Hi Anxious: South Africa's Genre-Bending Rebels

00:40.52
Sludge Underground
Alright sweet, how's it going ladies gentlemen? It's Nasiphi Zwane is my surname, I'm the founder of Sludge Underground Podcast and today I've got Hi Anxious, a really awesome band from Cape Town. We're going to be talking about them, learning a bit more about them and it's just you know what they have for us in terms of you know music and how long they've been going, the works.

00:58.03
Sludge Underground
So guys, I'm super stoked to have you guys on here. Maybe you guys can just introduce yourselves as individuals and we can continue from there.

01:09.37
Hi Anxious
Cool. My name is Andre. i play guitar and I sing in the band. um I'm Sarul. I play bass.

01:17.81
Sludge Underground
Sweet, so I've got Andre and Sorel.

01:18.03
Hi Anxious
And then Tinas isn't. Yeah, and Tinas is not here. um He's being represented by whatever pets would like pop their head in.

01:28.50
Sludge Underground
So I take it that you guys are or a three piece then.

01:32.08
Hi Anxious
yeah

01:32.44
Sludge Underground
ah

01:32.58
Hi Anxious
Yes, yeah, keeping shit simple.

01:33.75
Sludge Underground
Yeah. how How are you guys able to get such a big sound out of that? Because you know i obviously read with what you guys submitted, you mentioned you know punk influences in there. um How are you guys able to just execute the sound that you've executed?

01:48.62
Hi Anxious
um I don't know, being pretty loud. I think our drummer hits really hard and tends to, like, i feel like I'm always chasing him. So the amps are loud and the pedals are on and, you know, we encourage earplugs.

01:58.39
Sludge Underground
yeah

02:05.21
Hi Anxious
So I think that kind of, that kind of gets it there. Yeah, before we played Metal for Africa Summerfest, which was our first sort of like biggish gig, like everyone in the band was like, Zange, dude, you need to buy a noise suppressor.

02:15.44
Sludge Underground
Nice.

02:20.83
Hi Anxious
Because like his amp always squealing because he takes it up to 11. Holy shit. Yeah.

02:28.04
Sludge Underground
Yes, it's absolutely wild. And I think we've got a pretty good taste. We actually must speak a bit about Summerfest as well.

02:31.25
Hi Anxious
Yeah.

02:33.76
Sludge Underground
But we got a pretty good taste of the sound, you know, with your first single, Untitled O1, which is a very interesting name. Perhaps you can get a bit into that as well. But um before we look at the, the you know, you obviously your initial, your debut release, um how was Summerfest actually? Because I've got a couple of homies that played there.

02:52.07
Sludge Underground
um I believe that's the one that had YCS on the lineup as well.

02:56.65
Hi Anxious
Yes, use your Cynical Sanity. Yes, yes.

02:58.94
Sludge Underground
Yes, yes, yes.

02:59.09
Hi Anxious
Yeah, it was a vibe. It was a vibe. Yeah, i loved it. I mean, I've been attending it since like two years ago, since I moved to Cape Town from Joburg. I've been sort of attending it. I'm a big metal fan.

03:12.20
Hi Anxious
And yeah, it was a vibe.

03:13.17
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

03:13.24
Hi Anxious
It was a vibe. i sort of like shot my shot trying to get the slot and it just worked out. Yeah.

03:21.82
Sludge Underground
you know it's absolutely wild because as you mentioned you know you guys mentioned it was a semi you know big you know type gig and the winter fest and summer fest have been very massive so the fact that you guys were able to get on that you know through just shooting your shot is absolutely impressive you know you mentioned moving having moved from johannesburg how would you guys say the scenes differ you know looking at joeberg and cape town was it a very like drastic shift is it very different in cape town compared to joeberg

03:48.54
Hi Anxious
Yeah, I think it's something that we talk about a lot. um You know, the scenes that we grew up in in Gauteng, there's so much DIY stuff that happens. People rock up and play shows almost anywhere because there's loads of bands and there's there's not that many venues. um Whereas in Cape Town, there's a couple more venues in close proximity, um but there's not as much sort of DIY stuff happening here. There are a few bands and people who are making that happen, but...

