For the final interview in anticipation for NOTHING MAJOR, The Comic Book Theory invited us to one of their rehearsals. It was difficult to separate them from their instruments but we eventually locked them down to discuss Romeo And, Cool Runnings, A possible EP, lazy drummers and all things Comic Book Theory.
The Fuss – Who is The Comic Book Theory?
Thozi Sejanamane – I’m Thozi and I play guitar.
Michael Ronald – I do vocals [and play guitar].
Duane Behrens – I’m Duane and I play bass with Anton on drums.
Anton Wood – …Anthony Jonathan Wood [laughs].
The Fuss – Previously your band was called, Romeo And… What was the primary influence behind the name change?
AW – A new drummer.
DB – Good answer.
TS – Definitely. When we were Romeo And… I played the drums and we we were a 3-piece. Anton then joined the band [and I moved to guitar]. We retained the name Romeo And… for a while. But we eventually changed the name to The Comic Book Theory due to the change in members as well a change in the music.
MR – Romeo And… had a pretty emo sound and we weren’t making music like that anymore.
The Fuss – Do you feel you’ve done better or accomplished more as The Comic Book Theory?
MR – We’ve done better with another drummer. An actual drummer. [laughs]. No offence [Thozi].
TS – Fuck you [laughs].
The Fuss – You guys have been friends for a long time. What kind of influence does this have on the bands dynamics?
AW – Nix making coffee.
[Band Laughs]
TS – Its cool because before we even started the band in high school we were friends. I’ve known Duane and Michael since primary school and we met Anton at some point during high school. So we are friends before we are a band. I guess this makes it easier for us to engage one another – It’s easy to tell each other when someone is fucking up or if we don’t like that beat or melody.
AW – It does help with the communication.
TS – And also being friends, we didn’t start the band to become this super serious venture. So when we come through for rehearsals we just have loads of fun.
AW – If this was serious I’m sure one of us would have quit ages ago [laughs].
The Fuss – Talk us through the band’s creative-process. Who writes the songs? And how do they become what we see on stage?
MR – Sometimes I write the songs on acoustic guitar and then I show them to the band. That is usually the foundation for our songs and we work at it from this. Sometimes we just come in and have fun just jamming and we come out with a totally different sound…
AW – Just randomly in between songs – someone would start playing something and the rest would join in and it would sound really bad or really good…
MR – …and if it’s good, we’ll just jam the same thing for hours.
AW – I remember your dad used to hate that [laughs].
DB – Michael also writes all the lyrics.
TS – Mike creates most of the material and we all add our own vibes to come to a final result. He is the songwriter, but we all have an influence on how the song comes along.
The Fuss – What or who influences your writing?
MR – I really like Andy Hull from Manchester Orchestra. He is a cool writer. Death Cab’s writing is also good.
MR – …and Drake [laughs].
TS – [laughing]Funny thing is we listen to a whole variety of music. Maybe not so much Drake, but from a musical perspective we are influenced by a whole load of genres. In our early days as Romeo And… we were heavily influenced by post-rock bands such as Alesana, Emery and Chiodos. However lately we’ve all been listening to a wider variety of music – From your Kendrick Lamars to your Kings of Leon.
MR – It’s difficult for us to define or label ourselves in a specific genre, but you’ll always get people trying to define it.
TS – The thing is, none of us have an academic background in music. Mike went for like three acoustic guitar lessons at Shine Music School in Randburg, but we never went to some university to do classical or jazz or any kind of training that would influence our style.
MR – Like the Beatles. Just not as good. [laughs]
TS – At the end of the day what you hear is an amalgamation of everything that we listen to and enjoy. We go by feeling.
AW – You can never say [our]songs sound like that other song. So we got that going for us.
MR – Basically, we’re not making music. [laughs]
The Fuss – Which songs of yours are your favourites? And Why?
DB – I know what [Thozi] likes. [laughs]
TS – There are quite a few which I like. I’ve been listening to our shitty recordings in my car lately and I’m starting to enjoy most of them as a listener. But the song Duane is referring to is, ‘War Never Changes’. These guys hate playing it but I really enjoy playing it. We should probably work on it more. It’s probably our only ‘punk’ song.
MR – I like, ‘Down By The River’. It’s got a South African vibe to it with a house beat and rhythm.
DB – For me it’s probably, ‘Silent Like Church Mice’. Just ‘cause it’s fun.
MR – That’s a good song.
AW – Hands down, ‘War Never Changes’. I sometimes do not like playing it because it hurts after a while…
MR – So good it hurts. [laughs]
AW – It’s got the most versatile drum beat for me. It’s a fast-paced, syncopated rolling rhythm.
The Fuss – What has been your most enjoyable performance? And why?
AW – The first one with me in the band at Cool Runnings in Victory Park. It was the first one we had an actual sound engineer with proper sound. Much better and louder than what we had in our band room. I liked that gig.
