K@khuis
The k@kHuis tale begins way back in 1988 when I started my first band at the age of thirteen. The bands name was V.O.Y.S.S(Vandalism Of Your Stereo System) and was a three piece black metal outfit with myself on vocals and guitar. From there we became known as BLACK REIGN and picked up endless shit for the name in old apartheid fueled South Africa at the time, where everything different was considered to be satanic.
From there I moved on to a band called SUBURBIA where I also sang and played guitar as well as piano and we pretty much covered everything from Foster and Alan(no jokes) to the great David Bowie, after that I moved away from my home town of Port Elizabeth and ventured north to Johannesburg.
In Johannesburg I pursued my tattoo career as well as furthered my music knowledge by being a rent a musician, playing bass and guitar in various metal bands but only on short term basis, around the same time I was spending six months a year abroad chasing eternal summers with my tattoo career.
In 1997 I took a break from tattooing for a year and took a sabatical along with a very good mate Brad. We ended up living in the mountains outside of Lydenburg, an area filled with history and grave sites relating to the boer war, it was there that I started thinking a lot about how rich our country's history is and started to write about it, why be just another wanna be american sounding musician .
So it was on the farm that we were living on at the time, where we started what was to be known as BURNSIDE . Burside was a two man outfit with both myself and Brad on acoustic guitar and vocals, and we used to travel the lowveld area of South Africa playing four hour gigs at a time in places like Graskop, Sabie, Pilgrims Rest, Nelspruit to name but a few. From there, I moved back to Johannesburg because the allure of tattooing once again called me.
Back in Johannesburg I started jamming with some mates doing loads of Jimi Hendrix and Rolling Stones covers with me on vocals. After a couple of months of playing at mainly biker type events I moved on and landed a slot as guitarist in Johannesburg based, grindcore band, OBSCENE FILTH which at the time was rare for me to take on a full time position in a band .
Around the same time I was doing my best Jimi Hendrix impersonations, I was also getting stuck into the evils of being ruled by heroin, I ended up takeing a three year sabbatical in Mozambique where I found my inner strength and the real me.
In 2003 I returned to the big cities, this time basing myself in Cape Town, there I hooked up with SKELM (from hip hop band called KALLITZ) And we decided that a rage against the machine type band but in afrikaans was the order of the day.
This took off well and we played some awesome shows in and around the mother city, with bands such as K.O.B.U.S and V.O.L and .n.o.t.m to name but a few. Sadly we felt very misunderstood and felt that the.V.o.d project was never closed off, a continuation was in order and so HALF PAST H8 was born.
With HALF PAST H8 I found myself covering old South African folk songs such as our old national anthem etc and soon HALF PAST H8 mania took over, unfortunatly due to some dealings with a few greedy people who were cashing in on our hard work, I had to pull the plug on that project.
I'm now based in Johannesburg and am finishing off my very first full lengh album which includes songs from my HALF PAST H8 and DECSCANT projects as well as a whole bunch of new material which I'm very excited about because I'm really working with some true artists on it . The release date will be announced soon, but I am aiming for November '09.
