aKING reigns in Cape Town

Can you give us a little background history on how the band came to be?

Laudo: Well I was always wanting a band but never really found the right people to play with so [Hennie] was a guitarist and one night I asked him if he wanted to play bass in a band so we started mucking about. Then after [Jaco] was back in shape after he broke his arm he joined and after Fokof took their hiatus Hunter also joined and we started to take it a bit more serious.

Why the name aKING?

Laudo: Before the rest of the band joined I played around with our graphic designer and he said we should call the band King but that name was already taken so we thought why not make it aKING it's easier then all of the “the” bands out there.
Hennie: And it would be first on any list.
Hunter: And when we joined we didn't want to go through that dilemma of finding a name.

You have the tag line “a king is born” on your MySpace page is that meant to have a religious connotation and are you comparing yourself to Jesus?

Hunter: We just thought it was funny, I don't know.

Some of your lyrics do sound sort of like Christian rock?

Laudo: Well I am a minister's child so it was inevitable that was going to come through.
Hunter: And we are Afrikaans and in that community Calvinism is still pretty rife.
Jaco: We all had to shake the shackles.
Hennie: It's like the concept and imagery that everyone is familiar with.

With regards to lyrics though they are quite poetic and often a bit indecipherable or cryptic is there a deeper meaning or story behind them?

Laudo: Well at first we didn't really have a structure oh how we wrote songs so we didn't want to cram ourselves into one formula so we kept it random and vague enough so people could interpret any meaning into it. Just sort of leave clues.
Hunter: Each song has a personal story for us we just think people are going to misinterpret it anyway.

From an outsiders perspective it seems like the Bellville bands have great camaraderie and support for each other is this true or is there jealousy and competitiveness as well between bands?

Jaco: No that's definitely how it is. It just grew and grew the family.
Hennie: I think the key is we were all originally friends before we started the bands. So I think friends came first and then came this little scene.
Hunter: We became friends through music and that's how we sort of chose each other in High School.
Jaco: And we also figure if one band from Bellville does well it benefits all of us it's not like one of those things that if someone gets more popular they take fans away from someone else. That's not the case. It's not like “someone's wealth is someone else's misfortune” we are all stoked for each other.
Hunter: And everyone can have side projects and become incestuous.
Jaco: We like that sort of thing.

Hunter you are in no less than 3 bands, aKING, Fokof and Heuwels Fantasties. How do you manage your time between each 3? And do you have a favourite?

Hunter: Well it's going cool it's mostly our mangers problems. It hasn't really been a problem, they double booked on Sat. Huewels were supposed to be on 5FM but we were in Bloem so I couldn't go to that so I just put my backing track on the radio. You sort of find ways around it. And with the favourite thing all the bands are very different and moves in different spheres.

Was it a conscious decision to become an English and not an Afrikaans band?

Laudo: Yes, since I started music I have always written English songs so it was inevitable that we would do that. And I felt that Fokof already did the Afrikaans thing. We just wanted to appeal to a wider audience and travel further. It's interesting that when Fokof started people were asking why Afrikaans and now they asking why English.

How would you compare and contrast your 2 albums Dutch Courage and Against all Odds?

Laudo: I would say the first one we spent a lot of time thinking about and we didn't really have a sound to go on. I don't know we planed way ahead and took a long time to write it. And with the new album we tried to keep it more impulsive and be more creative inside the studio. And keep it cleaner and guide it more towards the vocals.

And why the album title Against all Odds?

Laudo: For a moment we didn't think we were going to finish the album. Cause Theo's [Crous - the producer] hard drive crashed and we almost lost the whole album and then he got a blood clot in his colon and had to be operated on. So it was ridiculous. And also that song Against all Odds came about because he gave us a project to write a song in 3 chords and it took us two days and was one of the stronger songs on the album so we decided to call the album that.
Hunter: it was the first time there was no real cynical attachment to a line so we thought that might be a good way of punting it. I think another big difference between the two albums is the producers. On the first one Johnny worked with us quite extensively and the second one it was Theo.

How was working with Theo?

Laudo: Wonderful, I spent a lot of hours with him.
Hunter: He's awesome you know he also came from the same area and we went to the same school as he even though he's a few years older there is a lot of similarities and he knows a lot of our older brothers and sisters.
Laudo: We speak the same language and have the same sense of humour. And it was cool to pick his brain.We will definitely work with him again.

Did you have different musical influences when creating the 2 albums cause they sound quite different?

Laudo: Yes definitely the first album was quite hard and layered so we took our time a bit more with the second one in the studio, We didn't want it to sound like an angry punk band.
Hennie: We were listing to a lot more classic rock for the first one like at the time the number one single was that Foo Fighters track and I don't know hard rock was more in our conscience at the time. And now we are listening to bands like Kings of Leon.
Laudo: With the first album we were looking for attention almost and we were like “Hey hey listen to me” and it was a more drastic sounding album and we didn't want to be screaming “Listen to me” for the second album.
Hunter: We were still listing to a lot of punk when recording Dutch Courage and we wanted to get rid of that and we are listening to a lot of older bands now like Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel who are all big songwriters.

