FRESH off the stage opening for The Great Apes’ album launch, Rosemary Towns End is on the burn. The young Capetonian three-piece opened for local music juggernauts over just the last year like Fokofpolisiekar, Taxi Violence, The Plastics, Machineri, and the list goes on… they’re not stopping just yet.
Rosemary Towns End is a surf-alternative-gypsy-moonlight hard-rocking band. Set in a time of an inbred local music scene slowly homogenising with the ‘alternative rock’ genre, what sets Rosemary Towns End apart.
I sat them down after their charged performance at The Assembly to find out just that. Over the blaring music, the band and I shared some powerful views on music as a whole, and gained some serious insight what makes the band work so well in the bigger picture. From the very beginning I could tell that this was not going to be just another jumbled conversation about “how drunk the band gets” during rehearsals. Each member took a breath watched me, as if preparing to arrange their deepest, unspoken world views into comprehensive phrases for the first time.
Cyle Myers, guitarist, vocalist and frontman of the three-piece sets the tone. He explains that it was a focus on enjoying their own music that motivated them through the massive growth they’ve seen in the last year: “I feel like it was not such a big focus on progression. It was more of a personal progression.” Myers explains. “Even if people don’t dig the music, I dig it more.”
Performing and progressing in a band is a mere added bonus to what they already enjoy. The band’s desire to create passionate music shone through in the performance: Every time a photographer snapped, he would probably capture at least one band member radiating (and dripping with) cosmic enjoyment. It’s a charm that seems to draw more listeners in itself.
So who is Rosemary Towns End? And what is the formula that has been working so well for them? I arranged our conversation into four main themes… for your convenience.
Aunty Rose
“Our childhood friend’s mother’s name is Rosemary Townsend. We quite liked that.” Jaryd Davidson, bassist of the beast, depicts the early roots of the band’s conception. “There’s another deep, crap philosophical meaning behind it, but let’s stick with Rosemary Townsend is our friend’s Mom for now”.
Prior to forming the band, the members’ friendships extend back into their school days. “I think we were fifteen or something, and a whole bunch of us were like cool, let’s just start a band,” Myers describes, gazing into a portal depicting his high school days which seemed to be behind my head. “But then it was like a passion… so you kinda stick with it.”
The band reports to draw “powerful wisdom” from Aunty Rose’s words to this day. Even though they have come this far, it is clear they are in touch with their roots.
A Process of Deconstruction
“We take a lot of time in writing our newer stuff. A song breaks down into almost nothing before it becomes something again.” Asher Gamedze, juggernaut drummer depicts the band’s inner creative processes clearly – “Someone would come up with a riff or something, and sometimes the whole idea becomes completely deconstructed.” Members are seldom indifferent when a new idea begins to float. It gets processed through each member and rebuilt –over and over – until it satisfies the band as a whole.
The band recently recorded some demo tracks, including their acclaimed single “California Lover”. One can hear the tightness already taking shape at this early stage of the band’s life. The band consists of three extremely talented members, even though they may be too humble to acknowledge it themselves. “I think, like on that California Lover type of vibe, the riffs are the essential elements of the song. So a lot of my drum parts work to emphasise the groove or certain aspects of the riff.” Asher explains, taking a moment to reflect before continuing – “But in terms of ‘writing process’ – Someone would come up with a riff or something and that whole idea becomes completely deconstructed.”
“You can have a good riff and you can eventually progress to a stage where you don’t even use that riff anymore,” Davidson expands on the theory, with almost verbatim understanding of his drummer. “You know, you’ve written a whole song, starting on a riff, and that riff’s not even in the song anymore.” These days it is common to find bands with one dominant writer with his or her instrument-slaves carrying out his or her bidding. The members of Rosemary Towns End, however, are unattached to their individual contributions and focus solely on the final outcome of their machine. “It’s a band – a creative process,” Gamedze emphasises. The issue of individual egos is tossed aside long before the writing process begins. They seem to acknowledge their position as vessels of music, channelling a larger flow of ideas on a much greater scale than “gluing riffs together”. They are doing all they can to make their contribution to creating the music.
