Exclusive by Inge Kruger
Growing up in the 80s/90s in Gonubie, Eastern Cape was a privilege to say the least. Constantly surrounded by the cacophony of ocean waves, good music, and great musicians was what led me down a treacherous, yet rewarding, path of music and performing.
I come from a family of 3 brothers and my older brother Craig inevitably was the first to get a guitar. I was always gravitating towards the guitar and there was always one somewhere, whether we were at the beach, a friends' house, Son Surf (A Christian Surfers gathering), church or watching a punk rock band practice in an old garage.
My first band was in 1998 'Tinfoil', a punk rock band. I played bass guitar in this group and thoroughly enjoyed it, but not as much as the guitar. 'The Larter Brothers' has always been an acoustic duo act with Craig but now we are a full 4-piece rock act.
A few years later I was performing with my late best friend Dusty Hare. We studied sound together at City Varsity in Cape Town in 03/04 where I received my diploma in Sound Recording Engineering. Dusty was a one-of-a-kind extremely talented musician and played as many instruments as he could find. We were performing acoustic duo gigs at home in the holidays and open mic sessions in Cape Town.
Once studies were finished we then formed a band called THEM, an African acoustic funk-rock outfit that was destined for big things. That didn't work out as we all needed real jobs and careers to follow. I then headed to Johannesburg to work in the Audio Visual Industry as an AV technician setting up sound and lighting for large and small events.
I had some musician friends from home there and we started another band called 'The Breakers', possibly my favourite band to date, the sounds of fresh melodic funkadelic reef rock is what emulated from this group of mates. Unfortunately, once the Demo was complete, that was the end of 'The Breakers' because... life! From there I eventually got back to Cape Town and started working on my solo career and a very trustworthy loop pedal. I never really had the confidence to sing but I had to grind through it and figure it out, although you never stop figuring it out.
I have now been living in Cape Town for 13 years working in the post-production industry as a Final Mix engineer. In 2016 I released my first album - Remember to Think, which I produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered myself, something I will never do again. It was not my best work, but I released it anyway. Nevertheless, a great learning experience!
While transitioning to my new business I joined the Jan Blohm band as the lead guitarist and live engineer for a few tours before lockdown. In lockdown, I got stuck into starting my new business 'Audio Bits' which is a professional sound design and final mix studio - where I compose and mix films, animations, and commercials and, most importantly, produce my own music.
I'm super proud that Audio Bits is still going strong. I'm also currently a video editor for an online training company and perform with The Larter Brothers as often as I can.
My style of music varies extensively from acoustic fingerstyle instrumental songs to folk, funk, rock, blues, electronic trip hop, and a bit of dance. Influenced by the likes of YOAV, Dave Matthews, Smashing Pumpkins, Ben Howard, Nightmares on Wax, Moby, The John Butler Trio, Bran Van 3000, and Bonobo.
So uplifting to read of a musician's success story. Everything that lead to you to the current moment has shaped the result.