Louis van der Merwe

Wow, I’ve really been lazy in updating my website! I’ll be sure to make work of it this week…

Just thinking about it, I haven’t written anything about all our travaels and performances since my last update, our KKNK experience, our demo CD, our various meetings with publicists and agents, and how it came about that we are now doing all our own management. And on a lighter note, I have to show you some of the photos I’ve taken on my most recent hikes! Be sure to watch this space this week….

-Louis

Ever wondered what it feels like to be on TV? Well, it feels something like this: I was watching the first episode of the new season of SA’s Got Talent last night, and there I was, thinking “Yep, that’s me. Can’t believe…” when the person next to me interrupts my thought and says “Louis, you’re on TV again!” “Um, yeah.” “Look, mother, the idiot’s” (affectionately spoken)” on TV again!” I Reach over, make grabbing motions “Ye wench! Need I remind you that you are now dating said idiot? Come here, let me…” Look up to see her mother smiling at me…. Yeah, maybe not. Phone then conveniently makes a noise, I pick it up, and read. It’s a friend going “Bahahaha, saw your ass on TV just now!” Message made me smile. That’s the moment where I grunt wryly and think, yep, that’s me on the screen. So that’s kinda what it feels like to be on TV.

On a related note, much respect to the people that came back this year to try again. Moving on…

…ah, the joys of a foot that walks where not many men have walked before.. With my cankle mostly healed, I have walked on a few stages, sang for some amazing people and took part in little concert in my home town of Stellenbosch. That was, surprisingly, more intense that singing for strangers, even thousands of them, and now, once more, I can spend my time the way I like it. Apart from singing, that means…

…reading books, some by Stephen King (his Dark Tower series, which is a post-apocalyptic western by any other name, and brilliant), some by Stephen Erikson (very good fantasy), some by Neal Asher (he made me rediscover my love of proper science fiction) and some by Susan Ash (which made me realise how brilliant other fantasy is, as in not hers). That last one made me remember an old issue I have with fantasy authors… some authors really struggle writing characters of the opposite sex. Oh, well, perhaps one day when I write fantasy books the characters will all be men and lesbian women, that way I will at least be able to understand them. I think.

On the music side… I got to learn an Andrew Lloyd Webber medley and an ABBA medley (I refuse to sing Dancing Queen, hear that gleefully-vindictive-people-that-think-this-is-funny? Hah!” and I have Nessun Dorma waiting for me down-stairs in my flat. Quite looking forward to that tonight. My neighbour made me fill in a questionnaire about beer earlier, so I get to sing loud music for a bit tonight. Fair is fair. If you were wondering, today I like this song. Listening to that makes me want to… Oh, I should be writing, not listening to cool music. Procrastination! Such an easy trap for me!

When I was on another one of my always brilliant procrastination journeys, I installed Ubuntu Linux instead of doing my tax. This proved to be an excellent idea, and I can now wax on for quite some time about they beauty of Linux (Ubuntu in particular) and other nerdy-geeky ideas. I also started sharing stuff on Google Reader that I find interesting, hung around on reddit.com and read up about stuff like android vs iphone. Yes, I really should have been doing my tax instead. Damn. Pretend, for a moment, that I used more colourful language just now. Just a bit.

View from near Boomslang cave on Table-Mountain

You know, I am always amazed by the power of language. How singing a song in someone’s own language can make them look up as a stranger, and afterwards applaud as a friend. This happened a few times in the last while, and I always love this happening. It’s our Xhosa song that makes this happen, and for that reason I love the song. Other things about the power of language also tickle my fancy, for example how the seemingly similar statements “fornicate you” and “fornicate me”, when heard, can evoke such utter different responses from the listener… which brings us to one of my guilty-pleasure habits. I like making people think dirty words, it makes me and the little devil on my shoulder grin, and the angel on my shoulder frown. Oh, but I can see that angel’s lips twitch with suppressed mirth, don’t you know it! So glad I can think about these things with a clear head…

Botmaskop 360 Panorama

…and hiking is the reason for that. With my cankle mostly healed I have taken to the mountains again, and I still love every moment of this. I have been to the Boomslang (Tree Snake) cave on Table Mountain (ominous name, but gorgeous little cave) where I learned that even though I am not claustrophobic, I still do not enjoy small spaces much, as such. I have been up Botmaskop in Stellenbosch again, where I learned that certain people would rather be told the hike is five hours long instead of “We’ll be back in three. Ish.”  if it ends up being four. And lastly I went to the Cederberg area where I enjoyed fires outside with wine and food and company, the brightest stars I have seen in months, vast open vistas of desert mountains, and some rock paintings by bushmen that made me feel insignificant with their age. Which is as is should be. Looking at this weather, I think the time is ripe to start sleeping on beaches again. The singing hiking man is back! And loving every moment of it…

