For all his dynamic onstage performances and rock’n’roll personae, Arno Carstens has always been a somewhat reclusive, reserved individual.
Interviewed earlier this week, however, Carstens is quick to distance himself from the stereotype the public has been fed, that of a brooding rock god who spends his days snorting coke and chasing women — or men.
“I don’t think that’s the case,” he responds with a laugh to allegations of sex deity status. “If it’s true, then it’s a cool bonus, but I don’t really feel that way. In fact, for a while after the break- up of the [Springbok] Nude Girls, I felt like a washed up has-been. Luckily then my girlfriend pointed out that to be a has-been, you have to have made it, so I am carrying on with trying…”
In fact, a lot of what Carstens says and does seem to be divorced from what went on in the early days of the Nude Girls. Nowadays he goes as the quietly confident music professional, wearing his been-there-done-that credibility as a badge of pride. “I am having more fun now than ever before,” he declares. “Before, in the Nude Girls, there was a lot of teenage angst and shit. Now it’s different. We don’t put up with any of that prima donna shit, and just get on with it.”
The “we” he refers to are the members of his present outfit, New Porn. Consisting of Carstens himself, Albert Frost on guitar and Brendan Jury on keyboards and viola, this outfit is the framework on which the new solo Carstens material is built.
Given his reputation for sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, his mild-mannered demeanour comes as a bit of a surprise. “No man, the thing I enjoy most these days is jogging with my dog,” he laughs. “Ja, it’s true — I like jogging, playing tennis, trying to keep healthy. I’m still a very social animal, I like partying, drinking and hanging out, but afterwards I’ll always go for a run, try and keep it clean for a couple of days.”
But all this calm and gentility is belied somewhat by a quick listen to Another Universe. The songs, while nowhere near as heavy as the old Nude Girls catalogue, are without doubt not light and fluffy. With lyrics like “There’s a virus in the bible / It’s called survival” from the track Something We Started and “I’m gonna slit the throat of the holy goat” from the title track, it becomes obvious that the demons still lurk. A quick scan of the lyric sheet will give the casual reader a good idea of the deeper concerns of Carstens, and they are not all about watching DStv and running with the dog.
“Nowadays I have everything I want, a girlfriend, a dog, I got DStv, DVD, a great sex life, the works.” Carstens goes on, “We’ve got this really cool place with pressed-steel ceilings, big mirrors and a broekie-lace finish. Not that I have anything to do with the interior decor,” he quips. “My girlfriend has great taste, so I leave that up to her.”
And yet on the album he sings about escaping from a “world at war”. Could it be that things are not as peachy as Carstens would make out?
Perhaps he is caught in contradiction — an artist striving to be taken seriously when it is really his relationships that draw the type of media hype reserved for international stars. Much was made of his connection to Christina Storm. He moans about the fact that they “just happened to be friends … at a certain time. I didn’t feel that any of the publicity about our relationship had that much to do with me, as I had just walked into a situation that I really knew nothing about. So I didn’t really mind about all the press.”
But Carstens doesn’t allow conversation to dwell on personal matters for too long. He turns to his music: “This year is going really well for me … I have been writing new material. Because Another Universe was released towards the end of last year, we didn’t really have time to tour and promote it properly, which is why we are doing all these gigs now. Next week I am off to Germany for the release of the album there.”
Carstens is a class act. Despite his apparent openness during the interview, the smoke and mirrors are artfully preserved. Having spoken to him I wonder whether I know anything about him that I didn’t know before. I wonder about the name of the band — New Porn — whether it doesn’t pander to the lowest common denominator. But then surely Carstens is making some caustic comment to those who think he is only about sex and nothing more.
The details
Catch Arno Carstens and New Porn at Roxy’s in Melville on February 20. He will play an acoustic gig on Saturday February 21 at Café Barcelona in Pretoria.