Having the X-factor certain to take Four far
THE WINNERS of the first X-Factor SA are a group called Four. Yet only three members Steven, Jethro and David, form the the clique, so is the fourth member an imaginary friend?
“There was never a fourth member. We were going to have a fourth, but the problem was we named ourselves before we got the fourth guy. When we got comfortable with the name, we then realised we did not need a fourth guy so we had to make sense of the name. So we decided that the fourth element of us is God, our families, the fans and the music because you need that to make it in this business,” said Steven before I could pitch to be the missing member.
Having been formed only a few weeks before the TV competition, Four were unlikely to make it to the top, yet they did.
“Steven and I met at another music TV show which we both failed in,” said Jethro.
“We kept in touch on Facebook for a while. He and David were working in a group. They were trying something else. They asked me to join and the other members left so we decided to start another group and that’s how Four was born,” added Jethro.
The group are vocally gifted and you would think that they could be the next Boyz II Men or Az Yet outfit, but the guys have something else in mind.
“We have pop vocals and can’t change the way we sound. We work with Oskido so we have a house music and kwaito kind of sound which we blend with our pop vocals. So we kind of mix all of that up to come up with a distinct sound,” said Jethro.
Looking back at their journey on X-Factor SA, the members of Four never hesitated to give their all and were almost certain that they would win.
“We never let ourselves think negatively about the show. Not for one day. We just went in there, did what we did and more. The show is on a Saturday so we performed and then right afterwards we’d be back in rehearsals to prepare for the next performance. By the time we got to Tuesday of the following week, we would have mastered what we needed to do.
“Our fellow contestants would ask us to come and relax with them and we would say we were coming, but we never made it.
“X-Factor SA was a foot in the door for us and it was also our foot in the door and we did not want to blow that opportunity,” said David.
With an album set to drop in the next couple of days, Four are happy with what they produced in collaboration with Oskido. Their music is playlisted on Metro FM, Ukhozi, YFM and GagasiFM.
“We did not want to release anything for the sake of it, so we waited. We worked with Ziyon and Maphorisa. We have two songs out, Show Your Love and End of Time, and they are available online. We have a music video dropping next Thursday,” said Jethro. Keep an eye out for Four’s debut album.