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Poverty Of Ideals is becoming the new instrumental force to be reckoned with in South African metal music. The band performed a killer set at RAMfest 2014 which got us hyped to hook up an interview with them. Finally, we did. See what the 3 piece Instrumental Progressive Metal band had to say.
Give us a quick rundown of who Poverty of Ideas is and how the band got started?
We are a 3 piece Instrumental Progressive Metal band from the North of JHB, South Africa. Kyle Williams on Drums, Craig Goudge on Guitars and Matt Bairstow on Bass.
We started in 2009 with the intention of being a “normal” metal band, but as time went by we decided to take the leap and continue as an Instrumental band.
All 3 of us like to consider ourselves as serious musicians and we’d all like to make a solid career out of music, being in an Instrumental band really helps us push ourselves as musicians.
You had a killer gig at RAMfest 2014 and were one of the tightest bands featured. Tell us about your preparation leading up to that gig?
Wow, Thanks for that! It was our biggest show to date, and when we found out, we were actually pretty nervous as to how we would be received by the people at RAMfest. Being a 3-piece band on a big stage is quiet a daunting thought, especially as we don’t have a “frontman” to entertain the crowd. Luckily we had just released “Barriers” which has a few interludes, so we used some of them to open the set up and fill up that awkward silence. We think it worked out well!
What was performing at RAMfest like for you and what was your favourite part?
Honestly it was one of our best shows ever, we were really happy with how we played, we made very few mistakes and the crowd was really awesome. It was certainly our biggest crowd ever and any musician will tell you how awesome it is playing in front of a whole lot of people who actually care about what you are doing.
I think we can all agree that our favourite part was watching Biffy Clyro and Killswitch Engage!
“It was certainly our biggest crowd ever and any musician will tell you how awesome it is playing in front of a whole lot of people who actually care about what you are doing”
Which local bands do you look up to and aspire to?
We all grew up listening to 16 Stitch, they were huge role models to us. Now we get to play with Newtown Knife Gang, which really is a pleasure and honour! It’s great to see them doing so well at the moment.
Which international bands do you look up to and aspire to?
There are far too many to name here, we are influenced heavily by the Progressive metal movement happing at the moment, bands like Animals as Leaders, Exivious, Cloudkicker, Scale the Summit and Periphery are really pushing boundaries and that’s what we aim to do here in the Local market.
Apart from that we are all into very different kinds of music, Kyle loves his Jazz, Fusion and very “abstract/ progressive” music, Craig is big into his “acoustic” stuff – people like John Gomm and Andy Mcee, he also grew up with a lot of Punk Rock. Matt loves his Progressive and Melodic metal as well as the weirder stuff like T.R.A.M and anything Victor Wooten is doing.
What other local music festivals are you keen to play at and why?
Oppikoppi! We have been to a couple of them and they are always so well attended. The bands that they book are always brilliant. We would love to be a part of their 20th anniversary this year.
What is the vibe like between the band members and who portrays what character?
We are all best friends, being a 3 piece is a lot easier in that respect, there’s never much tension but if there is we always sort it out like grownups. We all get along so well and that really helps when it comes to touring and being in confined spaces for long periods of time.
Kyle is the perfectionist of the band, he makes sure everything is perfect and if it isn’t, we will know about it. He also does all our recordings and click tracks
Craig is the main writer, he always brings us ideas and tasty riffs. He is also the party animal of the band – if you’re looking for a party, Craig is the go-to guy. There’s always an awesome story for him to tell us when we meet up for rehearsals.
Matt handles all the admin/ bookings/ social media. He is usually the guy with the positive outlook if something isn’t going our way.
When it comes to band practice, how often does it happen and what normally goes down?
We practice twice a week, we would like to practice more, but sometimes life does get in the way of that. We are busy writing new material at the moment so Tuesday nights are spent at Kyle’s studio writing and then Thursdays we usually have a “loud” practice where we keep the set tight.
What are some of the craziest things you have experienced while on tour or on stage?
One story that comes to mind is when we were on tour in May 2012 with Truth And its Burden, we were doing an overnight trip from P.E to East London. We had 2 cars, and one had all the gear and a trailer full of gear, little did we know that they had speed bumps on the highway. It ripped the tow hitch right off the car and we had to spend the night outside a petrol station. It was a great experience and we’d do it again in a heart-beat.
For anyone that hasn’t seen you guys live, what can they expect from Poverty of Ideas?
We put a lot of energy into our live performances, and we also practice really hard to keep tight, so you can expect that.
What do you guys have in the pipeline for the rest of 2014?
As we said we are writing new material, and hoping to put out a single in the very near future, we also have some really cool ideas that we will share soon.
Keep an eye out on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.
Any shot outs?
Firstly a big shout out to Barry at Agent Indie Records for all the financial aid, without him we wouldn’t have been able to release Barriers. Also to the Anton and the guys at Music Connection, they are always there willing to help a broke musician.
Lastly to all our fans and anyone who has picked up a copy of Barriers. If you haven’t bought it yet, get it HERE, or at any of our live shows!