04:15.52
Hi Anxious
I think that's the biggest thing we noticed is there seems to be a little bit more DIY ethos in Gauteng. But um the scenes are but great in both cities. I mean, great bands from from all over, really.

04:31.04
Hi Anxious
Yeah, I found maybe it's just from sort of, I don't know, I've got bit of a bad taste from the Joburg scene. But I felt i feel like the Cape Town scene is a lot more supportive of one another.

04:42.05
Sludge Underground
Okay.

04:42.64
Hi Anxious
You know, it's sort of, you know... help me help you. Like everyone's got everyone's back. You know, if, if you do, if we release something or if the talent or hit whoever releases something, you know, like I'm always there commenting on their posts and I'm sharing their posts and they do do the same for us. So it's sort of,

05:01.17
Hi Anxious
I feel like a bit more sense of community in the Cape Town scene than I ever felt in the Joburg scene, which I don't know if the other people would agree with me.

05:05.05
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

05:11.88
Hi Anxious
But yeah, I'm feeling like we're actually part of the scene now and we're not just when it's not a competition.

05:12.77
Sludge Underground
yeah

05:19.69
Sludge Underground
What about the diversity? I read an article. i don't know if you guys also saw it. One that was written by Refilwe. Shout out Refilwe from Text in the City. And she was just mentioning how there is literally like ah very little diversity when it comes to lineups. You're getting more of the same thing, you know. um In a month, you'll find that, you know, you find in the same lineups, like five different venues or whatever the case is. Would you say it's a little more diverse in Cape Town or is it more or less the same vibe really?

05:49.38
Hi Anxious
um i think it's I think it's similar. I think it's similar everywhere, really. um you know Bands will come and go through the years, and whoever's hot right now will be playing a lot of gigs. um And yeah, i think I think both scenes are diverse in my opinion, but it just depends out in how deep in it you are, I guess.

06:10.28
Hi Anxious
Yeah. um if you look for If you look for it, you can find diversity um in both cities, I think, um genre-wise and just the diversity of people in the scene too.

06:21.73
Hi Anxious
I mean, all walks of life. ah And that's dope. I mean, that's something that I think in South Africa we're very blessed by is just like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's, there's all sorts everywhere.

06:30.60
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

06:32.91
Hi Anxious
um ah Something that I think is a bit more unique for sort of high anxious is we're not really a punk band and we're not really a metal band. So we work on both lineups. So, you know, um,

06:46.42
Hi Anxious
I'm a bit more of a metal head, so you know I tend to yeah yeah to gravitate a bit more to metal gigs, while Tinas and Zee is a bit more in the punk and indie scene. So that's sort of more the bands they get into.

07:00.60
Hi Anxious
And so we sort of we don't illy we're not stuck to a certain sort of genre. We might be the heaviest band on an indie lineup, or we might be the lightest band on ah on a metal lineup, which it's it's nice to sort of be able to swing both ways.

07:20.09
Sludge Underground
yeah yeah for sure i absolutely love that and you guys obviously mentioned and some of your buyers as well that you guys you know you weren't fine you guys playing you know the same sort of like dive bar two weekends in a row i think the words were and how you guys are able to carefully sort of like curate shows and so on um expand on that a bit more for me

07:40.08
Hi Anxious
um cool so y yeah i mean i do most of the bookings for the band and it's sort of you know we have we we don't want to be like we've we've done this before like so many times and just playing playing a rumors lounge like no offense i love rumors lounge but i played rumors lounge in joeberg to death

07:58.92
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

08:02.23
Hi Anxious
And it's just you're playing the same venue to the same people every week.

08:02.93
Sludge Underground
For sure.

08:06.81
Hi Anxious
And it just you're not making any money and no one's really enjoying yourself. So we sort of decided, cool, we're going to curate all of our gigs. So I think up until this point, we counted. We've only played like seven gigs.

