SA: Fokofpolisiekar takes piano route on new ‘single’

The video, which was directed and edited by the group’s drummer, Jaco Venter, was trending at No 34 on YouTube South Africa at the time of publishing this article.

“The music video clearly illustrates the effect ‘Komma’ has on people,” Fokofpolisiekar bassist and manager Wynand Myburgh told Music In Africa. “We used our show at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens on 21 January 2018 as the setting to capture footage for this track. This is the actual live version of KOMMA as performed on the day. We basically just wanted to capture the live vibe and the crowd’s reaction to the song.”

‘Komma’ is the band’s first song to feature a piano. “Our guitarist Hunter Kennedy wrote the lyrics,” Myburgh said. “The music was written by our lead guitarist Johnny de Ridder. The song was written while we were working on our latest album titled Selfmedikasie. It happened very spontaneously after Johnny fooled around on the piano. We have never done a piano-driven track, so it was something different and ended up on the album.”

Selfmedikasie (Self-Medication) was released in October last year after the band broke a crowdfunding record in South Africa in March.

“It is kind of a single. We usually see songs that we make a music video for as a single. But then again, it’s not really getting played on radio, which is probably be the criteria of a single in the traditional sense,” Myburgh said.

When asked to comment on the state of Afrikaans music in South Africa, Myburgh said Fokofpolisiekar’s music did not fit into the Afrikaans music scene but that most of the band’s fans were Afrikaans-speaking people.

“Our biggest personal challenge is to reach a bigger audience as our genre of music has a very small following within South Africa,” he said. “We have no intention of toning down our sound or try and write more 'commercially acceptable' music. In a way the fact that we sing in Afrikaans has been a pro for us. It has given us a small but niche market. This loyal following of supporters has kept us going for the past 15 years and we have no intention of stopping.

“If you are an English rock band your local audience has such a big selection of music to listen to worldwide that you can easily just become part of the noise. We did not start singing in Afrikaans with the hope of achieving this loyal following. We did it for ourselves and I really do believe that it is because of this honest approach that we are still around.”

Fokofpolisiekar will be performing at Woordfees in Stellenbosch tonight and at Lush Festival in Clarens on 31 March. The band has also announced plans to tour Europe in August.

For more tour info, visit the band’s official Facebook page.

Buy Selfmedikasie on iTunes.