Amanzimtoti musos are getting younger

Three Amanzimtoti Primary School Grade 4 learners are proving it’s never too young to rock with their band The Aloes. Cruz Reynolds and Troy van Niekerk have known each other all their lives. Sebbie Jansen van Rensburg met them when he started Grade 1. Troy is a drummer and does backing vocals, Sebbie is on acoustic guitar and Cruz can play electric and acoustic. They also share lead vocals.

  “I had a set of bongos when I was younger and got my first drum set when I was seven. I got a full set last Christmas,” said Troy. “I started playing guitar in Grade 1. For my seventh birthday I got a red drum set, which Troy would play when he visited, and a little blue guitar, which I played,” said Cruz. “I had a toy guitar and then got my first acoustic at the age of eight,” said Sebbie. He and Cruz play in the school band, but decided to start their own band named ‘Snakes and Fury’, as they are reptile lovers, last year.

Troy joined when he got his Christmas surprise and after finding out there was another band with the same name, changed to The Aloes. They got their first taste of the limelight when they asked to play a song after a band’s set one night at Lords and Legends. “We played ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses. The audience loved it and we were so pumped afterwards, we started writing our own songs,” said the 10-year-old trio.

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They are still honing their song writing skills and are sticking to covers for now. Fortunately they all have the same taste in music and list Pink Floyd, Imagine Dragons, Guns N’ Roses and Black Sabbath as their influences. As well as music lessons at school, the boys also receive private tuition from Jonathan Davis of Mighty Rock, a music teacher at Twini Primary, every Friday. The boys played their first gig three weeks ago at Friends Restaurant.

“We played three songs as an opening act, but the crowd yelled for an encore, so we played one more. We have also jammed at the rugby club.” Their repertoire to date is only six or seven songs, but they are hard at work to double that to be able to play two sets. They are keen to get booked for gigs, not for payment, but to gain experience of playing in front of an audience. Follow them on their Facebook and Instagram pages ‘The Aloes’. To book them, make contact on their social media pages.

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