It’s sad to note that the Durban creative scene is in constant need of resuscitation. Just like tidal patterns in the ocean creativity in the town seems to come in waves. It can be as gentle as a pond or as violent as a Tsunami. Sadly support is a huge problem for any Durban musician or artist. However, one thing that Durban does have is tenacity and massive amounts of it. Even though there is minimal infrastructure for live music or art, the city has time and time again produced some of the country’s most interesting and unique creative individuals and musicians.

Collaboration in Durban is inevitable and recently this collaborative spirit has seen the birth of a new arts collective titled “From the Soul”. They recently hosted their biggest undertaking to date a mini-festival at the Green Camp Gallery Project in Umbilo. The event once again showcased Durban’s creative diversity; Andre Swart was there to get some photographs. We caught up with Matthew Cuthbert one of the main organisers to get a little more insight into this unique gathering of eclectic custodians of the arts.

 Firstly can you give us your name, age and what you do for a living?

 We are a few people, ranging from 20 years old to around we think maybe 27.

The group is:

 Matthew Cuthbert:  Freelance free photographer and filmmaker and I guess band manager and event organiser now too.

 Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mseleku or Thoughts:  Who works in I.T, but not really because his bosses haven’t paid him in months? He’s also a musician and event organiser. Also has the second-best laugh in Durban.

 Alasdair Ribbink: Who works at Pablo Honey, basically for food, Tinder savant, looks the best in a dress out of all of us.

 Christopher Chay: Father of From the Soul, a member of Mouse, an avid gardener, and a beautiful hugger.

 Kelly Hall: A freelance graphic designer, a person who really loves cats, and super keen to do new things.

 Damon Miles:  A member of Mouse and owner of Red Saint Recording studio, he also does a great Frodo and Gollum impression, and can recite Flight of the Conchords hiphopopotamus vs. rhymenoceros.

 Lungelo (Ziggy Stardust) Nomvete: A creative entrepreneur, musician, writer, best laugh in Durban.

 Oudskul Funq: Musician, raddest drummer in Durban. Low key has a whole From the Soul of his own that is about to come out to the world.

 Alice Mduli: Director of Photography, Producer, Alicetotle.

 Helet van Staden: Writer, fine artist, photographer, filmmaker (insert something funny here).

 Tell us a bit about For the Soul and how it all came about?

 From the Soul was originally a few gigs thrown by Mouse (Chris Chay and Damon Miles). The first poster was even designed by Kelly Hall. These were Winston gigs, with the dream of people having a jam session at the end. That did happen to a degree.

 Then it’s just been a thought in all of our heads that has been growing and developing as we all went on with our lives. And this year with a few of us having more free time and wanting to make things happen, we started putting all our crazy dreams into action. Thus the gigs have started, and many other elements are in motion. Because From the Soul is not just about music, but the interconnectedness of all the arts and the people doing that art.

 So who is the driving force behind this project?

 Everyone listed in this has been involved and a driving force. Sometimes some of us take on more responsibility but without everyone’s support, it can’t happen. Not to mention all the people who helped us out who as far as we are concerned are part of the family. Huge shout out to ID: Green Camp Gallery Project, who gave us such an amazing space and really helped us channel our energy. Damien Roodt our sound engineer brought us his amazing rig on a swapped favour, and worked his ass off mixing all day and then breaking down at 2 am in the morning. We can’t thank him enough. Also a massive thank you must go to Matt Oliver from The Winston Pub, who brought us extra lighting and a smoke machine without even being asked. Not to mention all the bands, every one of our bands, musicians and DJ’s included are people we just love to watch and want to show to the world. They all played their hearts out knowing we probably wouldn’t make any money and be able to pay them, which sadly was the case.

 So you put on quite a party at Green Camp recently, how did the event go and what have you done before this event?

The event was beautiful, we ourselves had a blast, and the artists had a blast. The crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves. The venue was beautiful and for the first time in 6 years, they hosted an event where they made a profit, even though it was small. We may have only had about 80 people in at any one point, and we may not have made money but we made something cool. And we’re proud. Before this we had a few lead up parties to try enable people to get to know us. This included events at Habesha Café and Pablo Honey. Small gigs where people got to encounter new music. We also used it as a point to make our musicians we are working with meet each other.

 So what is next for From the Soul?

