Q & A
`First the Barenaked Ladies and now the Springbok Nude Girls?” quipped Rolling Stone Germany quizzically, adding, “No respectable club owner in Germany would book an act with a name like that!” They did, however, rate our risqu boerseuns’ latest album, Surpass the Powers, above popular American rage outfit Korn. After a live gig in Hamburg the magazine was prompted to gush, “they’re even better live”. South Africans can decide for themselves when the group begins its national tour on Saturday January 22 at The Jam in Cape Town. Here bassist Arno Blumer and vocalist Arno Carstens discuss the band’s visit to Germany and their plans for the future.
Why do you think Springbok Nude Girls is ready for international exposure?
Arno C: [After some thought] I think Europe’s open to what we are doing …
Arno B: You reach a certain ceiling where you realise that you either have to get an audience somewhere else as well or …
Arno C: Die!
What do you think they’re going to like about the music?
Arno B: The diversity of it. I think that in Europe there are so many different things that people are into, so we’re definitely going to appeal to some part of the population.
Arno C: We appeal to people in this country … a bit [he smiles sheepishly]. There’ll be people like us elsewhere on this planet, so it’s not too foreign to think that we might even have quite a big market over there.
You’ve played in England before .
Arno B: Ja, there we mostly drew South Africans. London’s such a huge city that if you’re a band from Sweden you can play there to a full house of Swedes. We’ve played in Belgium too, to a very different crowd at a big festival about two years ago.
And now in Germany …
Arno C: That gig went well! They found us very interesting [he imitates the Germans’ jaws dropping].
Were there any screaming groupies?
Arno C: [laughing] No.
Arno B: They don’t know us there yet. We went over to promote the album and it was released at that stage. We played mostly to record company people and media.
Was there a media frenzy?
Arno B: Well, we did about 25 interviews with magazines from different countries including Poland, Switzerland and Austria.
Do you know how many albums you’ve sold there yet?
Arno C: Well even in South Africa the album only starts selling a month after it’s gone out. And they don’t know us there at all. This album is just going to introduce us to the Europeans.
Arno B: It’s not a make or break situation, it’s just a foot in the door.
So did you do anything naughty in Germany?
Arno C: No, just hung around in the jacuzzi! Metallica was with us in the hotel, but we didn’t go out of our way to meet them. Arno had a bit of a chat with the lead singer about their orchestrations.
Arno B: And we went out …
Arno C: Got trashed … And there’re beautiful men and women there – tall, stunning . [he doesn’t elaborate].
What are you looking forward to on your upcoming national tour?
Arno C: Seeing the beautiful wide open country of South Africa .
Arno B: Driving through the Karoo in the midday sun – without air-con!
Arno C: And just doing some student gigs.
Can audiences expect any new stuff?
Arno C: Ja, there is, but we probably want to keep it low profile for now, just so that no one gets sick of it.
Arno B: We always have quite a few more songs than on the latest album, but we try to keep them back for when the new album comes out.
Is there a new album in the pipeline?
Arno C: Ja, we’ve already written the next album. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Arno B: ‘Cos now we know what it’s all about, working with a producer. So a lot of the pressure is off.
Arno C: The last album was our first with a producer so there was a lot of “Oh fuck, I wonder what this is going to sound like” – South African listeners’ pessimism. But now we’re quite relaxed and we’ve been signed in seven countries in Europe, so we don’t really care!
Are you moving somewhere else with your new stuff?
Arno C: It’s like the other stuff in that it’s fairly rounded off, but it’s going to be rougher, more wild. And then there’s going to be pop songs, and ballads.
Arno B: We’ll have the really slow and sweet sounds as well. Maybe some of the stuff is going to be more aggressive. But we’ve got about 10 songs for the album now, maybe we’ll write seven more and it’ll work out completely differently.
Arno C: There’re a whole lot of possibilities. Some of it might be a surprise!
The two Arnos spoke to Michelle Matthews