Gangstars in a Techno Band
It’s been five years since Joburg based rockers, Lonehill Estate, first captured the public’s attention with their hit single “Girl on a Roof”. Since then they’ve participated in the Global Battle of the Bands and realised a dream playing alongside Muse. But it was a change in focus last year that saw the band re-emerge with a brand new sound that saw their latest singles soaring up radio charts. abouTime chatted to band members, Nathan Ro (vocals and acoustic guitar) and David Waugh (electric guitar) about the Lonehill Estate’s new direction and what it’s like to be famous in SA.
abouTime: Your latest two singles, “Gangstar” and “Techno Band”, have been quite a departure from your previous offerings. Why the change?
Nathan: With the previous stuff we recorded, we were all over the show. Then last year we decided to write something that would allow people to identify us as a band – but also something that people would enjoy listening to a lot more. Our previous stuff was all about what we wanted to do and say as musicians, and now it’s become a bit more about our listeners. There’s still a huge part of us in the music, but we have definitely taken the listeners’ preferences into account more.
aT: Is it still fulfilling to play this more audience-centric form of music?
Nathan: It’s actually more fulfilling. When we used to play covers, people would love it, because they’d heard the songs before. And when people are enjoying it so much, then it’s great to be on stage. So we tried to figure out how we could do that ourselves as a band and our thoughts were immediately: We have to get on radio and we have to get people to hear our stuff. So the music might not be as technical as it was before, but it is definitely more fun.
aT: Who writes the songs? Is it a collaborative band effort?
Nathan: I kind of write a shell and then the rest of the band is the little slug that lives inside there, thus making it a snail!
David: And I usually end up mixing and producing the final product.
aT: I believe that you have decided to only release singles from now on, as opposed to a full album. Why is that?
Nathan: It’s how it used to be done before albums became popular; bands would write a song and send it to radio. And they would only do an album when they had enough great songs to do a collection. The reason singles work for us is that it’s kind of like a soap opera – soap operas are not finite, they don’t have an end, they just keep going, and going… And we’re hoping it will allow us to keep up with what’s happening.
David: The other reason why we didn’t want to do an album is that half the songs on the album would suffer because of the other half. We would get excited about three or four songs and start thinking “oh, we have to get this album out”, and the other seven songs on the album would just be thrown together and we wouldn’t work as hard on them.
aT: But what about the all important buck?
Nathan: Oh, we haven’t forgotten about the selling! We are actually the first South African band to go solely digital. We sell our stuff online, we sell our singles as they come out, and it’s actually working better for us, because it will always be for sale online. Nobody runs out of stock and the quality is just as good. You also don’t have to buy a whole album to get the songs you like – you can just pick the ones you want.
aT: You have had some great success with your last two singles. How does it feel to be “famous” in South Africa?
David: I was saying to the band last night that we get so excited about every thousand hits we get on our video on YouTube, but then I look at Eminem and his video has got 270 million hits and it’s like: “Oh.”
Nathan: Like a cat playing the piano actually has more hits than us! But it is cool to hear ourselves being played on radio. So I wouldn’t say famous, but exciting, yes.
David: Somebody did recognise Nathan in traffic the other day, though. They were like: “You’re the guy from Lonehill Estate!”
Nathan: In my old Toyota… and I was like: “Yup, this isn’t actually my car; I am just taking it to orphans so that they can have a ride!”
David: There was also some guy from Finland tweeting about us the other day. I couldn’t understand a word that he said, but he mentioned our name and our songs… So we knew it was pretty much about us.
aT: Do any of the guys in the band live in or have ever lived in Lonehill Estate?
Nathan: Our drummer just moved there, not to the estate, but to Lonehill. Ja, it’s a bit disappointing for us actually. We were always so proud of the fact that none of us actually lived there. We might have to kick him out of the band… But it’s an expensive area, so there’s a good chance it won’t last!
For more information on Lonehill Estate, their upcoming gigs and their latest single “The Green Pocket”, visit them on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lonehillestate) or follow them on Twitter (Lonehill Estate).
Quickie Questions
Nathan Ro
Lonehill Estate fans are: awesome, colourful and not emo.
What is your guilty pleasure? Dune Pies. You only get them in the Eastern Cape and they’re like shortbread with caramel and chocolate fudge on top.
What would your fans be surprised to know about you? I see most people as cartoons, with bigger foreheads than they actually have, or bigger noses or mouths.
David Waugh
First album you owned: MC Hammer, Too Legit
What is your guilty pleasure? I enjoy watching WWE. I know it’s ridiculous; none of my friends watch it, my wife hates it, but I just get a kick out of watching it, it’s like a soap opera.
Story by Nicky Furniss