08:19.93
Hi Anxious
ah But I mean, in this gig, it was our our two launch gigs, like the band launch gig and our EP launch gig that we put together um on our ACE that we can get in at a later stage. And we played like Middle for Africa. We opened for the Narrow. We played with Beast.

08:38.13
Hi Anxious
um We're playing with Lower Hollow and next week um in the Stellenbosch gig. And we're playing with The Gift week thereafter. And then in August, we're playing with the Frog, the um Italian punk band that Noise Effects is bringing down.

08:55.13
Hi Anxious
um And then we've got our Joburg tour that I'm busy putting together now.

08:55.36
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

09:00.25
Hi Anxious
So it's sort of, you know, like once a month sort of max. And we choose we try and be a bit choosy and be selective about what gigs we take and um playing with bands that we admire and um our friends.

09:16.06
Hi Anxious
and um Yeah, I think we've been through the rigmarole of like playing gigs every weekend um at various points in our lives. And I think you know just juggling time as ah as a normal sort of person who doesn't do music full time, I think um we like to play gigs that we like and with bands that we like and um at venues that we like.

09:32.21
Sludge Underground
Yeah. Yeah.

09:38.37
Hi Anxious
um Not to say we're not up for anything. I think we kind of are at points. Yeah, yeah we'll hear anything out.

09:42.29
Sludge Underground
yeah

09:43.39
Hi Anxious
But if we say no, don't be offended.

09:47.11
Sludge Underground
Yeah, it's definitely the smart way to go about it. You don't want to oversaturate and you don't want to you know be easily accessible in a way. like People have to you know miss you a little bit.

09:58.74
Sludge Underground
Sorrel, you money there at the beginning of that because you mentioned you know playing the same old venues and like you know you're not making any money. How important would you guys say that is when it comes to you know bookings?

10:10.59
Sludge Underground
like is it one of

10:11.52
Hi Anxious
um

10:12.06
Sludge Underground
you know does ah yeah

10:16.79
Hi Anxious
I mean, thus far, I've been booking the gigs and asking how much we get paid later. but

10:23.81
Sludge Underground
Okay.

10:24.86
Hi Anxious
so not very important, really. But moving forward, it's like, you know, okay, you know, we've got our first 10 books. 10 gigs booked you know moving forward we have to discuss this beforehand but yeah no it's not it's not about making money for us at all um not at this stage and it's probably never going to be it's just about i don't know like all of us want to be musicians well all of us are musicians and it's about expressing yourself and having fun but it needs to be worth your while at the same time

10:55.74
Hi Anxious
Just so that you can keep doing it. you know um Yeah, you know we don't want to have to pay for, for example, our Joburg tour that's coming up now.

11:05.60
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

11:06.17
Hi Anxious
um

11:06.59
Sludge Underground
Yeah. Yeah.

11:07.06
Hi Anxious
After Metal for Africa and after Summerfest and after our um EP launch gig, we had enough funds saved up from the gigs and from our merch sales to cover the cost for the three of us to fly to Joburg and back.

11:23.65
Hi Anxious
cool, now we're booking the tour so that it's not costing any of the band members a cent. So that's where it's at you know We want to get the band to at least fund itself. And that's sort of the most important part. you know Band practice aside, you know we still pay for band practice out of our own pocket, but and buying flight tickets on your ACE is a bit hectic if it's something you're not expecting return on.

11:52.33
Sludge Underground
Definitely, it is quite taxing. And one of the things that you mentioned there actually sort of gives me the impression that you guys are doing well in that specific regard, which is merch. You said, you know, a part of the, you know, what went into the band financially is, you know, successfully selling, selling awesome merch.

12:09.42
Sludge Underground
So how have you guys, you know, navigated that as a band? Because I don't people don't often say it but it's actually not as I wouldn't say it's as easy as you know some might make it so how have you guys managed to you know push merch to an extent where you've been able to get something from it and keep the band going financially

12:29.63
Hi Anxious
You want to go I'll jump in. um Well, I don't know. Honestly, people are just cool. We haven't, I wouldn't say done anything really particular to push that side of it besides just making our own shirts and trying to make designs cool. And honestly, the community has just been rad enough to buy the odd t-shirt and and stuff. It's definitely not easy, like you say, but...

