A quick pre Oppikoppi chat with Bittereinder

Bittereinder are part of this year’s Oppikoppi line-up and I have to admit that I’m really looking forward to experiencing them live at the festival in August. They’re one of the top live acts in SA. They’re always entertaining, always creative and they know exactly how to get a crowd bouncing (or should I be saying “bonsing” instead?)

I’ve been following Bittereinder ever since their New Year’s Gig at the Voortrekker Monument (yes that rainy one Die Antwoord headlined in December 2010). Since then they’ve released four studio albums and I have grown into one of the classiest acts in the SA Music scene.  I simply can’t wait to find out what they get up to at their set at Oppikoppi and what they have in store for us next.

I recently had a chat to Bittereinder about Oppikoppi and a few other things. This is what they had to say:

When you think of Oppikoppi, what comes to mind?

Stof. Bons. Funnels. Boonste bar gedigte. Tente. Sterre. Bosse. Stof. En bo alles, musiek.

What have you been up to lately? 

The three of us stay pretty busy, Bittereinder always remains our “side-project”, which keeps it fun for us, and almost like a release from our other work. Peach has moved his Sleeproom studio to Johannesburg and is constantly balancing 15 mixing, producing and mastering jobs from clients ranging from indie stars to big brands.

Louis is doing pretty much the exact same thing but mostly in the world of visuals with his company Albino Creations. Together they’ve also started a company called Planet Awesome which combines their diverse and super-impressive audiovisual skill-sets.

Jaco is lecturing at Open Window and also cautiously entering the world of filmmaking. Louis is also busy planning a new Afrikaans sci-fi film called “Siklus”, and Jaco is having tons of fun orchestrating the Wêreld Records movement as well as playing a bunch of acoustic solo shows, and Peach is heading off to Europe this week to play drums for an epic Queen tribute band.

As a band we’ve also had an awesome year, apart from all the regular club and festival gigs we also performed at the first alternative Afrikaans stand-up collective called Magtag! at the Carnival City Big Top (that’s gonna be on Kyknet sometime soon), collaborated with DJ Spoko for an epic Jam Sandwich episode (that track will also be released soon), Jaco performed at the Fiesta Awards at the State Theatre, we’re going to do a track with Parow at the Tempo Awards in July and of course we can’t wait for our Oppikoppi set on the Friday night – we have some big plans! It’s also about time we do a new music video, but as you might have picked up…we’re a little busy.

If B.O.N.S. was an abbreviation for something, what would it stand for and why?

Bittereinder On’at Next Shit. Wow, thanks for making me think of that.

What are your thoughts on the state of SA Music currently?

South Africa is an insane place. There are insane people everywhere. And insanely talented musicians too. Insane in every possible sense of the word. For these basic reasons, I think it’s fair to deduce that the state of SA music is insane.

What can audiences expect from your performance at Oppikoppi?

As always, we are going to try stuff that we’ve never done before, and we are going to make sure there are plenty of theatrical elements serving as the foundation for a really big audiovisual Dink-dansende bons.

I’d like to thank Bitereinder for taking time out of their busy schedule to answer my questions. It sounds like their set at Oppikoppi is going to be a cool one and I’m not missing it!

General Admission tickets for Oppikoppi cost R850. Get yours now or you’ll be paying R950 for a late ticket.

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