SoulProviders East will be REPRESENTing at this year’s annual MTN Bushfire Music Festival and we chatted to Freshlyground to find out what we can expect from them this year:
- You’ve performed at House on Fire in Swaziland, how was the reception and the crowd?
It is not an exaggeration when I say that House in Fire is one of our favorite venues to play in the world. There is something particularly special about that space and the Swazi audiences are amazing!
- You’re one of the artists performing at MTN Bushfire this year, what are your expectations from the Swaziland fans?
Their usual incredible fashion taste, beautiful faces, beautiful girls and boys and amazing energy – Swazi audiences always show us so much love
- What can the fans expect from Freshlyground?
It has been a while since we have been at Bush Fire so we will definitely be bringing the Fire. We have also been working on some new material and we will be performing that for sure.
- Will you be playing some new songs at Bushfire?
Yes!
- You’ve been touring internationally for a long time now, how has that journey been and how did you grow as a band?
It has been an incredible journey. We do not take for granted the great gift that is being able to travel the world and make a living through music, through doing what we love! We have seen so many countries and met so many wonderful people all over the world!
- How’s the music scene in S.A different from the international ones?
I don’t know that I can really expertly speak on this. I think there is some great experimentation happening in the SA music scene but I think that is happening all over. I think the global music scene has become a hard place to navigate, and as more and more people are using the internet as the source from which they get their music, whether its downloads or streaming – musicians are having to be more inventive about how they get their music to their fans, and it is more and more about playing live. I think this is the situation everywhere – in some ways we are still lucky in SA as people do still buy music because our connectivity is not that great or widespread- so we still have ways of selling music, but that is definitely going to change in the next few years and as musicians we are really having to jump through hoops and get really clever about marketing and distribution of our product – and we have to continue to make our live shows the focus – because that’s where we make a living!
- Are there any exciting plans on the pipeline for Freshlyground in 2015?
We have been working on new material and plan to release that in the next few months. We are headed to Ivory Coast for a series of shows. Then in June/July we are doing a tour of the US and Canada – which is super exciting. You can follow our gig guide at www.freshlyground.com for all those tour dates.
- Your sound has evolved over the years, can we expect some new sounds on the upcoming stuff you have lined up?
Definitely.
