A Bit Of History
The Dirty Skirts have been making music together since 2004, and have played at some of South Africa's biggest music festivals, including Oppikoppi and Rocking the Daisies. After taking a break in 2012, the band recently reunited during lockdown and released their first EP since 2011, "Radiant Clouds".
Performances, Festivals, and Wedgies?
In this podcast episode, Marcel Smuts interviews David and Jeremy from the band. They discuss their experiences performing at festivals, the challenges they faced, and the prankster culture that kept them entertained on tour.
Jeremy says, "We had a pretty large pranking habit with each other and David just decided to basically wedgie our bassist at one of the shows and our bassist Maurice is kind of enormous, he has got quite a lot of muscles and he's normally a real gentle giant, but he lost it and he chased David all the way across the fields around Emmarentia."
To which David jovially responds, "I never take a decision like that autonomously, I was encouraged, perhaps even instructed to wedgie our bassist."
Despite the pranks, they emphasize that they always got along well as a band and enjoyed touring together.
Reconnecting With The Audience
The band members talk about the importance of acclimatising to bigger stages and developing a toughness over time. They also discuss the challenges of reconnecting with their audience after a long break and the changing landscape of social media platforms like Facebook.
“We left about 20k likes/followers on Facebook and after our hiatus the algorithm pretty much kicked us out. We’ve been off the radar for about 10 years, so the way I see it now we’re actually starting from scratch. We’ve got a story and a discography, we’re reconnecting with the audience, building new fans and connecting with new people, it is all still to be achieved”
They then acknowledge the need to produce consistent and frequent content to keep up with social media demands.
Let The Good Times Roll
The band members express their excitement and joy in making music together again and are optimistic about the future and the potential for their music to resonate with fans. As Jeremy says, "We're just really excited to be making music again and to be able to share it with people."
Tune into the full episode here
Catch up on all their socials here
