1) Firstly I'd like to thank you all for giving me the chance to interview you guys, I really dig your music especially "Great Heart" I have that song on rotation to the point where I can't get it out of my head. Alrighty So please tell the readers where you guys are from and who's all in the band and how long has the band been together?
George: Hey Colin, thanks. The song Great Heart is actually a cover of an 80’s song by a fellow South African artist Johnny Clegg. It’s been changed a little to suit our style, but we’d hate to take all the credit for it. We are from Cape Town, South Africa. The band has been around since 1995 and consists of me (George Bacon – vocals), Amos Keeto – guitar, Sean Snout – bass, Sean DV – drums, Lee Lips – trumpet and Ross McDonald – trombone. Apart from our drummer who’s been with us for the last 6 years, we are all original members.
2) I first heard you guys and saw you all on the "Punk In Africa" documentary to which I thought was just an amazing documentary all around for I really had no idea how many actual bands and of a scene there actually is in South Africa, the only real exposure I have had in the past was when NOFX did the episode of "Backstage Passport" and to be honest that wasn't very much, so in hindsight this is a very huge honor to be talking with you guys today.
George: Thanks, Well Backstage Passport was a series about Nofx and a lot of things in it about South Africa and our scene were left out or even slightly embellished to make it more entertaining TV and that is fine for what it was. Punk in Africa, while not being quite as funny, is a documentary whereby the star of the show is punk music in Africa so it tends to take a much less artistic license with the facts.
3) Your album "Oink" has officially been out for ten years now, how does it feel to know your record that only had been released in your country ten years ago has finally been picked up and loved by the whole world?
George: I don’t know, is it? Oink was a relatively successful album in South African terms, so we’ve already gotten a lot of love from it at home. We did tour it a bit in Europe and we seem to have a bit of a following in South America but if it’s been picked up and loved by the whole world now, that’s awesome. Although I’m gonna have to take your word for it.
4) On the documentary and in some of your songs you really show a huge admiration and just overall love for your country, even with all the political problems after the fall of the Apartheid, one thing I've noticed as an American, most punk rock bands just take what they see from FOX News ABC News and so on, and especially with our current administration being so on the verge of corruption, take all the negatives about the government and just place their hatred on the country as well. They don't come to the reality that it's the government not our country, and that is what I admire about the African Punk scene, they don't let what evil the political powers that be bring down who they are and make people want to hate, if at anything they choose to be positive and make this amazing music that is mainly inspired by the fact that their African heritage is what makes them who they are. Is that why your music is so uplifting?
George: Firstly I need to point out that our country had a lot more political problems before the fall of Apartheid than it does today. Not that it’s without out its problems now, we know there are still a lot of issues we face like poverty, inequality, education, racism, crime…etc. But after having traveled the world quite a bit, there is a certain sense of freedom that you can only get from living in Africa and in spite of all we don’t have in comparison, I still feel privileged having been born an African. If that somehow comes through in our music and is interpreted as being positive and uplifting then that is awesome.
5) When and how were you approached to do the Punk In Africa documentary? What was that experience like?
George: I can’t remember the exact way we were approached; I guess it was pretty informal. We met the director, Keith Jones while they were initially researching the documentary and we became good friends over the years. Keith lives in Prague, but he knows more about South Africa and its music than Google does. I learnt a shit load from about my own country from Keith and this documentary. Even some of the bigger bands that have been around since the 90’s were mostly unaware of scene in the 70’s and 80’s. Plus it has also created awareness for African punk and ska, not only in the rest of the word, but also in Africa. Until this documentary we were largely unaware of the scenes going on in other African countries.
6) During your guys' almost two decade career who are your influences and have any of them came to play South Africa? And if yes have you ever gotten to share the stage with them?
George: Our influences are quite varied between each member from Operation Ivy and the Clash to Police and Primus to Slayer and Entombed to Hugh Masekela and Chet Baker. We’ve had quite a few international bands that were brought to South Africa by a company called Punk Safari. We got to play all of these shows (except The Exploited which we couldn’t do because one of our guys was out of the country). So we’ve played with bands like Nofx (once in Cape Town and once in Slovenia), Lagwagon, Mad Caddies and played festivals in Europe with bands like Bad Religion…etc. Mad Caddies were really cool to hang out with because there are a lot of similarities between us. They are all the same age as us, been around for the same amount of time, have the same line-up of instruments in the band as us and they also have a lot of the same influences as us.
7) This is not only a question for myself, but I want allot of my readers to get a little more exposure as well, what is South Africa, or even The whole continent of Africa for that matter like? What are the truths and myths about your country? What does the country mean to you?
George: I can’t really comment on the continent as a whole as I haven’t even been to half of the countries in it and the places that I have been were vastly different from one another other. I guess we can say then that one myth about the continent of Africa is that all its countries are the same. South Africa has a lot of open land (mostly made up of farmland and nature reserves) so most of the population live in and around a couple of major cities. These cities are very similar to cities found everywhere else in the world. Our country is made up of a multitude of different languages, ethnicities, cultures and belief systems, which often clash and contradict each other. This combined that with our complicated history and indoctrinated prejudices from all these various cultures means that life in South Africa is an extremely intricate balancing act of misunderstandings, tensions and compromises. We have 3 capital cities, 11 official languages and our president has 4 wives. Being a South African is far from simple, but at least no one can say it’s ever boring.
8) Have you ever had to bail out of a gig because of violence inside or outside of a show? Especially with allot of the on going violence and oppression that has been going on over the years? If so in your own words what happened and why did it happen?
George: Not that I can recall. For the most part, we live pretty normal lives in South Africa. We haven’t really had an oppressive government here for 20 years. Our country is still quite a violent one at times, but most of this is crime related. Occasionally there is politically motivated violence that takes place at protest marches, strikes, political rallies, etc. but I can’t think of any instance where this has affected one or our shows (or any other shows for that matter).
9) Have you guys toured the United States yet or hope to?
George: No we have never toured the US and of course we’d love to, it’s just not very easy to get to from all the way down here.
10) How many total albums have Triple H released over the years, and are there any of them that you like better then the next?
George: We’ve released 7 in total, but only 4 of them were full-length albums. Working on the 5th at the moment. Honestly, I like them all for different reasons. Fishpaste & Vibe was our first and the songs weren’t all that good and neither was the production, but it was our first album so I like it for sentimental reasons, Driving Over Miss Davie was terribly recorded. We wanted to capture the energy of our live show on the recording so we all got drunk in the studio before we laid down our parts. As you can imagine the result was a lot of out of off key vocals and a whole lot of bad timing. It’s a pity though because the album had some really good songs. Oink! and Method to the Madness I like for different reasons. Oink! has better songs and the production is more polished, whereas MttM has more depth, attitude and a bigger production.
11) What's the future hold for Triple H? What's the biggest picture you are holding on to right now?
George: We’ve spent the last few years trying to make inroads into the European circuit. We’ve also been working on a new album, which we hope to release next year. Next year is also our 20-year anniversary so we’re going to go large. We are probably going to concentrate a bit more on South Africa and elsewhere on the African continent next year though as far as touring is concerned. Further than that, who knows? When we started out we didn’t expect the band to last more than a few months, now almost 20 years later, we’re still having the time of our lives and it doesn’t feel like that’s going to stop anytime soon.
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