SA Music Blog

Living in the same building as a band is never easy. Constant rehearsals, loud music, spontaneous bouts of vocals. You get the picture. I recently joined the band Flux in Motion on their daily lunchtime venture to go “muff some khaya”. To normal people this will translate to going to have lunch at the very cheap Stellenbosch student restaurant Die Khaya.

My two chaperones were John and Gerrit. John plays guitar and sings for the band while Gerrit also plays guitar and does backing vocals. The two other band members who were missing in action are Neels, the bassist, and Altus, the drummer.

After we arrived at Die Khaya we settled into the armchairs and the interview started.

John and Neels went to school together and used to play in a metal band. Also at school they met Altus who was two years behind them. They recruited him to play the drums for them and when they moved to Stellenbosch they met Gerrit. That is how Flux in Motion got started.

John is currently studying LLB, Gerrit is studying Bcom, Neels is doing his honours in Financial Risk Management and Altus is studying Chemical Engineering.  It is out of Altus’s engineering background that the name Flux in Motion sprouted from.

Altus first suggested “Flux and Motion” but the other bandmembers quickly changed it to fit their music style better. The word “flux” can be defined as a series of continuous change. That is exactly what Flux in Motion wants to present to the South African music scene. Their music is definitely a welcome change from any other music that is currently on the local market.

On the subject of someone at Klein Libertas Teater accidently misspelling their name as “slux” in motion on the advertisements for their first gig, they don’t have much to say. They blame it on an unclear phone line and just laugh it off. Clearly they aren’t going to slit their wrists about it.

They agree that their music can be described as “stadium rock” but adds that they would rather describe it as classic rock with a modern twist. They name Muddy Waters, Led Zeppelin, Guns and Roses and Bob Dylan as their influences. This can be heard clearly in their music.

John and Gerrit write the lyrics.  For them every song has a different theme and they describe their songs as memoirs. They also use their songs as a way of giving social criticism on current issues. At the moment flux in Motion does not do covers, but they say they may resort to it in the future.

As vain as it may sound, they do enjoy listening to their own music. John names their song “Jack Slater” as his favourite while Gerrit says “Save some for Later” is his favourite.

When they are not listening to their own music they listen to Lenny Kravitz, Tool, Deftones, and Kings of Leon. The band members obviously have a very diverse taste in music. They also listen to current local music as they see it important to know what is happening on the music scene. Their favourite South African bands include Zebra and Giraffe, The Tananas and The Plastics. They do name some local bands as being their least favourite but due to the website’s loyalty to South African music we will refrain from naming names.

According to John the band does not have an image yet. They are focussing on their music for now. This is clear when one notices that Gerrit is wearing his girlfriend’s hoodie…

Three out of the four guys have girlfriends. They also have many female friends who support them at their gigs. Evidently they are still waiting for the hordes of groupies to catch up with them.

They have recorded a few songs and an EP is coming out soon. Their goal (for now) is to be able to enjoy financial success in about three or five year’s time. With a financial risk manager on board that may not seem that far fetched…

samusicblog wishes Flux in Motion all the best for the future.

Check them out at their gigs:

20 August            Klein Libertas Teater (with Fotonadans)

23 August            ROAR