In May 2013 I had the privilege of meeting Willim Welsyn (aka William Welfare) at the STRAB music festival in Mozambique. The polite bloke (who hails from Cape Town) completely blew both me and the festival crowd away with his amazing blend of witty Afrikaans lyrics and in-your-face rock ‘n roll. And of course he showed off his one man band skills too (with a kick drum and all). I was so impressed that I was converted into an instant fan of his Afrikaans tunes before he finished the first song of his set.
William Welfare (aka Willim Welsyn) has changed his original Afrikaans rocker name for an upcoming English album
“4 Cups Of Dust” is the first official single and video taken off this upcoming album, “Like Mountains” (which is set to be released in November 2013).
The video sees Welfare and drummer Kyle Gray recording the track live at Blooroom Studios in Ladismith and then traveling to Oppikoppi Bewilderbeast 2013. The footage was shot by Welfare and Gray on a shitty little Go Pro knock-off camera while they where both covering the festival for Rolling Stone SA in August. Welfare interviewed most of the artists seen in the video during the festival. Some of these artists include Chino Marino from Deftones, Koos Kombuis, Black Cat Bones, Bittereinder, Shadowclub, Jack Parow and Tumi Molekane from Tumi and The Volume.
“The video shows how fast-paced and crazy my job as a traveling music journalist and musician is. There’s no time to set up shit and get the lighting right – I have to be in 10 places at once. It’s a DIY point an’ shoot mash-up”, Welfare told SA Music Zone.
When asked why twice SAMA-nominated Willim Welsyn translated his name and decided to record his first English album he told us, “I always figured that if a 1000 people in South Africa could dig my Afrikaans music then maybe 10 000 people around the world could dig my English music.”
Being an active photographer, blogger and huge fan involved in the SA Music industry I can totally envision what William Welfare is going through every day. It looks hectic, but it’s a lot of fun and hopefully I’ll do something like this as my day job one day.
If you ask me this video and song beams out the diversity that is William Welfare (aka Willim Welsyn). I can’t wait to get my music loving paws on the new album. I’m going to keep my eyes and ears open and let you know when it officially arrives in stores or on iTunes, so watch this space.
What do you think of this William Welfare song and video? Leave a comment and let me know. Feedback is appreciated and welcome here.
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