Capetown

CAPETOWN

From the fading cookie-cutter, 'urban-pop' trend saturating the airwaves currently, Capetown emerges with a sound that is at once moody, melancholic, melodic and explosive. Drawing on influences as varied as the cultural heritages that make up the band, Harrison Jones, Nathalie Tensaye and Jonas Nordelius merge sonically to form a cutting edge sound that is both arresting and palliative.

With roots firmly planted in both alternative-rock and 'urban-cool', producer Jonas Nordelius was practically born into the music biz. Jonas' father Hans Nordelius developed the world's first virtual analog synthesizer, 'Nord Lead', in Jonas' birthplace of Stockholm, Sweden. "I started messing around with synths when i was like 10 'cause we had all this music equipment at home." Jonas can be found on the credits of many of Sweden's rock, pop and hip-hop elite including Thomas Rusiak, Timbuktu, Christian Falk, Stephen Simmonds and Kaah.

Harrison was an accomplished rapper in his native South Africa. Although he loved hip-hop, he "felt like hip-hop wasn't a complete statement of my true artistry". It was when Jonas encouraged Harrison to sing that Capetown was born. Harrison's invading vocal style encompasses the Zulu chants he recalls "hearing the Zulu praise singers sing in the courts for the king."

With Jonas being Swedish and Harrison South African, it is Nathalie's cultural mix (Swedish mother and Eritrean father) as well as musical mix ("equal parts alternative-pop, rock, and soul. I couldn't choose only one if my life depended on it!") that creates the musical segue that bridges her fellow band members and makes Capetown's sound cohesive. "Nathalie is definitely the cream on top", laughs Harrison, "..because we're kind of rough!".

Harrison reveals the band's name actualized due to a bureaucratic dilemma: "I couldn't get a visa back to Stockholm and I was just sitting in my apartment in Cape Town dying to get back to the band and our music." Thankfully, Harrison eventually obtained his visa, and upon reuniting with his bandmates he discovered the "subtleties in the lyrics that describe a lot about what I had experienced, and our global, big city sound...it's just a lot of Cape Town in there!"

Teron Beal