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If everyone is alternative then nothing is alternative

Damian Strydom doesn’t sugarcoat what it costs to run an independent tour through towns most acts skip. “Funding and sponsorship is a bust. False promises and kak praat. Doen dit jouself!” he says. He has toured this country the hard way with his band Onskuldige Doodsvonnis: played shitty bars, got beaten up by biker gangs, slept in cars. “If you look at the numbers it doesn’t make sense to do it, but it’s taking that risk and that leap of faith and doing it nonetheless.”

The South African cultural landscape is in the midst of a seismic shift as Afrikalt, an alternative Afrikaans music and art collective, continues its much-anticipated “Paarl to Pretoria” tour. Kicking off on 29 August 2024, this tour has already set the stage for a groundbreaking celebration of creativity, diversity, and the vibrant undercurrents of the Afrikaans-speaking community.

With a band name like Karel Bester en die Kraaines Band (Die Kraaines) and a self-described genre like “psychedelic boere-punk,” you are here to flip the script. Karel Bester, frontman of this up-and-coming four-piece Afrikaans rock band, sat down with us to talk about his musical journey and how it led him to the formation of Die Kraaines.