The Hermanus Craft Beer Festival is returning on 22 December to mix beer and music, and Sons of Settlers is one of the bands on this year’s line-up. They describe their sound as “high-energy melodic folk“, and will be appearing at the Hermanus Craft Beer Festival. We spoke to one half of the duo, Le-Roi Nel, about the band, the beer fest, and Berlin.
“We are very much looking forward to it,” Le-Roi says. They haven’t been there before, and this will be the first show they’ll play in South Africa after living and playing in Berlin for the last year and a half.
“We anticipate being reminded of why we love our country so much. Warm people, beautiful scenery, great music and great craft beer.”
“Day festival or not, to me a craft beer festival has got an energetic feel to it of people who are passionate about craft beer and want to share the experience with friends and loved ones.”
“A craft beer festival in a location like Hermanus just takes it to the next level. You have insanely beautiful ocean- and landscapes surrounding a festival celebrating craft beer. Things are sure to be special and could get quite lively.”
“To me as a performer, the best gigs are when the audience become part of the show. When they are with you for every drum hit, every bass groove and every guitar riff. They feel every note you play and they can feel that you mean every sound that you make. Whether they hate it or love it is a things on its own. But to know the audience gives you the time of day to do what you love as a musician and expresses an opinion about it, is why we love to play live.”
“We have four to the floor kick drums bashing away, jangly acoustic guitars and belching vocal harmonies. I think people will dig it. And our chilled vibes would also get people into the mood of rocking out.”
They released an EP, Daily Rituals, this year.
“It has been received really well,” Le-Roi says. “We have only been playing the EP in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France, so I can’t really express an opinion of how it’s been received in South Africa. We will have to see how people respond when we play at the Hermanus Craft Beer Festival.”
“To be honest, Gerdus and I are planning on spending the two months that we have in South Africa, before returning back to Berlin again, with family and friends and hopefully collaborating with SA artists that we love and would not have the opportunity to jam with in Berlin. We are planning on recording some of the jam sessions with these SA artists and implementing the concept of live sound design whilst we jam live with them. And then to release these videos under our audio post production company.”
This is the audio post production company they’re busy setting up to launch soon in Berlin. “All of our attention is actually focused at sound design and carving a little place out for ourselves in that audio post production realm in Berlin. We are very passionate about playing live and jamming with musicians as well. So our next creative steps are focused at bringing our love and tools in sound design to the live jamming with other musicians.”
Sons of Settlers is a melodic folk band originally from Cape Town, but currently based in Berlin. They’ll be performing at the Hermanus Craft Beer Festival on 22 December.
