Crash And The Void, a four-piece experimental heavy rock powerhouse hailing from the vibrant music scene of Pretoria, South Africa, is not just a band with impressive Spotify stats [over 6k monthly listeners & 20k+ overall streams]; they're a creative force with a story worth diving into. We recently caught up with Marius Schutte, the band's vocalist/guitarist, for an exclusive peek behind the scenes.
How The Band Came Together
Picture this: A brotherly bond between Marius [vocals/guitar] and Lumar Schutte [drums], amplified by the talents of Waldo Van Der Linde on guitar and Dillon van Heerden on bass. Marius sheds light on the union that birthed Crash And The Void.
‘So Dillon van Heerden is actually one of the best guitarists I’ve seen in my life, and he’s completely self-taught and also has a degree in sound engineering. We couldn’t find a bassist, and we just asked him because we were hanging out at the time when we started the band, and he was like, Hey, yeah, I’ll join on bass. I’ve always wanted to become good at bass. Waldo Van Der Linde is our lead guitarist; he’s a bit of a band slut. I met him when we were 15, but we really became friends when we studied music at the University of Pretoria. We did our first year together. I was always amazed by his skill; he’s always been one of the best players I’ve ever seen. When I started this project, he was like, Yeah, I really want to join your band because you always write good songs and it would be cool to play the guitar. So yeah, we’ve got a pretty good team.’
The Recording Process
Marcel’s playthrough of Shadow Fiend by the band absolutely blew him away, so he had to find out what the band’s recording process is and what the secret behind their stellar audio quality is.
Marius spills the beans, ‘We record everything ourselves. All of us have a home studio vibe going on. Dillon has his own little studio and records everything in there. Waldo records everything directly into his interface and then sends me rendered guitars. I mostly programme the drums, but we went to Club Studios, where the drummer is called Steven Bosman the owner. He’s also the drummer for Ruff Majik currently, and he’s also in Savage Lucy. We recorded drums in 2019 at his studio, and we use them as a reference track for our drums, and we just programme based on that so it doesn’t sound super unnatural. I then put everything together in my home studio.’
How The Shadow Fiend Music Video Was Made
The Shadow Fiend music video is one of the best-looking videos to come out of SA at the moment, and how it was made will leave you shocked.
Marius shares, 'So it’s mostly done with AI. It’s a programme called Pika AI, and I don’t know how I did this, but I’m always online looking for the best ways to make art. I found a lifetime pass, and it worked. I went onto the servers, and I just started figuring out how to use them. It’s sort of difficult because you actually have to code exactly what you want. You can upload images, you can make them move, and you can animate stuff. I think for every good scene I got out of that music video, I had like 50 duds, so I spent quite a lot of time coding that video. I’m not a super advocate for AI, but I do believe you need to properly utilise whatever tools you have. AI is a tool, and if you can use it to your creative benefit, then you should figure out how to do it properly.’
Conclusion
Our conversation with Crash And The Void merely scratches the surface of their journey, from inception to musical prowess, and their innovative approach to visual storytelling. For a deeper dive, tune into the audio interview here, and stay tuned to Crash And The Void's sonic expedition by following them for the latest updates here. As they continue to carve their unique niche in the rock landscape, there's undoubtedly more to unfold in this sonic saga.
