ARTIST PROFILE: SOME GROW YOUNG

Joburg-based collective Some Grow Young are slowly infiltrating the mind-rhythms of the people with their fresh, intelligent brand of exploration and storytelling. Their music unravels the vivid balance of pain and beauty, along with thought-provoking anecdotes masterfully told through tales from a mystical world…

Tell us a bit more about your musical backgrounds and where it all started.

Musically, our backgrounds differ greatly. Whereas most of the band is classically trained, technically fluent musicians, I taught myself to play based largely upon what sounded good to me. This contrast in style and origin allowed us to fuse raw rhythm with considered grace, which ultimately forms the cornerstone of our work, and follows the larger theme of the “de-polarisation of dichotomy”, around which many of the lyrics revolve…
Mike (Plaxton-Harrison) and I started fiddling around recreationally in 2007, and performing together as a duo from 2008-2010. Midway through last year the outfit expanded to include Jamie Acheson on bass and Steven Bosman on drums.

You classify your sound as ‘medievolutionary’. Please elaborate.

The ability to classify the noise we make has constantly eluded us. In a category-crazed society, definition appears to be the gatekeeper of marketability. “Medievolutionary” is a tongue-in-cheek deference to this obsession. I have always been interested in medieval times, particularly in the way minstrels travelled between kingdoms, regaling paupers and noblemen alike with songs of adventure, vice, humour and wisdom. In an age before mass communications, these musician/storytellers were essentially ‘singing the news’, however abstract or exaggerated the details may have been. What mattered was the thematic universality of their content and the emotion with which it was conveyed. It is from a modern, constantly unfolding perspective of this art form that the term ‘medievolutionary’ arises. But we don’t eat it for breakfast…

Michael-Plaxton Harrison

Your lyrics are dreamy, poetic, with prolific metaphors in songs like Holy Grail. Tell us a bit about this. What inspires you to write like this and what is the message in your music?

For me, writing is its own inspiration. As I mentioned above, I love a song that unfolds like a tale of old, rich with imagery, morality and wisdom. By experimenting with this style, I started subverting the wisdom, questioning the morality and twisting the imagery toward the patently abstract. In this way, with much of the traditional syrupy distraction removed, a binding skeleton of dichotomy emerged – dichotomies that define humanity by framing it on all sides. Conceptual examples are past-future, magic-science, love-hate, addiction-abstinence etc. The polarisation of these concepts interested me, particularly in the way that we define ourselves according to our perceived proximity to such opposing poles. Within the context of metaphor, the lyrics explore the nature of opposites and attempt to reveal that all is not as it seem. And sometimes I just write about STD’s…

A lot of your songs are written like love stories. Are these based on real life experiences?

Sure, but most of them not on a surface level. I find a lot of lyrics that tackle the concept of love on a purely situational level tend to be conceited and irrelevant. It is the lyricist’s task to mix the personal with perspective, as a means to photosynthesise their experience into something externally valid. When love (not self-indulgent pining) travels through both ends of a song, it’s a love song…
You obviously have a strong understanding of the English language… why is this important to you? What kind of tool can it be used for?

Language adds colour to communication. It creates imagery, incites humour, unlocks meaning, engenders understanding, represents style, facilitates discovery and powers the imagination. It also gets you punched in the teeth for not shutting the fuck up…

Dayne Rothbletz

What is it like working with Naming James and people like Shawn Phillips? What other artists inspire you?

It’s been the most surreal part of the sitcom so far. We used to watch Jamie (Naming James) spewing the truth from the crowd, then he offered us our first gig, and now he guest stars for us on the bass…The Shawn experience was also far out. One minute you’re listening to a song on an LP as a kid, and a decade later you’re playing that song with its creator onstage…Connecting with those who inspire you is all the gratification anyone really needs…

Tell us more behind the name of ‘Some Grow Young’.

The name is an invitation. It champions the concept of a life lived light, presents the search for wisdom as rejuvenation, and preaches mischief in place of salvation. If you like…

What are you guys up to at the moment and can we expect a visit to Cape Town?

We’re currently in studio working on our first full album, and will be Capeside as soon it drops… In the meantime, we’re conjuring up something normal for Afrika Burn…