Recently I was lucky enough to be be able to interview Double Adapter, a thrash electro band out of South Africa. The Johannesburg based duo has played at venues across South Africa, and just completed their European tour Adapt or Die. Dan and Tim are fun loving, extremely talented artists, who are passionate about both their music and visual art. Read on to learn more…
When did you start playing musical instruments and how many do you play?
Dan: I’m a bit musically challenged to be honest. I tried my hand at drums and guitar when I was younger but nothing really stuck, I guess I’m visually minded. I do however play a mean Ukulele.
Tim: I play quite a few instruments, but generally stick to the basics of guitar/bass/piano/drums…
How do you describe the genre of thrash electro and what inspires you to create this type of music?
Dan: Thrash electro was kind of a progression for me, I love indie electro, pop, hard rock and metal respectively, and all those elements together do give you a sense of what thrash electro is. It gets me excited and I think that’s the goal of dance music.
Tim: Yeah trash and thrash electro definitely inspires me in that is crosses a lot of boundaries – I love it that is bridges the gap between rock and dance music, it basically joins people from different music styles together.
What drove you to pursue a career in music and what is it that fosters your creativity?
Dan: Double Adapter is a passion; we love doing what we do. I am actually studying Film and Fine Art, as I said I’m visually minded and film, photography and art in all forms inspires me equally to music.
Tim: I also work in visual mediums too, owning a film production company, but I think the music thing bit pretty early for me and was hard to get away from – it’s quite an addiction. I’m really inspired by all new music I hear, strangely especially by pop music, which has strong reliance on melody – I love melody.
Where did the idea of a documentary come from? Was the process what you expected?
Tim: Well coming from my film side, the documentary kinda just happened because we knew we could pull it off… after the tour had been booked we kind of just had this realization that documenting it would be a rally fun and interesting project. Luckily my good friend Matthew Stonier from Mustard Post Production was able to come along for the trip, and create the awesome visuals you see in the documentary. I think the goal was to figure out how different the European and South African scenes are, and I think SA came off looking really strong.
What were some highlights from your European tour?
Dan: I loved Holland, its always been a dream to go there, traveling to a festival in Italy through the Alps was amazing and hanging out in Munich, my Joburg away from Joburg, was a really great experience.
Tim: I love German beer! Haha
What kind of things do you do to promote yourself?
Dan: I guess at the end of the day performing is the best way to promote yourself, and the most fun.
Tim: But that said, we’re also pretty active on twitter and facebook, we do as many interviews as we possibly can, and we LOVE creating little video clips and taking photo’s of things we’re doing…
What are your thoughts on the future of the music industry and where do you see it going?
Dan: I believe collaboration is definitely the way forward, which is something that we love doing. The SA music scene is constantly growing and changing and it really exciting to see and be a part of.
Tim: Its a good future, but its not what a lot of record labels and major artists thought it was going to be 10 years ago I think, the real future for musicians is in gigging and being seen, and creating music to be heard, almost as advertising rather than a profit stream. The whole industry is also moving away from commercial studios and into bedrooms and home studios, which is awesome, because we’re seeing talent come from places where it wouldn’t have survived in the old formal music industry.
What are your reasons for being an independent artist?
Tim: We haven’t been signed yet! Haha. That’s not strictly true – we take it one step at a time. I don’t think we’re dead set on being independent, we’re just dead set on doing our best to make the right choices when we can, not let people that like what we’re doing down, and get our show and sounds into the ears of new people – if that’s with a label, or independently, its something we take seriously.
What struggles have you faced with getting your music heard and getting your name recognized by outside markets?
Tim: Luckily for us, we haven’t really faced any, because we haven’t really tried! Double Adapter is about us doing what we love – we’ll keep doing it regardless of any growth rate or crowd sizes or other hurdles. This isn’t about fame, this isn’t about glory, its about playing the most fun parties we can, and making the people at those parties happy – luckily, it seems that that passion has opened some doors, so we’ll sit tight, be patient and see what comes our way! That said, we do have amazing support from our manager, Dominique Gawlowski at Griet and our publicist Rachelle Crous at Rachelle Crous Publicity – without them recognizing something they like in us, we totally wouldn’t be doing most of the things we’re doing right now…
Check out part 1 of their documentary here.
By: Elizabeth Stene | Beat-Play Ambassador South Africa | @LizMWL | Music Without Labels & Beat-Play, LLC
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