ANDREW KAY

Andrew's music has changed with the passing of time, from the electronica pop experimentalism with art band New Releases and the Happy Daggers, to his singer songwriter roots and leanings in more recent years, from the Motown inspired trash pop of the Party Dolls to the darker, hard industrial edge of his work with Joburg trio Tardishead, there is one thing that has driven him, and that is to remain true to his musical vision at the time.

 

This highly accomplished multi-instrumentalist has always chosen to go it alone, choosing often to shun the dictates of crass commercialism. This is not to say he has not worked in the mainstream industry - far from it, he has worked as a session musician for Gallo records, has written film scores of an experimantal nature, and provided jingles and songs for children's programmes on TV. He has run a successful teaching business for over five years, becoming well known in his home town of Nelspruit as a guitar teacher of exceptional quality.

 

  From his early work with New Releases, through the Trash-Pop of the Party Dolls (during the height of the struggle against Apartheid in the mean streets and thriving club scene of Johannesburg), one must contextualise the songwriter's musical journey within that of struggle, both politically and personally. The Party Dolls attempted to lift the spirits of their comrades with catchy Motown-like pop songs during the dark days of the struggle, the period of the late 80s, just before the release of Mandela and the onset of Democracy. Andrew went into artistic exile in 1989, and left the war-ravaged shores of South Africa for the calmer waters of Europe.  

 

He returned in'95 to a jubilant and much-changed South Africa. Naturally a change in his musical direction reflected these changes, and the optimism of the early years of the onset of Democracy is to be found within the Skyt Muties on Mojo Thrillpower.  What distinguishes his work is the ability to write catchy melodies, and this skill was particularly to the fore with the Skyt Muties.

 

During the latter half of the 90s, whilst studying serious music at the wits School of Music, he collaborated with industrialists Tardishead, with whom he recorded an independently released album. Around 2002/3 he was working on an EP of four songs by 5 Bob that featured an eclectic mix of influences, mixing 60s psychedelia with kwaito. 

 

In 2005, after moving to the Lowveld, he released his passionate and deeply spiritual first solo album, Peace and Love. Produced by Murray Lubbe,the album features local legends Tito Ngwenya on drums and Danny Marais on sax. The album had a jazzy, singer/songwriter feel, vastly different in direction and sound to his previous work with Tardishead and the Skyt Muties. The album still sells thanks to the masterful blending of rock'n roll, Boeremusiek, ragga and Kwaito on the classic showstopper Number One Ntombazane.

 

In 2011 he follwed the first album with his second effort, Sweet Like A Lemon which continued the themes of pop within a trashy South African context, perhaps like a countrified Die Antwoord on downers. The album contains three classic Kay-penned live favourite, "Fat Elvis and the launderette Girl", "Sugardaddy" and "I married a Man".

 

Bringing us to 2014, his latest album is One For The Road, a collection of songs he wrote while performing regularly in the pubs, venues and restaurants of Nelspruit and its surrounds in 2013, and into 2014.  The album has an acoustic feel, suited to live solo performance, and features a more mature-sounding voice to the albums that preceded it.  It is tinged with melancholy but the overriding message is one of optimism. It forms the mainstay of his show, ONE FOR THE ROAD (two for the show),dates and venues to be confirmed.