Crowdfunding lights fire under veteran band – in a good way

Joburg, should they reach the R800 000 mark – which they’re fast approaching.

Myburgh said it cost a lot of money to make an album and with a drastic decline in the sale of records, it had been difficult for bands like themselves to put out new music.

The crowdfunding approach has turned their financial con- cerns on its head. While the pre-sales of the as yet unnamed album have been minuscule, most of the money has come in the form of e-commerce buying unique band merchandise online – from jackets to hi-top takkies, sunglasses and even band members’ kit, such as Hunter Kennedy’s acoustic guitar which auctioned for R25 000 within the first hour.

“The sad thing is that music in its recorded format does not have much value. What we have done has been rewardbased, it’s not just relying on people to buy the album beforehand, it’s not just pledging for something, but also allowing them to buy other stuff,” said Myburgh.

“We haven’t pre-sold that many albums, but clearly people are interested in helping us out, so we decided to say thanks to everyone by putting on a free concert. It’s a party, there’s no cover charge.”

Now all they have to do is record their new music, and put out their latest album by the October deadline they’ve set themselves.

“We only play 60 shows every year because we are all busy with our own projects outside the band, but when we do play, we would see 18 year olds in the crowd, which means when we started they were six years old. So, there’s an energy, there’s still interest for our music and we wanted to reflect that by writing for their generation too.”

Music crowdfunding in South Africa isn’t a new concept. Kahn Morbee of the Parlotones has done it, as has Afrikaans troubadour, Koos Kombuis, but Fokof ’s bid is the fastest and the biggest to date. “We’re super excited by the response, blown away actually,” says Myburgh. “It’s added a new dimension to the whole writing process. It’s lit a fire under our a***s. We can focus on the creative side.”

• If you would like to know more about #Fokofcrowdfunding, see https://www.thundaf u n d . c o m/ p r o j e c t / f o ko f - polisiekar