12:52.32
Hi Anxious
um People have been cool and for some reason people keep buying the shirts so we keep making them, you know. Z is sort of underselling our merch.

12:59.31
Sludge Underground
Mm.

13:02.48
Hi Anxious
Firstly, in sort of in the heart of the DIY ethos, um we um me and the bear, well, Tinas, our drummer, he was into screen printing.

13:17.21
Hi Anxious
So from the get go, we're not um outsourcing our merch. All of our merch is made in-house. So we um expose our own screens and we print it ourselves, and which means we can sell our merch at cheaper at a profit.

13:36.07
Hi Anxious
like And so we're selling shirts at $150 a pop, um which is actually unheard of. in I mean, all of the other bands are selling their shirts like $200, $300. And it's not...

13:49.64
Hi Anxious
and it's not

13:50.10
Sludge Underground
yep

13:51.08
Hi Anxious
And I mean, sure, we're making a profit off of that, but it's more about getting the merch out there. You know, just having people at our shows with merch on. um It's such a vibe, you know, like we also had a limited run of shirts for Metal for Africa that we haven't printed since.

14:09.25
Hi Anxious
And going to a gig and seeing a person with that shirt on and being like, cool, yeah, you got a shirt from Metal for Africa run. It's a vibe. um So yeah, it's, I mean, yes, we're definitely making money from it and it's a consistent income that we try and sort of source, but that's not the main thing.

14:29.93
Sludge Underground
Mm. Now, let's look at, obviously, the single I mentioned a little bit about it earlier, entitled 01, which you guys say is Two Years in the Making. Tell me a bit more about the track and what the thinking was behind it.

14:42.18
Sludge Underground
Why that one in particular as well as sort of like the lead sort of or the first single?

14:48.63
Hi Anxious
um Well, I think in our band there's there's a lot of differing tastes and you know kind of different influences creeping into each member's playing. And that song was one that I think was very much um written in the rehearsal room with very equal contribution. And it just kind of felt right. We all sort of agreed that we liked that song.

15:13.62
Hi Anxious
um And I suppose being the the song with the title of the EP in it, um the word Ender, just felt like it made sense.

15:24.68
Hi Anxious
It was the one that we all liked collectively the most, I suppose. And yeah, I think that was that was the choice there.

15:28.93
Sludge Underground
Hmm.

15:32.56
Hi Anxious
Obviously, we liked them all, but... That one came together really quick, really quick. Some of the other ones took a little bit more massaging before felt like we could put them out.

15:42.92
Hi Anxious
Yeah, actually don't have any memory of us sort of like workshopping Untitled. It was just sort of, it was done. Yeah. yeah Yeah, it it was just a song that sort of naturally came together and all of the pieces just fit sooner than some of the others.

15:58.35
Hi Anxious
And it's, I feel like as So like the six song EP, if I would want someone to listen to one song on the EP that would give you a taste of the rest of the songs, Untitled One would be the best representation of what we sound like.

16:21.15
Sludge Underground
It's very beautiful. And I also saw that you guys obviously produced, you know, you mixed it, you mastered it yourself. It's absolutely impressive what you guys are doing because artists right now aren't only just artists, you know, you you obviously have quite a lot more that goes into it.

16:36.43
Sludge Underground
um it's not a matter of just writing the music i mean on top of writing the music it's the production it's the mixing it's the mastering it's the social media which is a whole other story um how are you guys able to pull that off especially looking at the ep i mean where how did you guys manage to get time because i don't suppose this is all you guys do as well i don't know if you guys have day jobs or anything but how do you guys fit everything and make it sort of work regarding the ep well the six track ep yeah

17:03.82
Hi Anxious
wherever we can really um yeah i mean that's why this ep was two years in the making because everyone's got day jobs um yeah i mean you find time when you can um ah so with the recording process we went to love buzz studios and we live tracked everything in one day live tracked all of the um the guitars, the bass, and the drums.

