Jeremy Loops makes waves

South Africa’s favourite folk-indie singer is back with a new single, Waves, a new album, Critical As Water, and a tour. We caught up with the 33-year-old Capetonian – known for his hits Down South, Sinner and Skinny Blues – to find out more

Waves is already catching a lot of airplay. How did the song come about? I’d gone surfing after struggling to generate song ideas. I’d decided I was done being on the clock to “write a song”. When I came back I was so relaxed I just picked up my guitar and the song came to me. Jake Gosling [one of the album’s producers] was staying with me at the time and he began throwing ideas in. We wrote it together in one night. Water features everywhere on the new album. Tell us more about that. After writing Waves I found the theme of water kept recurring in the creation process. I kept turning to water to centre and cleanse myself, if you will, for writing the music. It worked out beautifully and was never forced. The album’s title is pretty ironic given you’re from drought-stricken Cape Town. Were the two linked? No. If we weren’t in a drought I would still have called it that. How long did it take to make? About two years. I started writing songs for it in early 2015. The heat was definitely on to get this follow-up done right. My debut album [Trading Change, which won an MTV Africa music award for best pop and alternative album and was named iTunes SA’s album of the year] opened up a lot of doors for me. This album is undoubtedly a leap up, both sonically and in terms of my songwriting. Describe your songwriting process. I have strong melodic ideas and I think melody is such a fragile, sensitive thing in music it shouldn’t be interrupted, so I’ll frequently write alone. I’ll pick up my guitar, play an interesting riff, and just hum over that. And then, like sculptors do, I suppose, we just chisel away at this interesting-sounding thing until it resembles a song. Your favourite song on the album? Probably Underwater Blues. It’s sonically phenomenal and composed so beautifully, and it sounds so warm and lush. Was music always part of your life? My parents always played music in our home and I always enjoyed singing, but I wasn’t that kid in the mirror wanting to be Michael Jackson or anything. The real obsession kicked in only when I was at university – and I haven’t been able to put my guitar down since. You’ve performed for sell-out crowds around the world. Are your overseas fans as loyal as your local ones? Every bit as hardcore. I’ve had promoters come to me and say, “This is crazy. We had superstar X play here last week and the noise level wasn’t nearly where it was tonight.” We aren’t huge in a traditional sense overseas, but the people who care about us care a lot. What would you have done if the music bug hadn’t bitten? Who knows? Captain yachts and cruise ships? A photographer? A property developer? I’ve got a degree in finance and property development from the University of Cape Town, and I have a commercial licence for captaining huge yachts, so there are options. I might yet do some of these things later in my life!