MR – Mine was at Cool Runnings in Benoni. We got so fucked. [laughs]. Our time-slot kept changing to a later time and when we got on stage we were so drunk – watching sports on TV while playing our set. No one was concentrating but we got through it. [laughs]
DB – It was the worst [laughs]and we got paid.
MR – We got paid!
TS – Cash Money!
DB – Highest paid. Worst played.
MR – We probably shouldn’t tell people that. [laughs]
TS – For me, that Bandwagon gig we played at Amuse Café was one of my favourites. We had a good crowd and everyone was just vibing with us. I also really enjoyed a gig we played at the old Tanz. The sound was just brilliant. That was probably one of the only gigs we could hear everything properly.
The Fuss – Talk us through the course of a Comic Book Theory rehearsal? And who is the laziest member?
MR – Yoh! Hands down!
DB – I can tell you right now!
TS – Anton. I actually call him phantom because of that.
MR – Definitely the drummer. But the drummer is usually the laziest.
AW – Society made a decision that the drummer is lazy. You can’t mess with the system [laughs]. You have to be lazy sometimes.
MR – Sometimes? [laughs]
The Fuss – That being said who is the most productive member.
DB – Probably Mike.
AW – No, Thozi dude…
TS – It’s kind of weird. Like I said, we are friends before we’re a band. So sometimes we can get a little bit blasé about practicing. We would agree on having a practice at 5 but only end up starting around 6:30…
AW – That’s cause Anton is always late. [laughs]
TS – Mike is usually the first one waiting for everybody else to start practice…
MR – …That’s cause I live here. [laughs]
TS – But phantom is always doing some other thing and we usually have to wait for his ass. He is the last to get here but the first to leave. [laughs]
AW – It’s not that bad. You guys are making me look bad. [laughs]
DB – Ok. The last practice we had – Anton was here first.
The Fuss – What are your thoughts on the state and output of the local music industry?
DB – [whistles]
MR – I think it’s getting better.
TS – No doubt. I think the industry has been going through somewhat of a lull. I mean MK recently announced they are going to stop broadcasting the television channel, and there has been a lot of live music venues closing their doors. The infamous Cool Runnings franchise is pretty much no more. I think the problem is the shit we get fed by mass media. At the end of the day the likes of 5FM and your mass broadcasters dictate the ‘trends’ and unfortunately we are fed a lot of westernised shit. The alternative scene already represents a small pocket of the local music industry. But the issue is that the general local industry is not supported well enough by these tastemakers. It’s changing, but not fast enough for my liking. It seems the way forward is through doing everything yourself.
DB – I think there’s just not enough support in terms of the big guys helping the little guys grow. And also, I’m tired of seeing the same band every week – and that is kind of the state of things at the moment.
MR – Then don’t go. [laughs]
DB – My point is that it’s hard for you to find gigs with other unknown bands…
MR – Unless you organise it yourself.
The Fuss – If you guys could book a gig at any venue or festival anywhere in the world, where would it be?
AW – Download festival In the UK, I think.
DB – Redham Festival also in the UK
MR – I just want to be at Coachella, but it would be really cool to play there.
TS – I’d say fucking Oppikoppi would be awesome. Locally, that’s the top of the mountain right there.
DB – ‘Top of the mountain’. Really? That’s what you’re going with?
TS – [Howls as he realises the unintended pun]
[The band breaks out in laughter]
The Fuss – If The Comic Book Theory could play alongside any band – which would you choose and why?
DB – Manchester Orchestra
TS – The band would have to be one our initial influences. So – Manchester Orchestra, Emery or even Silverstein. It would be an honour to play with the bands that we looked up to and influenced us to start our bands.
AW – Cage the Elephant or the Arctic Monkeys are my two.
The Fuss – What inspired you to start the band?
TS – Bitches. [laughs]
DB – Originally the Romeo And thing started when Mike was at my house and we were listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We were like – ‘We should start a band’. So we started a band. We started with three people with no instruments. We called ourselves a band but we didn’t do shit. That was where it started and it just grew from there.
The Fuss – If you could credit any song as a Comic Book Theory song, what song would it be?
MR – I would steal ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. That’s a timeless epic.
DB – I was thinking like a ‘Hey Jude’ or something along those lines.
TS – I would steal Manchester Orchestra’s, ‘Pride’.
AW – I was going to say something by AC/DC but they don’t really fit with our style. So I would say Eminems, ‘Real Slim Shady’. [laughs]
MR – Diversity right there.
AW – [Raps] Will the real Comic Book Theory please stand up, please stand up, please stand up. [laughs]
The Fuss – What does the future hold for The Comic Book Theory?
TS – I think we’ve been together as a band for long enough now. So the immediate focus would be to record a radio-ready EP. We have lots of material that we not doing much with, so we will be nailing about 5 of our favourites down so that we could move on. It’s feeling like we are getting closer to that specific sound which we can call our own. But we cannot just let go of our older material. So the plan is to have an EP out before the end of the year. Also get more exposure and practice by playing more gigs.
The Fuss – Any last words?
MR – Vote The Comic Book Theory [laughs]
