Continued from page 24
in the beginning because of the age
range," he elaborates. "Danny, I think he
was about 13 when we first started
doing gigs. And at that age, it's harder
to focus your interests – you're more interested in your friends and school and
whatever else you're up to.
"But basically, our family's philosophy was always this – our parents
wanted us to learn music as a subject
because they thought that it was valuable. But we started to get to an age
where we had to think about our future
– if we wanted to go to college, did we
want to get a job. And we all pretty
much agreed simultaneously that this
could be more fun than getting a job or
following the traditional path. So we
started to get more serious about it, and
in 2007 we put out that first album. And
it just felt like a natural decision. There
was resistance, a little bit, here and
there," Jesse laughs. "But once everyone
got a taste of playing out and getting the
recognition, it was kind of a no-brainer."
Why did it take so long to issue the
"Lunatic" follow-up? " "Kongos" got
some really good reviews upon its release," Jesse says. But it didn't do much
of anything, commercially speaking. So
the quartet had come to a fork in the
road – they could continue to put out
more efforts and cross their fingers,
hoping listeners would notice them, or
they could create their own grassroots
buzz and build a fan base that way, Do
It Yourself style. "So before we put another album out, we just started recording singles and releasing them
ourselves for free or for an E-mail address," says Jesse. "And it wasn't until
about 2010 or 2011 that we started get-
ting some radio play locally, and the
South Africa picked up on us, and th
really generated enough interest. So w
felt like 'Okay – let's finish anothe
album and put it out, because som
people might actually want it now!'"
Kongos was soon playing concer
and festivals throughout South Afric
like Joburg Day, Oppikoppi, Pretoria
Park Acoustics, Up The Creek, and On
Night In Cape Town!, which the ban
headlined. They even opened fo
Linkin A