Picture Credit: Bernard Bravenboer
Goldfish is made up of Dominic Peters and David Poole; together they are one of the hottest jazz/electro duos this side of the equator hailing from Cape Town South Africa.
“Goldfish is a joke about our short term memory…” says Dom on why they picked the name. So how’d they meet? Well, “Dave and I met while studying degrees in Music from UCT. Dave has a master’s degree, I have bachelors, and he says mock serious “it’s always good to get a qualification kids.” Just in case you don’t happen to be one of the hottest acts right now. They are hard at work “on new material, and are getting ready to tour the US, Brazil and then 4 months in Ibiza and Europe. It’s going to be awesome.”
On what would you like to achieve in the music industry, Dom says “I think what is already happening, just on a bigger scale. The most gratifying thing about what we are doing is seeing how the music is crossing over all demographics and ages in South Africa…we get fan mail from Soweto to Benoni! That is pretty cool.”
The two founding band influences include ”were St Germain and Kruder and Dorfmeister, these days we are listen and loving Parov Stelar, Feist, Fat Freddys’ Drop, Waldeck, the list goes on…we love a lot of stuff.”
Dom says he start to make music “to meet girls. (laughs) I was a shy kid. No, seriously, Music is like plugging into another universe. It’s the best thing in the world…”
His favourite thing about performing is “that magical moment when everything comes together on stage and the crowd, the music and us are all in sync, co-creating a moment which can never be repeated the same way again. That’s my favourite thing.”
They toured all over the world and it was “Tiring! And amazing! Our passports look pretty cool too. We are about to do it again this year… and their favourite place to perform have been “amazing gigs in Ibiza at Pacha, as well as some shows at Kirstenbosch which will always be close to our hearts. They are all cool in different ways.”
They played with electronica giants such as Fatboy Slim Basement Jaxx to name a few but say “sometimes you don’t even get to meet the artists you open for. For instance Macy Gray arrived two hours late for her show in Miami, and by that time we were out of there…although Norman Cooke (Fatboy Slim) was a very cool dude. We hung out after the gig and chatted about fishing! “
As for new single, “Cruising Through” is out on Radio at the moment, we are currently shooting a very cool video for that, so keep an eye out…”
Recording the new album was “lots of fun, and a lot of hard work. Dave and I record, write and mix everything ourselves. We also loved working with vocalists Max, Sakhile, Monique and Hlulani who all add their amazing voices to the music. We like to take our time doing it as some things only evolve when you aren’t rushing. Although taking too long is also bad, you start over-analyzing everything! But I think we got the balance right..” Dom doesn’t have a favourite track off the album as he likes “all of them!”
Off the wall antics in studio included “recording a flushing toilet and reversed it…that’s on the album somewhere I think.” Their song “‘Coming Home has the sound of one of the 1st cold fronts pulling into Cape Town. It’s the sound of the wind and leaves swirling outside the studio.”
The person takes the longest to get ready before a gig? “Me!” [being Dom] There’s not really much time for side projects “other than Goldfish at the moment, although you might catch us doing a sneaky jazz gig here and there”. So who of the two talks the most rubbish ? “Flip Dave just never shuts up…Just kidding..Me again!” Who is the messiest on tour? “Still definitely me…”and as for one of the craziest things that has happened at a show? “Having the lead singer Simon le Bon of Duran Duran come up to us at a Villa Pool Party in Ibiza to tell us he was a fan of our music (in a Speedo). That was pretty surreal.”
:)