17:29.34
Hi Anxious
And this was last year, June. And then afterwards, it was just Z coming to overdub everything the vocals and me mixing and mastering everything with a ton of feedback from the band. So I mean, me and Zandre, we probably had like 20 dates inside this bedroom.

17:50.45
Hi Anxious
just recording vocals and checking the mix and just revisiting stuff. So it's a lot of back and forth and a lot of micromanagement. But something Tina said after our like the band launch was, you know, it takes a village, you know, so we've got Mika.

18:06.84
Hi Anxious
my housemate that she helps doing the social meets some of the some of our video edits for the social she would do and we get a lot of help along the way which i'm very grateful for you know besides we are three piece but we have a lot of friends that comes comes in clutch when we need them like selling merch and working the door we always have a homie that's up for it yeah

18:31.43
Sludge Underground
No, for sure. It's a really beautiful sense of community there. It's absolutely beautiful. um Obviously, the EP has got various influences. I think you guys have really done well in sort of blending all of these elements, but i don't suppose it's quite a simple thing to do. You know, you guys have cited Psychedelia, Grunge, Emo, Hardcore, you know, Metal and Prog as well in there.

18:51.90
Sludge Underground
um you know How did you guys actually make sure that everyone that is sort of into each of those elements you know comes out with like a favorite in the EP?

19:05.23
Hi Anxious
um I don't think it was really that thought out. It's sort of a responsibility of every band member individually to work their own influences into the way that they play.

19:17.75
Hi Anxious
um And I think, you know, a lot of the songs come from very different places and are maybe different genre-wise, but are played through the filter of how we do that. So um I think everybody sort of found their favorites, you know, in the process of writing and in the process of yeah hearing back the recordings eventually.

19:40.15
Hi Anxious
But um I think it we just wrote a bunch of songs and it ended up sounding like us. I don't think it was that thought out to try and make one like this or try and make one like that. it's We went through a bunch of ideas that didn't um didn't crack the record. And um I think we just picked the ones that made us feel good and that felt good to play in the rehearsal room.

20:01.81
Hi Anxious
um And naturally, the ones that one it stuck ended up coming out. And we're still operating that way pretty much. If if if an idea doesn't sort of... spark joy or if it doesn't have enough teeth, then we tend to just scrap it and move on and and do something else until we can find something that all of us like.

20:23.00
Sludge Underground
Tell me about the experience at LoveBuzz and whether it had an influence you know on how on the sound that we essentially got. Obviously, you guys are a lot more hands-on, ultimately, with the sound, but you know the sort of recording process at LoveBuzz and so on.

20:41.69
Hi Anxious
It was good. and Yeah. Yeah. We had Sean Harrold. Yeah. Yeah. He was engineering us. Such a, such an amazing engineer. and And yeah, everything went quite well. um We, like, I actually was checking my Instagram story, like, like the, the memories, if you can call it that, of a year ago. Cause like leading up to our recording session in June, we were rehearsing twice a week.

21:08.22
Hi Anxious
And so like for us, it was on us to make sure we are tight and like everything goes smooth from a player's point of view.

21:18.78
Hi Anxious
to and then it was up to Sean and George to make sure, you know, the recording and everything goes well. But the thing is like we rehearse in the room that we record in recorded in every week.

21:32.80
Hi Anxious
There's no pressure. George has like, he's got four rooms at Love Buzz. He knows if we want to rehearse and the live room isn't available, we're not rehearsing.

21:43.70
Hi Anxious
We only rehearse in the live room. So it was, it's it's like home by now, you know?

21:46.62
Sludge Underground
Yeah. Yeah.

21:49.17
Hi Anxious
So it wasn't like, extra pressure, were we're in a new space or anything, you know, we've we play the song songs in this room back to back every week.

21:59.94
Hi Anxious
So it was just like walking in early, setting up and just playing the songs back to back. The only limitation was Tinas' hands because he because we were practicing so much leading up to it.

