Duane Jonkers

Born and raised with music embedded deep within him, Duane Paul Jonkers, born January 25th, quickly became synonymous with pulling crowds by use of his phenomenal musical talents. Having been introduced to the art form at a tender age, Duane sought to nurture his creative gift, quickly forming a desire for his own original sound. This prompted him to explore, research and experiment with every aspect of music a process that has ultimately led him on a musical journey which has afforded him the titles of singer, lyricist, composer and musician.

Duane recalls one of his earliest memories serenading his teachers at Eastwood Primary School, age 12 he attributes a lot of encouragement coming from teachers as well as family members, friends, pastors and youth leaders who saw great potential in him. It was in his mid-teens, however, where Duane found purpose for his passion when he was introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ and was converted. He subsequently offered his voice to be used as a gift to God and his people in the praise and worship team.

At age 16, Duane then became interested in the drums after witnessing the finesse displayed by a close friend. It was the rhythm and complicated techniques which brought the beat together that originally drew Duane to this instrument. This new found walk with Christ stirred within him the desire to evangelize; he did so by incorporating music and wrote his first song, age 17, entitled “Jesus is the Best”. It was during these early teen years that Duane started an Urban Gospel Rap group known as TLA (The Lord’s Army) the group comprised of people namely Duane, Ashley Klien, Collin Smith, Randall Goss all of whom shared similar background and hunger to spread the gospel by use of their talents.

Duane spent eight years with T.L.A in which time they recorded an album, completed in 2006 with Daniel Bok, made two music videos and featured on two separate SABC2 programmes namely 3:16 in 2006 and Pedalling Pilgrims in 2008. Duane’s experience as a church musician, song writer and artist with T.L.A continued impacting on his quest to know more about music. It helped him realize that he had an insatiable interest in behind the scenes and began producing, age 24. He easily found pleasure in the technical functions of a music recording studio, the result of which has led him to master the programmes and music recording equipment and software. Producing has further benefited Duane by enabling him to learn music theory, professional methods on how to synchronize instruments and vocal harmonies and learn the basic of sound engineering. It has also opened doors for him to meet and work with talented singers, musicians, engineers and producers. At present, Duane is involved in a production label and outreach forum. Their core objective is to enable gospel artists, evangelists, youth-groups and youth development forums to have a platform.

Also, has launched a Christian arts label in 2019 Kingdom...