Johannesburg three-piece, Shadowclub, have had a tumultuous time since forming four years ago. They’ve been through three bassists, broken up and reformed and recorded demos only to ditch them, yet despite all of this have created a loyal following in the process. At last, they have an album, Guns and Money, and they’re
I meet Shadowclub outside a Johannesburg coffee shop on a warm September evening and the camaraderie between the three is almost palpable. Having known them for a number of years and having tracked the bands various vicissitudes, I start with the big question their fans have been asking shortly after they appeared on the live scene: Why the hell has it taken so long to record and release an album?
Vocalist and guitarist Jacques Moolman laughs and says, “We had teething problems”. Drummer Isaac Klawansky adds, “We tried a couple times”. Moolman reckons the band tried a few years ago to record at SABC but that it “didn’t come together.” He says the band tried again last year, but the result was “too smooth and popified”.
Louis Roux, a childhood friend of Klawansky’s and the most recent person to fill the role of bassist nods agreeably, “The last time we recorded conventionally, you know, with a click track and that sort of thing. The producers focused on commercial viability. This time we did it how we wanted to do it, and that meant doing the whole thing live.”
“We essentially moved into the studio, and Matt [Fink] made that possible. It was the ideal environment,” says Moolman. Matthew Fink, of The Black Hotels fame and a man who’s developing a reputation as a great producer, produced Guns and Money and allowed the band to essentially live in studio for the two-week recording process.
Aside from overlaying vocals, and some additional harmonies and guitar parts the band recorded every track together, as if doing a live performance. They tell me they thought this was the best way to capture the essence of Shadowclub’s sound because, ultimately, as Klawansky insists, “Shadowclub is a live band first and foremost”.
For a long time the trio was disjointed, performing erratically and prone to periodic breaking- and making-up. Moolman says that’s behind them now, “We’re starting to work really well together and being more diplomatic. We’re focused now; we know what the brand is, and we’re all on the same page.
Klawansky says the problem was that before now the band “never had all the pieces together… or the right bassist.”
“Most people have jobs they go to from 9am to 5pm. And often ‘a hard time’ means a tough project or a nasty client, but you still get paid,” says Moolman. “A hard time for us was almost losing everything we had and almost killing each other. Getting to this point, with a great product, is something we’re really proud of.” Now signed to Karl Anderson’s Just Music label, whom they almost signed with a few years ago, Moolman says the band “weren’t ready for Karl the first time around.”
Klawanksy came to know Anderson better through his involvement with the band Flash Republic, another of the label’s artists. “I knew we’d made a mistake the first time. But we kept in contact,” says Klawansky. Despite a fall out with Anderson, once the band felt suitably settled again, after Roux joined, they approached him for a deal. They say they now enjoy a great relationship with the label owner and reckon they have him to thank for getting their material on digital platforms like the iTunes store, and for encouraging them to press the 500 white vinyls of the album they’re selling at gigs.
While Anderson handles distribution and most of the band’s publicity and marketing, Klawansky has become de facto booking agent and manager. “We had bad experiences with managers and booking agents. The industry here is small enough to do it yourself,” he says. Despite an increasing presence on television, radio and online, the band still finds venues that haven’t heard of them and sometimes end up playing support stages. Moolman smiles and states positively, “it’s a good thing that. It keeps us grounded and motivated.”
“From the outside looking in people think that because you have a video and a deal you must be doing well, but we’re still working hard,” says Roux.“Even when you get what you wish for there’s no time to take it in, you have to keep at it.” Moolman says in many ways the band feels they’re “at the beginning again”, but that now they’re“treating it more like a business, and we know we have to go through all of the hard work required to make it a success.”
Regarding the recent success the band has had in the mainstream media, Jacques says there’s no denying “the audience changes once someone like 5FM picks up your track.” “It also makes getting gigs easier,” says Klawansky.“Venue owners suddenly think you’re popular and give you a slot when before they wouldn’t even bat an eyelid.”
They laugh as Moolman points out that one of the downsides of their newfound popularity is that “suddenly even random acquaintances seem to have become our best friends”. “[Popularity]isn’t going to influence our writing style though,” interjects Roux. “Perhaps we’re popular because the timing is right. Indie culture has been redefining what’s popular. We’re not on radio because we write pop tracks, but because the collective ear is changing. The Black Keys, won five Grammys, that wouldn’t have happened five years ago.”
Moolman attributes the bands new sense of cohesion to being “pretty supportive of each other. We talk about what’s going on with ourselves. Being in a band is an incredibly deep relationship to have with other people. It’s like a marriage, and sometimes egos and emotions run rampant.” Although the band has only recently started promoting the album aggressively, Moolman says they’re “always writing new stuff”and that the “writing experience is becoming very integrative. Louis is very involved. We’ve got a ton of material waiting for us to get it down.”
“This album marked a particular time, and it’s a great footprint of that time,” says Roux.“I’m ready to record another album again. I think we all are.” They all agree, “This was the best recording experience ever. We want to do it again, and soon,” adds Moolman. Roux says Shadowclub’s current idea of success is “playing loads and earning enough to get by, but we also want to be able to have families and ‘normal’ lives. It’s not just about stardom or the rock ‘n roll lifestyle”.
The band plans to promote the album and tour overseas, and are keen to see if a European label picks up on the release.“How we define success changes with time, and will keep doing so,” says Roux. “Right now we want to go overseas, and our first stop is Europe next year during the South African winter. We have aspirations of getting released elsewhere too, and to do that we need to do what we’re doing here, there. But we still want to be able to come back here and play The Bohemian,” he smiles.
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