22:12.03
Hi Anxious
He had blisters before the recording session actually started, yeah which was a bit of an issue, but we made it work.

22:14.25
Sludge Underground
Oh, wow.

22:16.94
Sludge Underground
Hmm.

22:21.21
Hi Anxious
Yeah, the drums were such an important part of it for us.

22:21.80
Sludge Underground
Hmm.

22:23.97
Hi Anxious
um You know, with home recording, I think that especially for alternative music and sort of rock and drum and guitar based music is, you know, the drums is where it can really fall apart.

22:36.12
Hi Anxious
So our main thing going in that day was we really just wanted a great drum sound. So there were loads of mics on the drums, you know, Sorrel and I. had a very limited amount of channels, etc. That's why we didn't do vocals. But we really focused on those drum recordings. And he also, you know, showed up energy wise and totally wrecked his hands um recording that EP, which in some weird way, I feel like you can you can hear that if you if you know, you know.

23:08.04
Sludge Underground
No, it sounds like a really awesome experience, guys. You know, just getting a lot of insights on, you know, the recording process, you know, learning about that, you know, whole situation, you know, that you just spoke about is is absolutely wild. I think it it sort of brings the EP to life as well. Just, you know, having that sort of, you know, context and so on.

23:25.71
Sludge Underground
uh we almost at the tail end um i feel like we've gotten quite a quite a lot of the important stuff out the way but now as a band that you know generally enjoys and prefers to be hands-on even when it comes to like curating your own shows and so on you know if you had to be in charge of you know you guys get a venue somewhere and you need to you know create the ultimate lineup the ultimate south african lineup um you guys are the headliners who are you guys putting on

23:52.28
Hi Anxious
That's conversation we have every week.

23:52.69
Sludge Underground
a South African band. it has to be, yeah, it has to be within South Africa as well, obviously.

23:53.57
Hi Anxious
Yeah, yeah, yeah. i

23:58.74
Hi Anxious
So, Cameron, in one of his bands, so be that be it Black Math Sisters or Taekwondo Sleepover, and like, we we love Cameron.

24:08.26
Sludge Underground
ah

24:10.38
Hi Anxious
He's been involved in both of our, like, own hosted shows. He actually joined us on stage for the EP launch. Like, love Cameron.

24:20.78
Hi Anxious
Like, ah I would kiss him if he was here.

24:22.27
Sludge Underground
Hmm.

24:23.52
Hi Anxious
So yeah, are like definitely either Black Maths Sisters or Taekwondo Sleepover would be on the lineup.

24:23.97
Sludge Underground
Hmm.

24:30.49
Hi Anxious
um I would like to throw Medicine Dolls in just because they played Bad Mood Music Volume 2 with us and and Greg goes way back. um Do you want it to throw band or two in?

24:43.05
Hi Anxious
um Maybe a genre clash, but I really love Fuzzy Gish. I love what they what they can do to a crowd in terms of hyping them up. And um every time I've seen that band, they've been great. So that's definitely a bit of a goal is I'd love to play with Fuzzy. I'm also a really big fan of Hellcats.

25:00.46
Hi Anxious
um And if they would reform, I'd love to play a gig with Medicine Boy. um from Cape Town, but they're they're overseas now.

25:05.61
Sludge Underground
Hmm.

25:07.34
Hi Anxious
But I think those are those are some of my yeah my goals. Yeah, I would just also like to throw in handpicked humans and the talent in just because they are my best friends.

25:17.85
Hi Anxious
Shout out to homies. Yeah, the homies can't be left behind.

25:24.15
Sludge Underground
For sure, guys. It's absolutely, I mean, it's a little Cape Town heavy, but I also understand what what what I take pride in, in what you guys said is ah obviously with the the first couple that you mentioned have got ties to Durban.

25:36.75
Sludge Underground
So shout outs. I mean, Cam, you know, was doing black math here a while ago here in Durban.

25:38.72
Hi Anxious
Yes.

25:42.60
Sludge Underground
And then obviously medicine dolls when they were the antiretrovirals. Actually, antiretrovirals.