Cederberge

I have been living quite the home life of late… in between singing and traveling, there has been a lot of visiting, reading, watching movies and even some pc gaming (it has been a while since I played a game of any sort, I tend to get very “focused”, some people like my friends would call it “addicted”, so I tend to ration it). Let me just say this about that all: I loved the action movie From Paris with love, Paul Kearney writes wonderful dark fantasy books, The Alchemist should be read every couple of years as it provides new insights every time, Diablo 2 is still as addictive as I remember it, Torchlight is the bastard child of Diablo 2 and Fable, NeverwinterNights 2 is not as brilliant as I remember Bulder’s Gate being, but still good, and both braaing and cocktails can lead to a hangovers of epic proportions. Ask no questions hear no lies.

The reason for all these new insights and things would be my affectionately-known (as amongst my friends) “Cankle“. This phenomenon happens when you manage to twist your ankle so badly, it ends up looking like a calf and ankle combined. I achieved this jumping down a rock-climbing wall without looking at what was below me. Oh, well, lesson learned. My park-ranger climbing buddy cracked proper jokes at my expense directly after, which is as it should be among men. This gave me the opportunity to test the theory that swearing makes pain more manageable. It really does, as a matter of fact.

Luckily I seem to be back to my normal mountain-walking, rock-climbing,  singing self now, and much the happier for it. I tend to do all this with a certain wonderful someone, but let me not mention her. Yes, I am being vague on purpose. **secret smile**

My brother and I are coming much closer to a consensus of what we want to put on our first CD, and yes, after all that spirited conversation, I am glad we can move on to other things. And if you wanted to know about the vuvuzela-bombardment… well, we performed at the World Cup events (Fanwalk, Fanfest, and another venue, more on that on our facebook fanpage), and during this one performance I made the… unwise… decision to say “…and tonight, blow your vuvuzelas in support of your team!” I did not get as far as “…in support…”, even. 5000 vuvuzelas were raised as one, and the shockwave of sound that hit me was quite… impressive. Oh, well, lesson learned.

It’s been a while since I have had the pleasure to reflect on all that has been happening. In the last while me and my brother have traveled and performed, learned awesome new songs, met some amazing people and lived the golden life we have always wanted to have. But the biggest thing to happen might seem small and funny to you, and we did laugh about it, but it was also very important to us both.

We have chosen a name for ourselves. Yes, world, from now on forth, we will be known as Silwer (which means Silver, but it’s the Afrikaans spelling, as I am sure you know). It is an elegant and beautiful name that we can both identify with and love. Also, our mother likes it, which turned out to be a big thing. Of all the people involved with the naming process, I have to admit, she was the most enthusiastic. (Thanks, mom!) There are reasons that we chose it that I won’t mention here (I will at  some other time ), but for now we have it, love it, and have been performing with it. I love it when people introduce us on stage with something like …. “And now, ladies and gentlemen, brothers Willem and Louis frooooom Silwer!” Gives me a wonderful sense of anticipation and joyfulness when I hear that.

We also have a new website! Please check out www.SilwerMusic.com. Awesome things there would be audio clips from a couple of songs we have recorded that we hope to put on our first CD, some youtube clips, and some photos of recent performances.

And the last thing…. we are in for the FIFA entertainment! This was all organised through PANSA, and we can’t wait to sing in and around the Cape Town events. Thank you South Africa, and go Bafana Bafana!

Ps. Yes, I have been walking the mountains like a mad zen mountain walker, as always. And I am slightly surprised by the fact that I now see a 18km day hike as “something fun to do on a Saturday”.

Be well, everyone.

It’s wonderful to be in contact with the fans again, so in that spirit, let me fill you in on what I have been up to since the show ended…

Willem and I have been getting together on a daily basis, learning new songs, talking about music, life, love… you know, the important things. And while we were doing this we received many many invitations to sing at different events, concerts, even a few birthdays and weddings, which we of course immediately said yes to, and loved doing! We were also on the new-years episode of Top Billing (that’s a whole different story, though.) And things are heating up.

We are about ready to start recording a CD, and having learned a lot about the music industry in general the past few months, we are looking for sponsors to sponsor this first CD. More importantly to us, though, is that we have put together what we lovingly call “Our First Show” (more perform-y type name to follow later), and we are very excited at the prospect of organizing shows, and singing for people…

In the meantime, if your were wondering, yes, we are now both full-time singers, the culmination of years of dreaming about it, becoming our very own reality. We love what we do.

In between all this I have been hiking all over the western cape, I have met some amazing people, and I am  enjoying my life, as usual. So, there you have it.

Thank you for reading!

-Louis

Ps. En dankie weereens vir almal wat ons tot dusver ondersteun en gehelp het, dit word altyd, inniglik, waardeer.