Erika (without) the Dudes offers online concert for free
If you’re into alternative rock in Afrikaans and English, make sure you don’t miss an acoustic concert by Erika Botha from Erika en die Dudes live on social media on 1 April.
She is offering some free entertainment to everyone who needs to stay at home due to the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa.
When the lockdown ends, and if conditions permit by then, the full Erika en die Dudes band will perform live at Texas Rock Bar in early May.
The live-streamed acoustic performance by Botha on 1 April will start at 18:00 and will be available on Facebook and Instagram.
The band, a group of four students at the North-West University’s Potchefstroom campus, had their first performance on 3 March this year (at Texas) after coming together as a band in February 2020.
Erika en die Dudes is the brainchild of Erika Botha (21), an honours student in corporate communication. Botha, Stèan van der Walt (22), third-year BEd, Hanru Barnard (19), first-year economy and risk management, and Dirkie Laas (19), first-year BSc health sciences, also play in the NG Kandelaar band.
Botha, singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist, said she had been searching for people who could perform with her. “Randomly, at an NG Kandelaar church band meeting, I approached Stèan, Dirkie and Hanru and asked them if they wanted to play in my band. They agreed and we started practising for our first performance at Texas Rock Bar.”
The band’s name started as a “cringy” joke, and it stuck.
Erika en die Dudes’ music is mainly alternative rock and they play a mixture of Afrikaans and English songs. “The songs we play are covers of well-known songs that everybody can relate to, and our own original songs,” Botha said.
Van der Walt, Kagan drum player for the band, said, “Erika writes the music for the band herself and it is really good. I am not part of the writing process. Well, not yet.”
Botha’s songwriting process is never the same. “Normally I start with the chord progression, other times with the lyrics and then sometimes I start with writing the melody.” The other members of the band then add elements to complete the songs.
The inspiration for a song flows from the specific crowd she is writing for, as well as the things that are happening in her life, Botha said. “It is all about the ‘human experience’ and I try to write songs that people can relate to and that can inspire them.”
South African singer Karen Zoid was and still is the inspiration behind Botha’s music. “As a young child, I would steal my mom’s sunglasses and stand with a tennis racket in hand on the trampoline and sing ‘Afrikaners is plesierig’. I shook my head like she does when she performs,” Botha recalls.
Besides playing in and around Potchefstroom and hopefully even in Pretoria, Erika en die Dudes’ goal for the future is to “bring out an album like an EP”. All four members of the band agree that they also want to have fun with their music and performing as it is “half like an escape from the busy university life.”
Barnard, electric guitar player, said, “The best thing about performing is when the audience starts singing along to songs and really gets into the performance. The hardest thing is to work out a whole setlist, practice it and then remember it on stage.”
Laas, bass player, added, “To perform together is something one can get hooked on and something one needs. However, the arrangements behind performing is sometimes a headache as we are all full-time students and finding the time that suits all of us for the necessary practice times, sound checks, the right clothing and so on is difficult.”
Botha agreed with Laas and Barnard. “The hardest part of performing is also the best part of performing and that is to keep the crowd engaged, to read the crowd and to connect with them. It is the most difficult part of performing because one can very quickly and easily lose a crowd if you are not continuously engaging with them.”
*Watch the live-streamed acoustic session on 1 April at 18:00 on Botha’s Facebook or Instagram pages.