If you have never heard of kidofdoom, welcome out from that rock you have been hibernating under so peacefully. While you were asleep this collective of young musicians has turned the South African music scene on its head with scintillating live shows and a killer debut album.
These post-rock auteurs have sprung from Pretoria to deliver a euphoric brand of super-hero rock to enthusiastic crowds and are, as we speak, touring the country to promote their self-titled debut album.
‘You’ve got enjoy what you do,” says Richard Brokensha, the band’s keyboardist/guitarist. ‘If you go watch a band that are enjoying themselves, you enjoy it, you feed off their energy.”
Indeed, there is no denying that precision adrenaline bolt that is a kidofdoom live show; it’s super-hero rock of the highest order. You get the sense that the only people loving their music more than the dancing, cheering crowd are the band members themselves. Fist pumping and ass shaking are the order of the day.
‘When we started this band, everybody was just interested in playing together for fun,” says Brokensha. All of kidofdoom’s members were veterans of many failed Pretoria bands — the experiences of which highlighted what it was that each member was looking to get out of music.
When I quiz the band about the super-hero nature of their music (the band cover the Ghostbusters theme) bassist Barend Pieterse says: ‘It’s just a feeling we get from playing our music, it’s like you want to take over the world.”
As an instrumental post-rock band kidofdoom were initially greeted by a vacuum in Pretoria, surrounded by hard rock, punk and metal acts, with which they had nothing in common.
‘It was hectic,” says Johan Auriacombe, the band’s powerhouse drummer. ‘We started gigging in Pretoria and there were no other bands like us.”
While international comparisons such as 65 Days of Static, Explosions in the Sky, M83 and Mogwai give the music fan an idea of the band’s sound, there is a lot more to kidofdoom than waves of post rock. Another key element to their sound is the slick electro-synth feel of New Order and the proggy-rock of Pink Floyd and Genesis.
With little in common with their fellow bands, they soon hooked up with the Sovereign Academy DJs to organise parties that bring live music and DJs together.
Fast forward to the end of this year and the Sovereign parties now host huge line-ups of up-and-coming bands, such as Us Kids Know, Johnny Neon and Greenisforturbo, which, with kidofdoom, are the centre of an ever-growing indie-rock scene springing from the streets of Pretoria and Johannesburg. kidofdoom have found their audience and, while they still get booked for gigs with metal and punk acts, the band always look at the positive.
‘A lot of organisers see the name kidofdoom and say that sounds hardcore, let’s get them,” says Auriacombe, telling the story of a recent metal gig in Germiston where all the guys in their Metallica T-shirts walked out during their set.
‘The girls stayed and rocked out,” says Auriacombe. ‘We make music for girls. That’s a good reputation to have.”
Tour details
You can catch kidofdoom at Zeppelins in Pretoria on November 30, Woodstock music festival on December 1, Die Mystic Boer in Bloemfontein on December 5, The Firkin Ferret in Pietermaritzburg on December 6, Visions Nightclub in Amazimtoti on December 7, Burn in Durban on December 8 and Stones in Durban on December 11.