“We’re not trying to be commercial or follow what other bands are doing…”
So what do you do after you’ve survived 10 years in the South African music industry, whilst never compromising on your hard rock/metal-in-your-face approach? Well, if you’re Deity’s Muse, you go to a Samba café for some burgers with a certain music journalist, who is always keen to unite rock with food; it is the true way of the Defenders of the Faith, after all.
Sticking it to the Man
Sitting across from me, vocalist/guitarist, Wayne Boucher, looks rather peaceful – despite recently quitting his day job to pursue his rock ‘n’ roll dreams full-time. Considering we are in South Africa, where rock isn’t exactly the number one – or even number two – genre of choice, I would’ve expected him to be a long-haired, goateed version of Stressed Eric. “No, not really,” Wayne laughs. “I’m actually so chilled; it’s ridiculous. The money thing is a bit of a worry, but, at the same time, I don’t really care much about money. If I cared about money, I would’ve been doing pop songs. I’m happy that I’ve done it. I’ve already seen interest all over the place, just because I’ve been more hands-on with the band. I don’t regret it at all. If you want to do this properly, you have to do it full-time.”It’s quite interesting that Wayne mentions money, because I also point out to him that Deity’s Muse have existed for the past decade without any form of assistance from labels, whereas most bands would’ve said eff this and quit long time ago. So, what’s been the success to their longevity? “The main thing is making music that you want to hear. We’re not trying to be commercial or follow what other bands are doing. We’re doing it for ourselves,” Wayne affirms. “We’ve also kept it as a three piece, which is always easier to control.”
Kill The Clones
Having seen the changes in the industry since the turn of the century, I ask what Deity’s Muse would like to see happen in the local music scene in the future. Suddenly, bassist Alvin Boucher springs to life for the first time (and only time) in this interview, puts his burger down, and declares, “I’d like to see bands writing music that they want to hear and not following what’s popular overseas. We’re always 2-3 years behind, it seems; and bands are copying each other and too many bands sound exactly the same. I’d like to see guys come up with their own style of rock and metal.”Wayne adds, “I’d also like to see more professional venues. Like they do overseas, maybe they should be auditioning bands before they get onto a festival. That’s another thing: all these day festivals, they’re just getting too much. Everyone is having a festival nowadays. You have 5 bands on the bill and you call it a festival – it’s ridiculous.”
From Slavery To YouTube
Celebrating their anniversary, Deity’s Muse haven’t exchanged diamond rings and loving vows, instead they’ve released their third studio album, New Trends in Slavery, and decided to ambitiously release 10 live music videos over 10 weeks via their YouTube channel. A project of this magnitude must cost a few pennies, so which bank did they rob? Wayne explains how they made this video project happen.“Through friends of ours, who used to be in a band, but broke up, and started their own multimedia company. All we’ve done is approach them and “you scratch our back, we scratch yours”. Obviously, they’re charging us for it, but we’re getting it a lot cheaper than anyone else. Basically, when it comes to business between two people, it has to help both sides. We’re advertising for them, and they’ll be doing the videos for us.”Sharing burgers and dirty Shania Twain jokes, you cannot help but sense an air of realness to this band. They know they’ll never be selling a million albums, yet they’re just wanting to rock without a reason. I think, deep down, we can all appreciate this remarkable and sincere celebration of complete freedom.
For more information on Deity’s Muse as well as some free MP3’s for your iPod, go to www.deitysmuse.com
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