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If you live in South Africa and listen to Afrikaans radio, fly SAA or watch the Afrikaans satellite music video channel MK89, you will definitely be familiar with this Capetonian’s passionate voice. Mynie Grové, veteran South African songwriter and Idols judge, described him in 2002 as “cutting edge. New blood. New angle. Not a copycat.”
An accurate testimonial. His debut album “Ek hoor jou” was released in 2006, to much critical acclaim.
“Oozes charm and musical sensitivity,” [Odyssey]
“A sophisticated artist and product,” [Die Burger]
“An exciting debut. Powerful voice and strong lyrics.” [INSIG]
and “not another Kurt Darren.” [Pretoria Eastern].
The album is currently playlisted on more than 30 radio stations in South Africa.
Since his album’s release in 2006, Philip has performed at all the major Afrikaans festivals to promote his album: The KKNK in Oudtshoorn, Aardklop in Potchefstroom, the Gariepfees in Kimberley and recently at Innibos in Nelspruit, where he did nine shows in four days. He also did a stunt at the South African festival in Kanada, KANASIE, in July 2006.
His performances consist of an interesting mix of pop, rock, jazz, blues and even boeremusiek! Philip’s banter is full of mischief as he loves talking about his “unorthodox” childhood, members of his family and family friends who have served time in prison, and delivering babies. “It’s like Running with scissors meets Triomf,” he says. The content is 50 % English and 50 % Afrikaans.
A special feature of his shows is the accordion, an instrument that he learnt at mother’s knee. “My parents loved boeremusiek, and my mom taught me to play the accordion when I was 8 years old. She is from a lineage of boeremusiek musicians – my great grandfather played banjo in a boere-orkes, and my grandfather played the ukelele and the violin. They all worked at Groot Constantia, and used to congregate weekly in the skuur to sing folk songs.”
When Philip was 16 and his friends worked at the Spur during school holidays, he decided to rather play his accordion in the streets of Cape Town. “After my first shift at a restaurant, I was fired because of my clumsiness. I even had to pay in R70 for a broken teapot and plates!” His busking was so lucrative, that he saved enough money in three months to buy a piano. At the end of 1992, just before he turned 17, he won the National Ithuba Songwriting Competition, with R10 000 prize money. He used the money to fund a trip to London and the U.S.A. where he busked on the streets to earn extra pocket money.
On his return Philip realised that he can sing, when he was given the lead role in his high school’s production of Joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat. “I didn’t even dream of auditioning, I was very shy of singing in front of others. My friend persuaded me to perform a duet with her, because she wanted to audition for the angel choir. I got a call-back and was offered the lead.”
Until June 2006 he worked as voice trainer at the prestigious film school AFDA in Observatory. He obtained his Honours Degree in Live Performance from the same institution in that year. He left AFDA to focus on his music career and other business prospects:
In 2007 Philip founded his own music training academy, Vivacious Voice. Vivacious Voice specialises in singing and songwriting tuition, which has since January 2008 expanded to Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Stellenbosch and soon Soweto! Part of his initiative is a scholarship programme. Since April 2008 Philip has awarded 22 scholarships to singers and songwriters from historically disadvantaged backgrounds to the value of R48 000. The academy made a huge break through recently when the 24-year old Nomfusi Gotyana, a scholarship student from Kayalitsha, was approached by Universal Music Publishing South Africa for a publishing deal. Philip now acts as Nomfusi’s manager and oversees the production of her first album.
Philip attended a 5-day workshop with Professor Pat Pattison from the Berklee College of Music in Canada in June 2006. He has impletented Pattison’s ground breaking lyric writing techniques in his songwriting courses, which are taught nationally.
Philip plans to make a concept dance album in 2009 with an 8-piece blind Boere-orkes from Worcester. “My mom booked them for her 70th birthday last year and I wrote a song for the occasion which I performed with them. It was a smashing success. I have included the song in my sets ever since, and the audiences love it. The discerning people in the audience pay attention to the sharp lyrics, while the rest can sakkie-sakkie to heart’s content.”
OTHER INTERESTING FACTS
Philip’s anti-abuse song, “Don’t lose your softness,” was recently included in the new songbook for schools in the Western Cape, commissioned by MEC of Education Cameron Dugmore. The song was made available to them free of charge.
He grabbed the nation’s attention with his first music video for his Kylie Minogue-meets-Johannes Kerkorrel song "Vorie TV" (Afrikaans for “In front of the TV.”) (click on video still to watch) on MK89. The video was the first Afrikaans music video to be screened ..phones. It was was named one of the best videos of 2006 by DKNT on kykNET. A month after the release of his album, “Vorie TV” was chosen as one of the songs that were available for performance by participants in the Afrikaans Idols reality TV show.
He followed it up in September 2008 with the breath-taking video of the emotional title-track on his album “Ek hoor jou,” which was written for his late father, Pieter de Villiers. The video was shot on the peak of the Swartberg mountains in the Karoo near Prince Albert, a few kilometres away from where most of the material for “Ek hoor jou” was written in a little Karoo cottage in 2005.
“The videos for the album have been the most fun, and the most trying. The director, Andre Calitz, doesn’t know mercy - he is a bit like a local Lars von Trier (director of Bjork’s “Dancer in the dark”). With ‘Vorie TV’ he pushed us over the limit - sprinting on the pavements of downtown Joburg and through busy shopping malls - with a body double chasing me with a real TV screwed onto his head! I don’t know how Coenie (the body double) managed to run full-speed and breathe through the mesh-screen.”
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