Many, many things, the dream is to be able to create and fund passion projects and link up creatives with other creatives. Here in Durban and all over. We already have great support in Pretoria with Haiku and the 575s who played our festival and who in June hosted us for a whole week to play some shows up there. We also have a full camping festival currently being planned in Margate, so stay tuned for that. But around that, we probably have at least 2 more gigs this month, and will try our best to keep up the momentum. There’s probably also going to be a monthly event at ID: Green Camp Gallery Project, if we have the support. Not 17 acts in a day though. Maybe just 8 or so.

Give us a little more insight into the Durban underground music scene and why do you think events such as this are so vital for the growth of underground culture in the city?

There isn’t much of one basically. Little pockets float around but nothing sustainable ever seems to stick. It ends up creating a lot of bitterness as well. There seems to be a need though, people want to see new things, a lot of people want to do events but don’t have the means. We just want everyone to support each other whether it is money, resources or just showing up and watching art happen. We need to rebuild a culture that kind of stopped somewhere. We don’t mean to downplay the events that do happen, not at all. I think we are just a larger majority of the support there is for underground events and we are pushing to bring new people into that scene so that it can be something that lasts. Durban has bands, and artists and so much creative talent, but we don’t have very good audiences.

 Tell us about the different venues From the Soul utilises and why you feel it’s important to jump around the city?

We wanted to go to new places to find new people. And then bring them into our spaces that we got to go to. Places like the Winston and Cool Runnings are amazing, and we want to feed into them and start doing events there now that we have cut our teeth on some new spots. We love it when we can’t decide which event to go to on a night, and we know there are enough people for all shows to be fully supported. We just need to show people the music and kind of get them addicted.

What makes Durban unique?

It’s probably the fact that most of us here don’t make money. So by the time, you’re in your 5th or 6th year of doing your creative thing, it’s out of a lot of love and not much greed, and just the right amount of desperation.

Tell us a bit about the bands and artists who feature at your events?

Where to even start: Most of them are our friends we love to watch, some of them we bumped into recently and just loved so much we asked them straight away. Our way of booking things is just bringing in what we like, and hoping that people agree. And we like a lot of different things. Basically, it just needs to be From the Soul. Cheesy but true.

 How many people put these events together or is it a one-man operation?

Three of us had to be at the forefront of it, but everyone played their part. We even had friends pay entrance and then help us move stuff around and pack up afterward we felt bad about that after we found out that they’d paid entrance. It’s a collective.

When is the next event?

We have some things about to happen this month, just waiting on details. The next big one will be in December though.

 Favourite Durban acts?

It should be hard to say, but honestly Black Math. Cam will hate us for this, but he sent all of us his mix of the new album earlier this year and basically, we wanted to them to play Durban again, so we made this fest and begged them to play. Acacia landed from Canada on the 5th (Friday before) and Tyla from Cape Town, they practiced in the morning of the 6th then pulled in and blew us all away. They also just really set such a high bar for Durban artists, and most if not all of us feel their influence, directly or indirectly. But literally, everything on our line-up is all acts we wish could be our headliner. It was a rough line-up to figure out. So just drop all their names here.

 Anything else you would like to add?

 Not too sure, we just hope people will keep helping other people out with whatever they can give. It doesn’t have to be much. Don’t be a dick.

IMAGES – ANDRE SWART

The Winston Pub hosted an eclectic mix of bands for the opening night of Zakifo 2019. Durban’s most long standing music venue and dive bar cleaned up for the occasion, which included opening up the car park and erecting a stage in the vacant location. The line-up featured brass techno marching band, Meute (Germany); alternative Indie Puts Marie (Switzerland); Dobet Gnahoré (Côte d’Ivoire / France) with her urban / alternative French / Tunisian band; psychedelic garage rock band – Make-Overs (SA)  ; guitarist, songwriter, performing artist and singer, Sands Eswatini, (Swaziland); and six-piece Dub Reggae fusion band Granmah (Mozambique). If you missed any of the Zakifo events this weekend, there are two more shows.

ZAKIFO SHOWS THIS WEEKEND:

31 May at The Werehouse in Durban, South Africa. Featuring: Mr Eazi, Blinky Bill, Kid Fonque, Buhlebendalo, Alibombo, Tha Cutt, Tune Recreation Committee.

Fore more info check out the Facebook event.

1st of June at Durban Botanical Gardens. Featuring: Ben Harper, Asa Official, Beatenberg, Red Robyn, Maia & the Big Sky, LiNDiGo .

For more info check out the Facebook event.

A random selection of photos from Splashy Fen Music Festival, 2018 and 2019. Images by Urban Nomad…