We recently had the honour of chatting to Martin and Cito of legendary South African band, WONDERboom, who took us on a nostalgic journey through their 28-year music career. Read on for some of the key takeaways.
From The Eight Legged Groove Machine to WONDERboom
One of the most fascinating aspects of WONDERboom's journey is their evolution from The Eight Legged Groove Machine to the iconic band we know today. As the guys reflect on their early days, it's clear that the transition wasn’t the smoothest.
Martin reminisces, ‘The Eight Legged Groove Machine was around 1993/94. We became WONDERboom in 1996, but there were a lot of songs that spilled over from The Eight Legged Groove Machine because we had never actually released anything. We were on a great trajectory as The Eight Legged Groove Machine but got fucked up by the industry as we were young. We then kind of went on a pleasing path, as we were part of a record label and had some success. There was almost a bit of a game-playing thing that we had to do, which wasn’t musically great for us, but we found our feet pretty quickly after that.’
Highs And Lows
WONDERboom, like numerous bands, has encountered a blend of challenges and triumphs in the music industry. Reflecting on their journey, they recall moments of soaring highs followed by abrupt lows, and share how they overcame these setbacks.
Cito expresses, ‘Before we became WONDERboom, The Electric Petals guys approached us as The Eight Legged Groove Machine to form a super group. We called ourselves The Electric Petal Groove Machine, and I think that whole journey was great because our first 3 or 4 gigs were touring the country with Simple Minds, playing to 16 000 people at Kings Park Stadium. Our second gig was live on TV, so we started quite high, but shortly thereafter we had dropped in popularity because there’s no shortcut to putting together a great band. So we had to start learning about each other and growing in the process for six months before becoming WONDERboom. So it took a couple years before we started to find our creative flow as WONDERboom from The Eight Legged Groove Machine days.’
A Diverse Musical Journey
One of the things that sets WONDERboom apart is their incredible diversity in themes and musical styles. With nine albums under their belt, it’s mind blowing how they’ve been able to keep the releases consistent.
Martin explains, ‘We’re blessed in that we can work together very well and see eye to eye on creative things. Any creative will tell you that it gets harder the more material you’ve released, because what do you say after 28 years? What do you write about? So it becomes a little bit deeper mining, but because you’re more mature and you’ve had the experience of all of this music, you can tap into so much more than when you were younger, which is great for the music.’
Embracing Change
Despite the vastly different musical landscape from when they started, with online connectivity and digitalisation at the forefront, it's remarkable that WONDERboom has continued their journey.
Cito shares, ‘When I think back to one of our first SAMA nominations, those were such beautiful, pure times, and it was also the days of the resurgence of original rock in South Africa where a lot of great bands were happening, and festivals like Oppikoppi and Woodstock were big platforms for great bands like Springbok Nude Girls and Sugardrive, and so many great original bands came out during that time. We’ve seen trends come and go; we’ve seen rock become popular again, then lose its coolness a few times. It’s just something that you have to accept as a musician; you’ve got to adapt; it’s not about changing your style or identity, but how you get your music to the people and just embracing everything instead of fighting against it.’
Conclusion
Whether you're a long-time fan of WONDERboom or new to their music, this podcast episode is a must-listen. There’s a lot more that the guys touched on in the full audio episode, so be sure to tune in.
