For our readers that might not be familiar with you guys, could you give us an elevator pitch for Peasant?
We’re a metallic hardcore band from Cape Town, formed in 2014 that has released several EP’s an LP, has toured EU once and SA a couple times.
Any stories you’d like to share from your recent EU tour with Prescriptiondeath?
There are so many that I’d feel bad for skipping any. If anyone is keen on checking out the tour video check it here.
You guys have been around for such a long time! Any tips for new or up and coming SA hardcore bands?
Just keep at it. I know it sounds obvious but I think a lot of underground bands starting out have a tendency to work hard on their music, play a couple release shows and expect to get booked for a bunch of shows. Any momentum or following comes down to how hard a band is willing to tour and release music themselves, the longer you keep at it the more connections you make and the easier it gets. So just keep at it.
You guys seem to have touring shenanigans down! Are there any traditions that have been around since the start that you don’t mind sharing?
Nothing except Graham’s incessant snoring comes to mind. He’s known to have kept a couple rooms awake night after night. Earplugs are a must for the road.
You brought out your debut full-length album ‘Unrest Eternal’ last year. What was the making of the album like?
It was cool! There was a lot of learning and first-time experiences in terms of the whole writing and production process, we wrote it over about a year and then recorded it in 3/4 weeks in 2019. It was always a goal of ours to tour the EU with a full-length on vinyl so managing the recording in time for pressing and sorting the tour all DIY-style was a bit of a mission at times, but I reckon we came out on top.
How would you explain the South African Hardcore scene, and what’s your favorite thing about it?
There are a handful of acts around the country that are still active from what I know, but in terms of full-on hardcore shows and tours its pretty quiet. I was working at booking some hardcore only shows for Cape Town this year but with lockdown in effect all the year’s plans have kind of gone out the window. It’s a shame because for the first time in a while we’ve started to see a newer crowd and younger faces coming to shows. Hopefully things take off again post-Covid.
Favorite band to go on tour with?
Gotta be the Scandinavian heartbreakers in Prescriptiondeath.
Social media has been playing an increasingly important role for bands, especially right now. Do you guys plan on doing any live streams or something while shows aren’t an option?
Right now our focus is really on working on our new music and selling some merch so we can pay for the production of our next release. Without having any shows lined up, the income for the band is pretty much at a standstill. So if people keep buying some tees we might get round to some streams when the opportunity comes.
We know that merchandise is really important to you guys, can you explain your approach towards it?
Yeah! Our approach is basically to get a good design on quality gear, and have as much of it online and at shows as possible. We make way more money through tees than through shows or streams so having Pins and Knuckles helping us with our last 2 tees has been great.
With smaller scenes in SA, line-ups are often a jumble of genre’s from all across the spectrum, do you think this is a good or bad thing?
Yeah I think it’s great. We’ve made a lot of fans that aren’t full-on hardcore listeners over the years. It’s also really cool to build relationships with bands that are from different genres just because they’re cool people and we can swap gear and help each other out with shows etc. Cape Town has always been pretty clique-y but over the last couple of years its seen a big change in this regard.
What are the plans for Peasant in 2020?
As soon as we can get in a practice space we’ll be wrapping up our new 3-track EP. It’ll be recorded here in SA and sent out to Tim Vincent in Wales, UK for the production and mix. He’s a killer engineer who has worked with Brutality Will Prevail and some of the UK’s finest metal and hardcore bands so we can’t wait to get going.
Shameless self-promotion time! For someone looking to check out Peasant for the first time, where do you think they should start?
I’d probably start with our latest music video “Life’s End”. Our latest record is out on all platforms, but if you wanna head over to Bandcamp you can catch a link to pick up our vinyl thanks to Roastin’ Records.