Amanzimtoti’s latest band is ready to rock on! Chad Porter, 36, and Shaun Pretorius, 39, have been mates for 22 years and formed their first band together as teens. But now, maturer and (hopefully) wiser, the pair have reunited to re-record eight songs they co-wrote eight years ago, which got released in late December.
After much searching and pondering they settled on the appropriate name of ‘Basement of Wolves’, the title of a novel by Daniel Allen Cox. “We were under pressure to chose a name, as Chad wanted to get the songs out there. It was stressful to find the perfect name, something that had meaning to it.” Their sound can be described as hard melodic rock.
Chad is well-known for being the bass player for the now defunkt Gus Brown Band. He was born in Durban and moved to Toti at the age of three. He attended Amanzimtoti Primary and Kingsway High School. “Playing guitar was just something I picked up from friends. One of my neighbours was into Nirvana and he played covers, so I would go jam with him.”
Shaun was born in Scottburgh and attended Warner Beach Prep and Amanzimtoti High School. When he was 16 or 17, a ‘lighty’ gave him lip on the school bus when he got off one day. The next day, he waited until the lighty got off and started to follow him home to find out what his problem was. Fortunately he decided not to give him a ‘klap’, because a short while later he was introduced to Chad, the lighty, by the Nirvana-jamming neighbour as “a kid younger than us, but he can play lead”.
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They clicked musically and formed their first band Silt that become quite a hit in Toti with the youngsters making appearances at the River Gardens and nightclubs such as Visions and Pipers. “We played much harder and faster then, with a lot of punk influence. Nirvana was always a big influence to me growing up, while Shaun has always been into The Deftones and Korn.”
Their first gig was at Chad’s house in Harcombe Road. They printed flyers to stick up at school and, being considerate boys, informed their neighbours of the racket they were about to unleash. “We only had about five songs, so the house party wasn’t meant to last very long. Even though we let our neighbours know, by our third song the cops arrived to shut us down. And of course we were saving our two best songs for last, which we didn’t get to play.”
The eight tracks they have re-recorded from 2005 featured Shaun’s father Paul on drums. For Basement of Wolves, they have swapped places with Shaun on bass and Chad on lead and vocals. “We wanted to see if there is still a market for this genre. It’s hard to break into the hard rock scene in SA, but we want to make our music accessible to other people.”
With limited marketing, the response to their music in the last two months has been great. “We weren’t expecting such hype and it’s good to see that these songs have stood the test of time. We want to expand on this and build our live act.” The boys haven’t played a gig as Basement of Wolves yet and are looking for a drummer and another guitarist to join them. “We would like to take it as far as we can. This is more than just a hobby for us and we want people to listen to our music.”
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With Chad married to Bianca and having two children – Cayden, 13, and Kenzie, 10 – and Shaun married to Chaldene with a nine-year-old daughter Bryleigh, they reckon being mature adults and wanting success for different reasons to when they were youngsters, stands them in good stead. “We have a love for the music, not just for money. Of course if we can make a living from it, that would be great.”
With their children their biggest fans, that’s proof that what they are doing will be appreciated by the younger, music-buying generation. “We have already started working on new stuff, which will be a bit lighter. Thank you for all the support from everyone – the Toti community has been incredible and even our friends abroad have been awesome. Just knowing that we have this kind of support behind us is something that inspires us to keep moving forward.”
To listen to Basement of Wolves, search for them on Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, YouTube or Google Play and give them some love by liking their Facebook page and Instagram (www.instagram.com/basementofwolves).
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