25:46.68
Hi Anxious
So I'm... He was in the anti-retro vinyls for a second there.

25:48.28
Sludge Underground
Yes. Yes.

25:49.98
Hi Anxious
i'm I'm an on a gig anti-retro vinyl member. um i Yes, yes.

25:54.01
Sludge Underground
What? Oh, no ways, dude. Man.

25:57.15
Hi Anxious
Yes.

25:57.31
Sludge Underground
Yeah.

25:57.82
Hi Anxious
Yeah. So, i so yeah, I met, I met Cam and the Black Math guys when um the Antigrater Vinyls played at Firkin.

25:58.22
Sludge Underground
man yeah

26:08.76
Hi Anxious
It was on top of some mall, I think in Pinetown. um So yeah, with the Antigrater Vinyls, we did a lot of Durban shows regularly. And that's how I met Cam and Black Math very early. And that's also obviously how me and Greg from the Medicine Dolls. Yeah.

26:25.14
Hi Anxious
Much love for Durban.

26:25.93
Sludge Underground
Dude, ah dude were you not were you not there when we went to... um It was one of the shows and in Durban at PATH, like on the rooftop. I think you might be referring to that.

26:36.11
Hi Anxious
Yes, yes, that's the one, the rooftop one.

26:36.25
Sludge Underground
You know you know the pavilion shop? Yeah, yeah. no

26:38.83
Hi Anxious
Yes, the pavilion.

26:39.45
Sludge Underground
The rooftop one.

26:39.71
Hi Anxious
Yes, that's the one. Yes, yes, yes, yeah, yeah.

26:40.77
Sludge Underground
Yes. Dude, you probably, could because I just don't remember whether you were still there or whether was some of the the other members that joined after, but we did have like an interview.

26:50.08
Hi Anxious
No, no, that was...

26:52.37
Sludge Underground
Yeah. Okay. That must've been after, but, but yes, dude, you look so, I wondered why you look so familiar, Matt.

26:54.15
Hi Anxious
Okay, yes.

26:58.17
Hi Anxious
Yeah, yeah, no, that was me. Yes, yes, yeah, on the pavilion, yeah.

27:01.28
Sludge Underground
Why is, I'm actually speaking to like Durban royalty. I don't think you understand how big anterior to vinyls were back then. And I never remember it was it was it was you guys. It was the Myths. It was Mouse.

27:13.73
Sludge Underground
ah You guys were absolutely...

27:14.92
Hi Anxious
Amen. Yes. yes

27:15.60
Sludge Underground
Like, I literally you started Sludge Underground because of the influence that you guys had in Durban back then. Like, I wanted to know about these bands. So... I'm so stoked that, you know, you're here now, dude, and that you you you guys are still pushing and it's it's absolutely brilliant.

27:28.39
Hi Anxious
yeah

27:31.02
Sludge Underground
Like, what?

27:31.84
Hi Anxious
Yeah, it it was actually a bit of a full so it was a bit of a full circle moment for me playing Bad Mood Music Volume 2, which was our EP launch that happened like a few weeks ago.

27:32.39
Sludge Underground
But, so yeah.

27:42.13
Hi Anxious
like Having Cam there featuring on stage with us and having Greg in the Medicine Dolls like um headlining the show because yeah they were just both like such an important part of my like early musicianship.

28:00.68
Hi Anxious
um

28:01.17
Sludge Underground
and

28:01.29
Hi Anxious
Yeah, no, i really I really had fun in Durban back in the early days. um

28:07.27
Sludge Underground
it's absolutely it's absolutely pretty beautiful guys um yeah i think before we even you know depart obviously want to know what's sort of coming up for you guys you you touched a bit on it uh you know when you mentioned that you guys have quite a few shows planned some of them in joeberg as well uh i didn't hear durbin in there but maybe you can expand um where can we see you guys next what is what is happening what are the plans the ep is out is there going to be a music video let us in on the future

28:31.51
Hi Anxious
Um, music video concept has been like being, been hashed out since like over a year ago Um, so yeah, we're definitely still thinking about doing a music video. Um, we sort of head around running, working on new material, which is such a breath of fresh air.

