After Robot on ‘randomly going to India that one time’
FAIRLAND – Northcliff band, After Robot, laugh, joke and talk about their random but awesome trip to India.
An out-of-the-blue email led to a Northcliff band leaving their comfort zone and flying to India for a student-run music and culture festival.
After Robot, a band that’s been together for the past six years, was the only African band at the Saarang Culture Festival late last year.
The groove metal band play around with different genres including jazz and blues while simultaneously bringing in funk, not unlike another South African band, Pollinator.
Watch their Bed of Shame music video
The Northcliff Melville Times met with the band at bassist Jacques Jacobs’ workplace, Empire Tattoos.
With a missing guitarist, the band shared their experience in India and how they got to making music together.
The three present members, Jacobs, Wayne Swart (drums), and Clifford Bryan (vocals and harmonica) spoke, joked and laughed as if they’ve known each other far beyond the six years – months in Swart’s case – they’ve been making music together.
The quirky bunch explained how each of the current band members got together after a long time of trying to join the band, but the stars just didn’t line up until a few months ago when Swart came into the picture.
Bryan said they got the opportunity to go to India after receiving a random email requesting their band to play in a festival.
“Yis, I wondered about this ou sending the mail – it looked kind of dodge but we had some back and forth and we were set. Got our visas and flew to India,” Bryan laughed.
He joked that Swart got into the band at an opportune time as they were making big tour moves and, well, flying to India for the first time.
“They treated us like we were stars. It took us about 30 minutes to get off stage just because people wanted to take selfies with us. The crowd was insane as well… We played for about 3 500 people,” Jacobs said.
Their plans for this year are to tour, as they have always done.
“We love touring. Before India, we toured to Mossel Bay, J-Bay and St Francis. We returned home for two days basically to wash some clothes and jet-setted over to Chennai to perform at the Saarang Festival,” Jacobs laughed.
“This year we’re putting on our big boy pants, hey guys? We’re going to make some moves and try and tour Europe or Australia,” Swart said.
When not on tour, the band usually plays at Rumours Lounge, a music venue in Cresta and they can be tracked on Facebook @AfterRobotSA or on Instagram @afterrobot.
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