The Cavalier

The Cavalier: local pop/punk/glam rockers, constantly surrounded by excess, insanley hot women and a worrying quantity of eyeliner! The Joburg-based foursome have recently released an awesome electro remix of their tune Lonely King of Hearts, and that was all the excuse they needed to get three magnificently sexy babes over, dress them in very nearly nothing, and take some photos!

Thankfully, though, the gents decided it would only be fair to take some behind-the-scenes video footage and share the glory with the rest of us! Check out the vid below. Then, check out the Cavalier's facebook page. Their tunage is rad, and they're good dudes. Even if they will score all the babes in the venue when you go do the right thing and rock out with them! - FHM

In a quiet, unassuming street in Edenvale, The Cavalier is in studio causing havoc…

Last week, I was fortunate enough to head through to Edenvale to catch The Cavalier in studio. Well-regarded as one of South Africa’s coolest, sexiest, wildest and best bands; I knew I was in for something special. On arrival, I managed to sit down Jay, Crs, Pete and producer, Greg Bester (from 4AM), for an interview.

Guys, thank you so much for letting me come visit you in studio. I just want to start off by asking you three questions for the fans.

Firstly, who is the sexiest person in the band?

Crs: Me… Hmmm… Jay (laughs). We are pretty much the best looking band in the country (laughs all round)…

Jay: It depends what you are looking for, we cater to all demographics. I mean, we have chocolate in the band (referring to drummer, Pat, who was sick that day), he has amazing physique (laughs)… We have a blonde in the band, a brunette…

Crs: Yeah… He (points at Pete), is in a relationship, so he is out of the equation. That makes him sexy, because some girls like guys who are taken. (laughs). We are a South African band, we appeal to everyone.

Jay: You know, the last few times that I’ve been stopped by the cops, they asked me if I was a lady? (laughs). I’m in a cop van, about to go to jail, and they look at my hair and ask me: “Are you a lady?”

Crs: (laughs) Yeah, that has happened to me too. You know those dudes on the side of the road who try and clean your windscreen? This one dude walks up and tries to spray that shit on my windscreen, and I’m like “no, no, no” and he is, like, “sorry Mrs”. That was offensive. I had long hair then.



Hahaha! No… that is bad. Guys, how long does it take to get your look together? I mean, you are a band that has a certain stage look. Is this how you look everyday, or do you specially get ready for performances?

Crs: Well as you can see, this is pretty much how we look… So these are our day-to-day clothes.

Jay: Yeah, look, most of the clothes we wear are stage outfits, but we sleep in those clothes, man! I do have pajamas though…

Dude, do you wear your pajamas on stage?

Jay: I used to (laughs).

Crs: How I got my look together this morning, was I woke up with a girl in my arms this morning, sweating, and smelling of romance, and then I came here…

Greg: Yeah, just put on this little ensemble (laughs all round)…

Haha! Guys, who knows the most girls?

(laughs)
Crs: Well they usually say that when we have a house party, most of the girls there are my ex-girlfriends. Well, that’s what Brogan (sic.) says, but I don’t believe him, they are all friends of the band. But now that Jay is single, he is catching up at a rapid pace…

Jay: Yeah, I like hanging out with girls. To party with, get my hair done with…

Crs: Jay is actually taking over in the league of underage girls (laughs all round), that used to be my forte… I used to specialize in 18 – 19 year olds (laughs).

Jay: (laughs) Some girls are liars, you can’t believe what they say about their age.

How do you guys know each other?

Crs: Jay and I met in Standard 3, yeah, so we have known each other for a long time…

Jay: I met Crs at one of those school field trips, and he was standing there in his green underpants. From that moment on, I knew that we would be best friends (laughs)

Crs: …and then we jammed with Jay’s sister back in the day, and her best friend met Pete at a club or something…

Pete: I met you guys at Bugsy’s.

Jay: Pat and I have known each other since we were three! His Mom works for my Dad. You know he used to sit around and watch us jam, and eventually I was like “Dude, you must have rhythm!”. So I stuck him on the drum kit and taught him some basics, and now he totally kicks my ass!

Crazy… Guys, let’s get onto your music. How would you define it? I know it is a bit of a silly question, but imagine you had to describe it to a person who has never heard you guys before…

Crs: We have a couple cool genre names to define ourselves, we came up with ‘glam-punk’ and ‘sex-metal’…

Jay: You know, basically, when I wake up in the morning and see people going to work, I get terribly depressed, and I want to put good, fast, upbeat music on. That’s pretty much how I would describe us.

