Adrienne van der Merwe
Jeremiah Brimstone Band has been around the block. As told by Dr Dawid de Villiers, an English Studies lecturer at
Stellenbosch University (SU), the band was casually formed in 1999.
It started off as jamming sessions among De Villiers, Hendré Retief, their current drummer, and another fellow student who played the piano. Further down the line, they had two half bands with completely different music styles but the same members.
Jeremiah Brimstone Band and amaBhulu?, the other half of the band, only started performing ten years later with the arrival of their fifth member, Natalie Mason. This “injection of energy”, as De Villiers describes it, resulted in both bands recording albums within two years.
In 2009 Jeremiah Brimstone Band brought out their first album “From the Wrong Side of the River”. Late last year, over the course of ten days, band members Dawid de Villiers, Hendré Retief, Elmi Badenhorst, Heine du Toit and Natalie Mason recorded their second album.
This took place in converted stables on the slopes behind Groenberg. They teamed up with Alex Bozas from the band Benguela and Ruan Vos, who joined them on the engineering side.
De Villiers says that the mixing process has been true to their style: slow and indecisive but still filled with good times.
The new album, which is to be released by June/July 2018, is “a little bit more sophisticated as a record, both in songwriting structures and in the production,” says De Villiers.
What excites him the most is that their sound has matured. Jeremiah Brimstone Band’s first album had an alternative folk rock element to it due to their heavy Banjo use. However, the band has since matured and incorporated new instruments in their sounds such as the electric guitar and trombones.
The band is yet to decide on a name for their new album. One option is “Miraculous Beasts”, but it seems to be
leaning towards “Cabo Tormentoso”, the old Portuguese name for Cape of Storms.
With the possibility of an album launch for their new album, De Villiers is looking forward to what will come of it. So are we.
Photo: Supplied
