Taxi Violence at Synergy Live

In Music, News, Opinion
February 1, 2013
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On being regular almost-headliners at festivals: “We’re never at the top of the list, yet we always play the headline slot. I think I feel blessed to be able to still get excited about it. That kind of makes you feel special, actually. Like a warm fuzzy special, not a doos kind of special.” Playing with

On being regular almost-headliners at festivals:

“We’re never at the top of the list, yet we always play the headline slot. I think I feel blessed to be able to still get excited about it. That kind of makes you feel special, actually. Like a warm fuzzy special, not a doos kind of special.”

Playing with international bands:

“If it’s a band (we) like, like a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or a Band of Skulls, for us it’s exciting. The festivals have this kind of one-uppage on each other to bring BOS and then BRMC… we’re able to share that. I can tell my grandkids that I played on the same stage as BRMC. And that’s cool, man.”

On playing with bands you don’t necessarily like:

“Ramfest has got In Flames coming next year. I’m not a fan and I don’t know the band, so I’m not really excited about it.

“We played with Evanescence and Staind… those are big names in the scene and it didn’t really mean that much to me. It’s a name that you can drop but I didn’t really feel anything about that.”

On staying independent:

“In 2006 or something when we won that Battle of the Bands thing, we knew back then that the music industry was changing and that bands were going to go more independent from labels anyway.”

On working harder:

“Being independent is a tough road to walk. You have to do a lot more yourself. We’ve worked very, very hard, but we’ve also been lucky – you need some form of luck.

“But I think it’s more rewarding, because the success is yours and there’s nobody with hands in your pockets.”

On album sales as a reflection of success:

“What are album sales anyway? It’s a business card. An expensive business card. To make an album costs a shitload of money.”

On where the scene is:

Cape Town’s got a scene. Go to Potch and they come out of hunger. In Cape Town you have to work a lot harder as a band. And if you do that, people will come to your shows… (We still put up our own posters).”

On where the scene is:

On popularity despite lack of radio play:

“It’s really rewarding when you see people sing along to songs that haven’t been on radio. ‘Fuck, they know the words! Where… how…?'”

On the new direction for album 3 (and its positive reception):

“It’s a natural progression. We didn’t plan it as such. We were doing like unplugged shows and thought it would be nice to have this on record.

“And then it kind of snowballed into this thing where we were, like, ‘this could be cool – let’s try to express our music in a different way’.”

We needed a challenge.

On growing up:

If you’ve been a band for seven years, you’ve had fans for seven years. And that fan may have been a student. Seven years later he might be married and not going to clubs anymore but he still likes your music. So he’ll book a table atKirstenbosch to go and see his favourite band.”

On being named by younger bands as an influence:

“That’s awesome. It’s a compliment. I love that.”

On bands being influenced by you:

“What I don’t like is when somebody steals my fucking moves. Cos then I have to invent new moves.”

On being reviewed:

“What I don’t like is when they have a review and they say ‘good old Taxi Violence, you can always rely on them.’ It’s a compliment but it’s saying they know what to expect. It makes us sound like we’re relaxing on our laurels. And we don’t.”