Three Members, One Mind
“It’s a journey – tightness is a journey.” Everyone in the room turns to pay attention Gamedze explains “I think…for every musician and every band.” Each member of band acknowledges that being only a three-piece, the central demand of the day is ‘tightness’. This is even more so in their raw and organic music style. The depth that each member (including the drummer, seriously) goes into when describing the creative process speaks for itself.
“Writing our new stuff has been really collaborative, like everyone has an equal say in it.” Gamedze articulates over the music overpowering The Assembly’s main floor.
“I think everybody brings such a different unique perspective to it,” Myers expands. “And it ends up being better as you have three creative minds working towards something… and it’s different to what you heard in your head originally, which I really enjoy!” Although each member comes from vastly different music listening veins, they all strive for something new when it comes to the direction of their music. The greatly different individual styles are not undermined in the band… they are emphasised. The contrasts in their music styles actually complement one another in the overall writing process – forming the tasty final product we all enjoy.
“Writing music is very different to just listening to what you like; and trying to recreate what someone else has done,” Davidson repeats, looking to his musical brothers who give their nonverbal approval. “We can’t really say that ‘I’m listening to this and to recreate something like that,’” he suddenly mimics in a baritone. “We’re writing to play for this band that we enjoy playing – which is different.” He is interrupted by Gamedze – “Yeah, although I may be influenced by a wide range of music style like hip-hop and reggae, we’re just trying to write music that we all like as musicians.” Gamedze slouches further into his seat but maintains piercing eye contact, making me take everything he says a bit more seriously. A contemplating moment, followed by a univocal agreement, “…Yeah.”
One could compare the aspired ‘tightness’ of Rosemary Towns End’s live experience to a one-man acoustic act. Each member focuses on making his contribution to the stream of music as effectively as possible. They may be three, but they all link up to some kind of matrix of collective consciousness as one. They are extensions devoted to painting the larger picture of their music as one body. In the next battle of the bands, their only competitor may in fact be the four-armed Indian Goddess Shiva.
The Bigger Picture
Cyle Myers and Jaryd Davidson decided to start the band back in high school. They just wanted to do something to pursue their passion of playing the guitar more intensely. The desire to unite in communal musicianship was the main reason for starting the band – to make something bigger than them. This is still evident today. It started out light-heartedly, but when they brought on the big gun from Jo’burg Asher Gamedze, the band was pushed towards a new direction – the journey to becoming tight.
“I think, when Asher joined the band, he really wanted to be a lot tighter. I felt the push,” Explains Myers, throwing wide smiles to all within a two-metre radius. “I was like, ‘okay now I need to start practicing!’ So it clicked.” The band members continue to push and motivate each other as they had in the beginning. The result: an on-going process of progression. “So now we need to write stuff that’s a bit more… complex.”
The larger cosmic entity that is Rosemary Towns End drove Davidson into playing the bass with more dedication. “Only when we started playing gigs, I actually realised “people are watching. It’s probably time to play a little bit better.”” He recalls only starting to take it seriously about nine months ago. “I like to think I don’t play so badly for someone who has only been playing for a about a year… although earlier this evening Asher was making fun of me, saying that a deaf person has more groove than me.” Gamedze responds with a roar of laughter.
“I feel we’re really enjoying what we’re doing now,” Davidson lights up. “The fact that we’re getting to play with some of our favourite South African bands has been one of the coolest things”. The band feels that this is a ‘good season’ to be making this much progression in the music industry – and they are enjoying where they are right now. The band is currently speaking of plans to get a new record released, looking to improve on their previous work.
“The old recordings, whoa – those are bad. Let’s forget about those,” Myers jokes. “We need to get a recording. And get a music video together. Well for me, that’s the future at the moment.”
Otherwise, “just enjoying where things are going” is a good enough reason for them to keep making music together. The future looks alive for this band, and so does their contribution to the music world.
“This is a good season to be in – So I’m ready.” The members of this band hold a dangerous combination of enjoyment, determination and pure talent. We ought to be ready too.
‘Like’ Rosemary Towns End’s Facebook page (free music available):
https://www.facebook.com/Rosemary.Towns.End.CT
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