Pre Grietfest 2015 Interview With Fogshow

 INTERVIEW 

Fogshow Take Us On Their Musical Journey

The Fog Show descended on Cape Town’s music scene and soon amassed an intimate following with their addictive selection of Techno, minimal and psytech sounds. Their distinctive progression from slowed down minimal beats to rolling bass lines and interesting drops is influenced by local acts such as Killer Robot, DeadBeatFM and Digital Rockit. The duo have played alongside some of SA’s biggest names and are being called on by clubs and festivals all over the Mother City for their prescribed dose of mind-fogging minimal sounds. Fogshow are a part of the Grietfest 2015 line-up and we had a chat to them.

Tell us about how your musical journey, how did you get into music?

We became friends in High School in Joburg (St Stithians) and were always partying on the weekends together. We have always shared a great appreciation for music and when we arrived in Cape Town for varsity we started throwing Cape Town Alive parties.

From there we took over the music policy at Sapphire in Camps Bay, which Nick was part owner of. At the time Sapphire was one of the best music venues in Cape Town (in our eyes anyway) and this gave us an amazing platform through which to start playing music together as Ducking Fogshow. (Attached are some flyers from Sapphire) – once we realized Ducking Fogshow was a silly name, it evolved to The Fogshow. 

We have been pushing Techno in Cape Town for the last 7 years or so and it’s a been a great journey.

You've recently gone from playing successful residencies in Cape Town to ending up on the major festival line ups like CTEMF and now Grietfest, what has that transition been like?

The step up has been gradual but really great – We have just tried to be as relevant and consistent as possible over the years; it’s always rewarding when hard work starts to pay off.  

We've had techno heavyweights like Octave One, Tale of Us and Loco Dice gracing stages at local parties recently, do you think South Africa is finally establishing itself as a viable market for underground electronic music?

We are getting there slowly but surely – but in all honesty we just don’t have the numbers yet to compete with international markets like Europe enjoys. But the fact remains these guys all want to come to South Africa which is half the battle won! It’s only going to get stronger from here. The crowds are becoming more educated and appreciative though which will definitely add to the scene’s progress.

You've been involved in the local techno scene for some time, what have you observed over the years about the progress of the scene in Cape Town as a whole?

The scene is great – Techno has always been around as an underground expression and is definitely gaining popularity locally and internationally. The local scene both, here (CT) and Joburg have both seen massive growth in the past few years. We can’t complain; its what we have all been trying to achieve for so many years. At Vice City there is a trend happening where the girls at the front of the dance floor take their tops off and dance to Techno all night. We are getting there…

Which releases do you find yourselves spinning a lot lately?

NICK – I am enjoying Matador a lot at the moment! 

DAVE – Carl Craig is the best.

You're playing Grietfest this year, what in your opinion sets this particular festival apart from others on the calendar?

Its very cool how Grietfest was built around Bass/Electro sound and has now grown to appeal to so many more electronic music genres. We are really happy to be a part of this year’s Grietfest; it’s a really big honour for us.

Grietfest has a reputation for having an element of unpredictability and outright absurdity; do you have a crazy Grietfest story or experience?

This will be our first time – we are very excited. We have loads of friends from Joburg so we will almost certainly be walking away with some interesting tales.

What can fans expect from your set at Grietfest next month?

Techno music – we will have to see what the crowd is doing but it would be nice if we can go a little old school Fogshow and just crush it.

Any last messages for your fans?

Buy low - sell high.

https://www.facebook.com/TheFogshow 

https://soundcloud.com/the-fogshow 

https://twitter.com/The_Fogshow