Ballistic Blues is a new blues-rock export from the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town comprised of Tyan Odendal on guitar and backing vocals, JP le Roux on bass, Francois Keyser on the drums and Nick Forbes on vocals. The band formed in 2009 and despite its youth, the band seems to have a die-hard attitude.
You guys are probably the first band we have heard of coming out of from Kuilsrivier. Has your town had any effect on the music you're creating now?
Half of us are from Kuilsrivier and the other half from "Bellville Rock City". Kuilsriver is a bit of an unknown town but it has not had much direct effect on the music we make. We write about what we feel and experience but not much about our immediate environment. The Bellville Rock City era definitely inspired us to be musicians and to be on stage.
How was the band formed?
The band was formed for the love of music. It was a lengthy process that stretched over about a year and a half. We started just jamming things out in Francois's garage. Back then we had another bassist who unfortunately had to quit. We then met J.P. and then things got a bit more serious. Tyan decided he wanted to concentrate only on playing guitar so we started searching for a lead vocalist. We met Nick Forbes and we asked him to join.
You started out as an Old School Rock band, what was the reason for changing?
Someone once said that all blues songs are about women treating their men badly, and I guess that's how we felt. That's only a joke, we don't actually quite know, all we can say is that we fell in love with the blues. I guess it's the opportunity that you get especially in blues to show all the raw emotion that you feel, and we mix the blues with other genres, so it's not pure blues, we still have some of the old school rock vibe going.
Rolling Stone Weekend is a great initiative to help the less known artists. What are your opinions of the event and how do you feel about being a part of it?
We are very honoured to be playing at the event. We feel the Rolling Stone Weekend is a brilliant event! It really is a tough industry, and at the moment there are so many good unknown artists doing great original work!
You are currently busy recording an EP. How is that going, any idea of a release date?
It is going great! We've already done the recording work at Coffee Stained Vinyl but don't have a release date yet, hopefully still in 2012.
You can see Ballistic Blues live at the Mercury and Shack complex at Rolling Stone Weekend between 14 and 16 September in Cape Town. Here's 4 of the other acts, 4 more and the DJ's that will also be performing at Rolling Stone Weekend.