Oppikoppi Festival 2017: A photo review
Pictures by Simone Dos Santos
Tag Archives: Oppikoppi
Artist Spotlight: Maddy Behrens
Making it in the music industry is hard. In South Africa, even harder. The scene is small, good (paying) venues are scarce, and it takes time and hard work to get on to a festival line-up. Living for the music isn’t free.
Enter Maddy Behrens, a folk/pop musician reminiscent of Gabrielle Aplin and Lisa Mitchell. The young musician traded her busking corners of KwaZulu-Natal for the hustle and bustle of the big city to pursue a career in music full time. And she’s not losing any momentum. We caught up with her on the cusp of her second Oppikoppi performance.
‘n “Kak lekke vibe” – Van Pletzen kom Oppikoppi toe
Van Pletzen is ‘n Afrikaanse feel-goed band wat bestaan uit Matthieu Auriacombe (aka Nik-Nax, van Beach Party, Hello Beautiful, en Kidofdoom) en Peach van Pletzen (van Yesterday’s Pupil en Bittereinder). Hulle maak musiek met ‘n redelike unieke, humor-belaaide aanslag, en stel hul liedjies vry saam met gestileerde musiekvideos. Ons het met Peach gaan gesels oor die groep se oorsprong, hul debuut by Oppikoppi, en wat nog voorlê.
Francois van Coke – nou met Liefde, by die Dam
“Ek en Karen het besef dit is ‘n goeie song toe ons dit geskyf het,” vertel Francois van Coke oor die virale internetsukses van Toe Vind Ek Jou – die liefdesballade wat hy saam met Karen Zoid geskryf en opgeneem het.
“Voor die album [Francois van Coke, sy selfgetitelde solodebuut] uit was het ek dit natuurlik vir vriende gespeel, en selfs my metalhead chommies het hoendervleis gekry as hul dit hoor. Maar ek het in my wildste drome nie die reaksie verwag wat ons gekry het nie.”
Scarlotte Will EP
Scarlotte Will isn’t easy to write about – mostly cause I have no idea whether their name means something. Even geographically, they refused to be boxed in: They hail from Gauteng – that is, Randfontein, Pretoria, and Kempton Park. However, the four-piece alternative rock band have been working hard to hang on everyone’s lips. They are one of the hardest-working and constantly-gigging bands I know of that teeter on the edge of “underground”. Whatever that means these days. They pop up regularly on stages at The Bohemian, Railways Cafe, and Arcade Empire, practically opened the main stage at Oppikoppi this year, and had a stint high up on the Tuks FM top 30.