The Future Primitives strive for authentic 60’s sound

GroundUp interviewed singer/guitarist Johnny Tex about the band

How many years have you been involved in the Cape Town band scene? Why did you get started playing?

Since I was 19. I’m 27 now. I have always loved music, but not necessarily just rock and roll. I actually started playing because of your band (The Wild Eyes) because you made it seem like it was simple and that anyone could do it, which is exactly what music is about. Technically, you don’t have to be that good; you just need soul, and you need to know how to lose yourself.

You started with a band The Epsilons, then The Revelators and now The Future Primitives. All of which have had a unique style. The Revelators split recently when their popularity was starting to soar, are there any reasons that you killed The Revelators in their prime?

Well, I like starting over again. It’s a bit of a challenge. Maybe I will kill The Future Primitives just as things are picking up. I don’t know, I just felt like I needed a change and I was beginning to write differently, maybe I have matured a bit with age, something like that. But I’m quite happy with The Future Primitives so far.

Can you explain the musical progressions through these phases?

The Epsilons were more like grunge in a way, not entirely, but I was hugely influenced by The Pixies at the time. They still are one of the greatest bands for me. The Revelators were more like straight Garage or Garage Punk actually (had a lot more attitude), and now The Future Primitives are more like 60’s Garage and Psych. And there’s always been a hint of surf in both The Revelators and still in The Future Primitives.

How would you describe your music to people who have never heard it before?

It’s hard to describe. It’s like 60’s sounding, but with a modern take on things. Obviously we have so much more to work with than what they did back then so we can experiment more. But on the other hand, all you really need is the basics. As soon as you have too many options you can also easily overdo stuff and possibly ruin a song.

Why ‘The Future Primitives’?

The name actually came from a book I was reading, The Future Primitives were this group of people who kind of acted like animals. I just liked the name really. And I thought the name would suit our sound - kind of old, but new at the same time with primitive beats here and there.

With the Future Primitives you have internalised the recording process, writing, recording and producing yourselves. Why do you feel you needed to do this instead of using local studios/producers?

A lot of the studios around here are using digital recording devices and personally I feel that the best records came out of the 50’s and 60’s. That’s why we prefer to use analogue tape. It just has a more real sound. Digital is too plastic sounding. We also don’t want a perfectly polished sound. That’s why we don’t feel the need to do things “professionally”. I think recording in any case is more about capturing the energy of that moment. I guess you can do that on any device. Analogue is just more suited to our sound and needs and we don’t really want producers and engineers telling us “you need to do it like this if you want to sound good.” I think only we know how we want to sound. And I have done extensive research on the 60’s sound and recording techniques. We haven’t 100% been able to crack it yet, but as we get hold of more vintage gear we will get closer to the sound we are really going for. But you got to make do with what you’ve got anyway. So we will keep making records with whatever we can get our hands on for now.

Who were your original influences, and who are your current main influences?

Influences are very wide. Basically any of the good old 60’s garage comps like Pebbles for example, and bands like The Sonics and 13th Floor Elevators. Also a lot of Rockabilly kind of stuff too and bands like The Cramps and The Gun Club. Also love Surf, and like Link Wray has just been the biggest influence for me on guitar. He was just like the garage/surf guitar God. But yeah, anything along those lines.

You can download the album for free from http://thefutureprimitives.bandcamp.com/

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