28:51.66
Hi Anxious
um But with regards to gigs, we've got ah we've got two Stellenbosch gigs coming up, which is our first gigs that aren't in Cape Town. yeah um And then we're playing a sort of DIY skate park event um in July, which is sort of still being organized.

29:11.97
Hi Anxious
And we are playing District with the Frog, the Italian punk band that's touring in August. And then I'm busy organizing our Joburg tour as we speak. So we are hitting Joburg the 24th of September until the 5th of October.

29:33.85
Hi Anxious
And then we're going be back here. And then we're going to have another Bad Mood Music, which going be another one of our events. And then the year is basically done. But yeah, Durban definitely is still on the cards.

29:44.78
Hi Anxious
We'll definitely come and visit. venue Venue owners, hit us up. We've got music video ideas. Videographers, hit us up

29:53.66
Sludge Underground
a sweet, sweet. Tell me about the name before we before we depart and get handles and stuff. Hi, Anxious. What's the story behind that?

30:01.10
Hi Anxious
up. I was actually arguing with our drummer about this the other day. We seem to remember it differently, but somebody I think said they were anxious in rehearsal, and I think it may have been you that said, hi, anxious, I'm dad. No, I came with the the name.

30:14.76
Hi Anxious
And so... one my One of my homies that you've actually interviewed for one of the sludge grickers, Harry from Handpicked Heathens.

30:23.84
Sludge Underground
Yes, yes.

30:23.91
Hi Anxious
um So he sent me a message and he's like, dude, he's got a name for punk band that we should definitely use. And the name is Hi Anxious, I'm Dad.

30:34.55
Sludge Underground
Hmm.

30:34.99
Hi Anxious
it's like a dad joke, you know, Hi Anxious, I'm Dad. and I brought it to the band and me and Tinas were all very keen for it. But Zange was like, no, high anxious. I'm dead. It's too long, whatnot. And then one day he was like, dude, just high anxious.

30:51.35
Hi Anxious
And then it just clicked. Yeah, we had a couple of other ideas floating around, but I think we got so sick of trying to decide on a band name. We just picked that, you know, it made sense. um It was a working title that became the title eventually.

31:04.32
Hi Anxious
you know Like that happens pretty often.

31:04.91
Sludge Underground
yeah

31:06.42
Hi Anxious
love the band name. I love it so much.

31:09.90
Sludge Underground
it's really awesome i mean it sticks it rolls off the tongue it's absolutely beautiful i love it so much guys where can people get in touch with you online if they want to you know link up the the promoters and the the photographers and the videographers that you guys were asking for guys where can they reach you

31:10.17
Hi Anxious
Yeah.

31:27.91
Hi Anxious
They can get us on Instagram and Facebook and we'll we'll post our PO box in the in the description below and you can mail us. It's at highanxiousband, but it's high as in hello, H-I, not high as in height.

31:45.41
Sludge Underground
like guft.

31:45.48
Hi Anxious
ah Yeah, yeah, not gift. It's helloanxious. um Yeah, at High Anxious Band for all of our handles and highanxious at gmail.com if you want to sneak into our emails.

32:00.80
Hi Anxious
Yeah, best way to get in touch with us is to find us at a show. Yeah. We'll treat you like royalty.

32:06.97
Sludge Underground
Yeah, that is perfect, guys. And obviously, you can catch Sludge Underground on the interwebs. We are sludgeonerground.com. If you want to get merch, it's sludgeonerground.store. As for myself, it's adzwani. I've had a really awesome time chatting to High Anxious, learned quite a lot about them, and I hope you've learned a lot about them as well.

32:23.21
Sludge Underground

ah Yeah, so obviously, if you enjoyed the episode, do subscribe to the channel. ah It's absolutely free.

32:34.16
Sludge Underground
So yeah, do hit that subscribe button. And I hope to see you guys next time for another episode. It is bye for now.