Pete: Musically I think that we are just a good blend of punk rock. Some very nice alternative riffage, very sweet vocal hooks with like a new-age kind of take on it…

Crs: I don’t think that we are as pop-punk, as say, New Found Glory or Blink 182, but we aren’t like the Sex Pistols either. I guess our pop influence is more associated with the rock-pop and alternative-pop side of things

Greg: You know, it is sort of like a fat-wreck era punk sound, updated with a metal edge to it.

Yeah, that sounds apt! Guys, you have been in many publications, and have been described as one of the most exciting acts of recent times. So much fun, fame, hype, fans and success; What’s next for you guys after you record? Any tours or anything along those lines?

Jay: We have never been on a country-wide tour, so we would really like to do that soon. It would be great to play at all the places we have never played, like Nelspruit.

Crs: Yeah, after the album is out, we will do a nice tour, do some cool music videos. We also have some rad ideas for some sick merch, so we are looking forward to getting that organized. So basically, I guess we will just keep on slugging it!

Guys, that sounds great! We will try and arrange a competition with you guys when that merch comes out. Okay, let’s get onto the album. What can fans expect? How many tracks are we looking at?

Pete: 15?

Crs: Well we have recorded 15, but we are not entirely sure if we are going to use all of them, but yeah, you can also expect one or two singles off the demo that we did; and we are thinking about maybe adding like a video CD, with behind the scenes footage of band. I’ve been following the band behind the scenes with a camera, so it would be rad to sort of showcase our journey thus far. I want to try and make the disc really worthwhile for our fans. I don’t think that albums with only a few tracks sell very well…

Yeah, we have definitely noticed an increase in the importance of the economics of music in recent times. People don’t want to buy albums that only have 9 tracks. It’s a pity in a way, but albums have become so expensive that people really take the economics into account.

Crs: Yeah, it is like, how much am I paying per song? Is it worth it?

Jay: But you know, if you think about how much artists pay to record album… it is really hard, and really expensive… So it sucks that people don’t want to pay for music.

Guys, when will the album be released?

Crs: Spring. There isn’t really a date set, but we were thinking that it would be sometime around August, September.

And how much longer do you think you are going to record for?

Crs: Not that much longer…

Jay: We are starting vocals on Wednesday…

Crs: And then it is just the mix. In the interim period between when we finish and release the album, we are going to take some time out to sort out merch and tours etc.

Jay: Hong Kong might be in the pipeline too…

Pete: We have some friends overseas who are ‘brainstorming’, if you want to call it that, about whether we go overseas… It’s looking good, but we will let you know.

Jay: Yeah, I think they support music well over there. I think they are really serious about it. A lot of people from Hong Kong dress to the max, and love the music!

Now, what does your album actually sound like? Are we dealing with very crunchy guitars? Is it quite raw and edgy? Or is it quite refined and clean?

Greg: Well we are still in the early phases right now, we have just been doing all the tracking, we will know more in a little while. But at the moment, of course, it is very much a punk album – crunchy, distorted guitars…

Crs: Yeah, we wanted to go quite raw with this one.

Jay: We are going for more of a live sound. We want lots of energy, so raw guitars, blaring bass, and banging drums. Our demo was very slow and refined, and we would always land up playing the songs much faster at gigs because of the hype and adrenalin.

Guys, thank you, that is pretty much all we have time for. I just have one more question. Do you have any words for aspiring artists? Any words for up-and-coming artists that want to follow in your footsteps?

Crs: Don’t just jump in the deep end. Set your stuff up properly. Work on some designs, market yourselves and take it seriously. If you are doing the punk rock thing, don’t mess around just because it is punk.

Jay: You need to pay attention to the whole picture. It’s not just about sitting down in a band room and rocking out, there is so much more that goes into it.

Greg: Beware that it is lots of work, and little return…

Crs: The biggest advice that I could give to a band is don’t go chasing the dream of a record deal, because it doesn’t exist. Rather go indie and aim to sign a distribution deal. Make use of the freely available resources, like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The internet is so powerful that you don’t actually need a record label.

Jay: In fact, it is easier for us in this country to do that sort of thing. Meet up with people, network, speak to local managers, speak to local organizers, get yourself on the bill and try and sign a distro deal.

Crs: Really focus on building relationships, they are everything in this industry.
_______________

Some really wise words there. Watch this space for the imminent release of The Cavalier’s album. From what I heard in studio, it is going to be really, really good. Make sure that you are a member of The Cavalier’s Facebook Fan Page for latest updates and gig info.

- Bret D
info@musicreview.co.za
www.twitter.com/MusicReviewZA
Join MusicReview on Facebook - Music Review

The Cavalier on Studio 1 MK - MK

Teh Cavalier on Studio 1 Mk - MK