LAST year, Durban North band, Become the Watcher, exploded onto the music scene with the mature, unique and modern sounds of their début album, ‘Paradigm’.
The four-man gang is one of a few South African bands that has opted to produce a full-length studio album before taking to the stage.
After a long and exciting wait, fans of the band were treated to their first official live performance at The Winston Pub in Durban recently.
By day, the band members are employed in seemingly ordinary jobs. The oldest member of the band, Bruce Mcnabb (31), is a marketing and communications liaison officer, Rudi Greyvenstein (29) is a musician (part of The Kickstands) and a music teacher, Rowan Vorster (29) is an architect while Paul Palmer (29) is a chiropractor.
But, by night and over weekends, their inner rock star alter-egos cannot be contained. This passion for music has compelled them to start their own metal band. Northglen News recently caught up with the group to find out how they felt in light of their first performance.
“We are so excited. It has been a long time coming. A lot of hours were put into it and overall the night could not have gone better,” said Palmer.
The biggest challenge to their performances, said Greyvenstein, is the fact that the band prefers to perform with a backtrack. “We chose to do this as in it follows international standards. We want our performances to sound as close to the recorded version as possible. This is always a challenge, as we have to keep in time. There is no room for error,” he said.
Mcnabb also revealed that the band is working on a new album. One of the songs has already been released, he said. The new song features a longtime friend of the band and fellow Durban North resident, Robin Louw.
“With the new album we are trying to progress and to build on what we have already accomplished. We found some inspiration from Australian ‘death core’ band, ‘Thy Art Is Murder’.”
The next performance takes place on 18 September at The Winston Pub.