With the albums and the response to them there seemed to be lots of fans who seemed to be unhappy with the new album and who thought that Dutch Courage was so much better, what do you say to them about that?

Laudo: Whatever ha-ha
Hunter:You can't please everyone all the time.
Jaco: It's inevitable. When you bring out a first album there is nothing to compare it too. There's always going to be some people who are unhappy and some fans you going to lose. We have to do what we are into.
Hunter: I heard from quite a lot of people that when they first heard the album they weren't really convinced of it but when they heard the songs live they changed their mind.
Laudo: The new album has more longevity to it. We went yearning for attention and I think people can hear that. The singles aren't grab you by the face they're better thought through.
Hunter: We're just stepping into a different mind space and the next album I don't think is going to sound the same as this one.
Luado: We are trying to grow musically.

Are you working on a third album?

Laudo: Yes I've got some ideas it's easier to not stop writing then to stop. I would be cool to build a catalogue and have a big repertoire to choose from.

Laudo we see you studied Drama at the University of Stellenbosch would you say that training comes into play when you are performing in the band?

Laudo: I don't know really. I definitely realised that I wanted to do music when doing it. It's a different thing in drama you have to not be yourself and with music it's more you so it's definitely different but it must have had some kind of effect.

If you weren't doing anything associated with music what do you think you would be doing?

Laudo: I would probably be doing drama.
Jaco: I would be a doctor/pilot/ model.
Hennie: I will be a qualified geek not an unqualified one like I am now.

Can you give us one of your craziest rock star moments?

Laudo: At Zeppelins in Pretoria a girl tried to trade her bra for my tie and I didn't see the functionality for that cause it was my only black tie and what am I supposed to do with a frikkin bra, she can still wear the tie. And she was so drunk her boyfriend was so embarrassed, he had to carry her out of the place.
Hunter: The other day we played at Jay bay and we hooked up with Zebra and Giraffe and everywhere else was so full so we found this empty empty bar and there was this was this wak guy manning a karaoke bar so we had the whole club to ourselves to do karaoke.
Jaco: And after we rolled in more and more people started coming in it was quite cool, well it was till we got kicked out.
Hunter: We are actually quite into that sort of general debauchery so there are a lot of stories that we are not actually going to tell you.

If you were being tortured and that torture involved you having to listen to a certain type of music or artist for long periods of time, what would that type of music be?

Hennie: Something adult contemporary like Celine Dion, something with a light spiritual message.
Laudo: Maybe something like some of these Afrikaans genres.
Jaco: Any distasteful music played loud enough is torturous.

What would most people be surprised to know about each of you?

Hennie: We are pretty domesticated I think, we not like mamas boys I guess.
Laudo: I'm a mama's boy ha-ha. Surprise!
Hunter: I don't have a driver's licence it surprises some people I don't know why.
Jaco: I have a pet tortoise

What's its name?

Jaco: Kaptain

Hennie: Maybe the fact that we are Afrikaans that seems to surprise quite a lot of people.
Laudo: Even Afrikaans people they come up to us and speak with this broken English “Do you play band?”

How do you think the SA music scene could be improved and what do you think we are doing right?

Jaco: Ja people should pay more for bands ha ha. Sometimes when those smaller and newer bands start they get paid nothing.
Hunter: But I think it's getting there it's really growing nothing to complain about.
Hennie: People are buying albums and they are willing to spend. It's just that there are not enough venues around in Cape Town and they are kinda shitty venues as well.
Hunter: And the mangers are not really professionally trained in what they are doing in the bigger scheme of things in the music industry.

Where are your favourite places to play?

Hennie: Stellenbosch and Pretoria.
Hunter: Yeah student towns are always the best and the wildest.
Hennie: For turnout student towns can't be beaten but for atmosphere Kirtstenbosch and that place at Louresnford for Coke Fest was absolutely amazing.

Best and Worst things about being in a band?

Laundo: Well one of the best things is that you get to see new places with your friends. And you can grow your hair.
Jaco: And the music obviously.
Laudo: Well ‘obviously' the music.
Hennie: I actually think the best and the worst things are exactly the same thing.
Hunter: The pros are the cons

Which Superhero would you be and why?

Jaco: Iron man, he's not a super hero but...
Hennie: I would be Awesome X
Hunter: Captain Planet, he's a looser.

But he's got a good cause at least.

Hunter: Ja but he's got a shit suit and he's united by a bunch of kids with rings.

How do you get on as a band, like the band dynamics?

Laudo: Copious amounts of shit talking
Hunter: Like when we travel that's all we do.
Laudo: We get into some sort of shit talk trance.
Hunter: We have known each other for so long there's nothing taboo.
Laudo: We just try to keep each other's spirits up.

Message for your fans?

Jaco: Buy the album and remember that we love you.

But do you really?

Jaco: Sure we do if they buy the album. It's conditional love.
Hennie: Read the BizLounge [and we would just like to point out we didn't make them say this]
Hunter: It's amazing that we have fans, just tell them that. Love us hate us love us.

http://www.aking.co.za/