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Taxi Violence erupts

Gritty, ballsy, in your face, Taxi Violence are the embodiment of the rock 'n roll spirit. Their sweaty live shows and the dirty grooves of their ragged muddy blues sound, paint the picture of four men raised on debauchery, smoking cigarettes from the age of three, swigging Jack Daniels from their Oros juice bottle.

The truth, of course, is different - so different that it involves trumpets, marching bands, opera, and '80s Swedish pop.

"On my fifth birthday my grandmother gave me this old beat up acoustic guitar," remembers drummer Louis Nel of his first musical experience. "All the parents were sitting in the lounge and I opened up the wrapping to find this guitar. I just ran to kitchen with it and found a piece of string to make myself a makeshift guitar strap," he laughs.

"I went back to the lounge and I started singing and I think I knew then that I like creating music and that music is it for me. And also performing in front of adults you get the idea: performing on stage would be nice," Nel grins.

"I was about eight," chimes in bassist Jason Ling, "and my folks sat me down at the piano and everything just made sense."

So far so good.

"Then I did trumpet in high school," he then confesses. "I was in a marching band."

But the street cred came soon enough. "After school I taught myself guitar, and then a few years later I picked up the bass," says the man who now anchors the group's raw goodtime vibes.

Leading the party with his fiery guitar heroics is Rian Zietsman who, it turns out, also started at the piano as an eight year old.

He picks up the story: "I did classical piano with all the theory. Then when I was 15, a mate of mine's mom asked me to teach his little brother to play the piano and she paid me a year in advance which was like R1500. I took that money and I bought an electric guitar and an amp, never having touched one before and just started jamming on my own and loving it," he chuckles.

"I never touched the piano again." And then the bombshell. "Except when I play Roxette," he laughs out loud. "I'm a 'Fading Like A Flower' kind of guy. I actually heard a cover of 'Listen To Your Heart' the other day - that's also one of the songs I can play - and I got quite jealous really," he admits.

As the chuckles die down, the group's livewire frontman George van der Spuy wraps things up : "I was born in a musical family. My grandfather was a professor in opera and a vocal coach. My dad played drums and he taught me to play when I was about five years old. Eventually I played the Oppikoppi main stage when I was 15 with a band called Drain. We were the Silverchair of South Africa - they were 17, 18, and I was the youngest," he remembers the rock 'n roll dreams come through.

"I've always loved hitting a drum kit, like when you're pissed off or if you've had a bad day you hit something and you feel good," he continues.
 
"I also learned to play piano but I hated it. My grandfather was always very judgmental because he's so good at it."

Van der Spuy needn't worry. Despite their diverse - even unlikely - musical backgrounds, he and his band are easily South Africa's best old school rock 'n rollers.  

* Taxi Violence launch their new music video, 'The Turn', at Mercury Lounge in Cape Town on Thursday 9 September 2010.