tight. The stuff that we could get our hands dirty with, we did with all our might. We practised a lot and we chose our gigs wisely and the rest is out of our hands. We're very grateful and it's been really fun.

What is it like being in a band in Durban, a city that has a bit of a reputation of not being very supportive of SA music?

Durban is very picky, but if they like you you're golden, like every time you play there you'll get a solid crowd. It's almost worked in our favour that we haven't been in a major city 'cause we've gigged less. So there's more desire for us; when we come here we're getting fuller shows. We love Durban; we're the most Durban-proud people you'll come across. We love South Africa. There's an emerging creative scene in Durban. I was saying to the guys the other day that I'm glad it's not just the music scene. There seems like there is a creative uprising, there are markets and film festivals and art gallery openings.

What improvements in the SA music industry would you like to see?

I would love to see more venues, we play in a small town, but there are only a handful of venues around the country, I mean descent venues. I would love the government to open up a venue.

Musicians need to be better paid. I know that sounds a bit weird, but these guys are operating on shoestring budgets and people expect them to play for free the whole time. They're getting ripped off by promoters and then they get tuned if they get a sponsor involved 'cause then they're selling out. It's a Catch 22, 'cause the moment someone starts to climb out of the pot people pull them down. I think musicians get a rough deal getting paid what they're worth. I would love to see a minimum rate for a band.

There is only a handful of schools that teach music or the arts, really it's very unappreciated and we're a very creative country. It would be great to see South African bands get the same sort of support that international bands get. More stadium and arena shows.

What was it like opening for Switchfoot and Civil Twilight? You get to hang out with the bands at all?

Very cool. We're actually quite good friends with the guys in Civil Twilight and they're amazing guys and we've referenced a lot from them. We grew up on Switchfoot and they're the most amazing people. Jon Foreman genuinely loves people, he's very engaging, very humble.

How do you handle criticism?

We want to learn; we're all open to any constructive criticism and we try to learn from it. I think you gotta take it from where it comes. Some guys are out there to be douchebags. Our first bad review was so bad. They wrote: "Last night I went to watch Gangs of Ballet" and then just a random bunch of letters and then: "Oh sorry I just fell asleep ." So obviously that's quite horrible, but the process for dealing with that is to first ask yourself: Is that true? If not you just carry on with your life, but if it's true then we ask ourselves: Are we boring to watch? We're just trying to work this whole thing all out. We're trying to apply ourselves trying to make better live shows.

After the tour what's next for GOB?

After this tour, we want to tour more of the country; we want to get to places we haven't been before. We've got a couple of festivals lined up, but we definitely want to get to your city, play at your venue and get to meet you.

"yes/no/grey" is available for purchase on iTunes. Catch Gangs of Ballet at Rocking the Daisies on Friday, 4 October.

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