Newtown Knife Gang: An Interview with Gareth

Newtown Knife Gang are one of the acts on the line-up for Halloween 2018. This epic party has a great line-up and is happening in Pretoria on the 26th of October 2018.

This Johannesburg based rock band has been around since 2010 and have played at their fair share of music festivals around South Africa over the years. I haven’t seen them live in a while and I’m really looking forward to their performance at Halloween 2018.

I recently had a chat to Gareth Norwood (the bassist of Newtown Knife Gang). This is had to say:

What has Newtown Knife Gang been up to lately?

We’ve been pretty quiet lately. Nick, our drummer, has moved to Cape Town to grow his new venture and we each have a lot going on in our personal / business lives.

You’ve probably been asked this question before, but where does the name “Newtown Knife Gang” come from?

The name comes from the area where we had our practice room in Newtown in Johannesburg. It was in a bit of a dodgy space, the building was the old cold storage building and we basically practiced in what was an old meat freezer with hooks in the roof where they hung the meat and a drain in the floor for the blood. We had cars and guitars stolen from there…

How would you say the SA music scene has evolved since you entered it in the early 2010s?

The SA music scene has seen a couple of ups and downs over the years. It seems to go through phases when sometimes bands are popular and then dip for awhile, depending on what genre of music is trending at the time, but it always seems to come back around full circle eventually. I see DJ’s really thriving in the market, both locally and internationally.

You will be jamming at Halloween 2018 in Pretoria, what can music fans expect from your set?

An energetic set with some of our more well-known tracks and maybe one or two older classics. Halloween is going to be the highlight of our 2018!

What is your idea of the ultimate Halloween costume?

The ultimate Halloween costume for me is still a hot girl in a tight little nurse outfit.

Who would you throw into the ring for the ultimate edition of Celebrity Death Match?

Steve Hofmeyer vs Patricia Lewis.

What can we expect from Newtown Knife Gang for the remained for 2018?

We don’t have many plans as a band before the end of this year. We will all be winding down from a crazy past few months and enjoying December with family and friends. We are however looking forward to planning our 2019.

I’d like to thank Gareth Norwood and Newtown Knife Gang for this interview and I wish them all of the best with their set at Halloween 2018 and their future musical endeavors.

If you don’t have tickets for Halloween 2018 yet, get yours HERE. I See Stars (from the USA) are headlining this epic party. There will be 3 stages featuring some epic local acts. You shouldn’t miss out on this.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Music category on Running Wolf’s Rant.