Comprehending The Crazy World Of Freddy L
From Durban to Cape Town, the three-membered group, known as Freddy L, have been making monumental waves within the South African music scene, impressively imposing their presence in the music world.
At VERVE, spotting the brightest talents is one of our biggest interests, and I was fortunate enough to catch the three homies at Kaya Cafe for a deep dive into their world. I learned a bit more about each member, their experience on their Cape Town tour, and a whole lot more.
Walking through the gates of Kaya, I was immediately welcomed by an aroma of fresh coffee beans, relaxing music over the speakers, and warm smiles from each band member, all relaxing while sipping their mugs on the comfy sofas.
Small moments like these always give me a bubbly feeling about the kind of creatives I’ll be interacting with, and we wasted no time heartily making introductions.
The group consists of Reece Berkeley, a master of the drumming technique, Niclaus (Claus) Duvenhage, the bassist and production maestro, and the lead vocalist, Ntutuko (Freddy) Lalendle, the man who brought his vision to life.
From the start, to where you are now currently, could you explain to us who Freddy L are?
Reece: “Well, Freddy started off as a solo artist, and I was with another band at the time, and I saw him at a gig. And he didn’t have a drummer. So, the next day I just shot him a DM on Instagram. I really connected with the music he was playing.”
“I think it was him, a female singer, and a guitarist at the time, and I just hit him the DM’s and that was 2018, while I was still in high school (laughter). Anyway, we had a jam a few days after at my house and we eventually started a band.”
Freddy: “That was actually a cool story, it was holidays at Reece’s house, and I went outside to smoke a cigarette, not registering that I was standing outside on his patio. And no one smokes at his house! Then his dad walks in and there’s just this black guy standing and smoking (the whole table is in laughter).”
Reece: “My dad’s super chilled. But yeah, we started the band then, and I moved to Cape Town in 2022 to study, and I ended up dropping out. But I met Claus, we were both at SAE, and we started making music together while I lived here.”
“And then Freddy came on tour by himself in October, and then we played shows together, and we were living in the same house together at that time, and we all just started making music together, and then yeah. I think it was the second song that we made which was “Hold On” together.”
Freddy: “Hmmm, it was the first one.”
Reece: “No the first one was “Nguwe”.
Freddy: “I first played “Hold On” for you in the house, and you were like “bro this is the song!” And then we came to perform it, and it was the first time seeing us performing.”
“The next morning, we were like “guys, let’s get in the studio, let’s record this song” and we started working on that. And then your family was here on holiday, Claus and I stayed behind working, and even went to have dinner with your family. And I remember we came back fucked from the night before, but I just remember us all being so excited to record.”
Image Sourced From @freddylband / Instagram
So Freddy, you initially begun as a solo act. Was being a part of a group what you were looking for?
Freddy: “I’d been through one or two bands.”
“I’ve always had a vision, and all the artists that I’ve looked up to have bands. I wanted to make music as a collective, where we feed off each other and ideas don’t die. We don’t get exhausted on being stuck on one idea.”
“When I met Reece, we barely practiced. I mean we still barely practice, because the chemistry was just there.”
“Then Claus was introduced to it, and throw any ideas at him, it could be the dumbest idea, he’s ready to go. And we’ve been like that ever since.”
In terms of your music background, how did that come about for the each of you?
Reece: “For me, my family is musical. My dad played bass and guitar, so I had got my first drum set when I was three. The rest was history from there.”
Claus: “I’m trying to think. There’s always been music around me. My parents played me things from around the world, like CD’s and stuff. But, like a very diverse range of stuff.”
“By accident, when I was eleven, I got interested in fiddling around with Ableton, and since that day I haven’t taken a break from it.”
“It caught me, and now I’m here. I didn’t have a choice. It sort of took me on that wave. So, that’s how I got into production.”
Reece: “Didn’t you build a computer?”
Claus: “Yes! I had my dad’s hand me down laptop, which was probably from his company, and I needed a rig to run Ableton, because the CPU kept on crashing out. It’s been computers and music the whole time.”
Freddy: “So, I didn’t really grow up with my parents, I found my dad like way later. He stayed in a township about fifteen minutes away from the coastline.”
“When I moved there, I had come from a very small village type of vibe, and I didn’t really get the culture of the youth there. People were into football, and I always tried to be different. I tried skating, dancing, and a lot of different things.”
“My dad would always play African Jazz, but I had chores. I’d come home from school, and my dad would be bumping music all day! Like I’d be washing dishes and his shit would be playing in the background.”
“So, I found myself playing the same songs. I remember buying a cheap guitar from Cash Crusaders, and I’d when the church choir would sing, I’d like watch, go home and fiddle with the songs I’d hear.”
“I think that’s where the music came from. I wanted to be different, and I was always that kid in the township with a guitar.”
Freddy L performing at the The Kerb
Could you describe the sound of your music?
Freddy: “I think we just all come from different music backgrounds, like for me I grew up on Hip-Hop, Jazz, Gospel, and many other genres. Like I said, I always wanted to be different. You know like, elokshin, you download beats, and you share them? It’s the same beat but people will be writing different songs.”
“I grew up from that era, if that makes any sense. So, when I met Reece, him and I listened to completely different music. World’s apart! I love certain types of music, and he loves the heavy Rock. So even when we write, it’s actually fresh,”
“Like if we had to tackle a verse right now, I’d come with a different melody, Reece would come with a different melody, and Claus would come with a different melody. And it just becomes something of its own, and it’s always been a vision that I had dreamt of doing.”
Reece: “I think like Freddy said, we all have different musical influences. My friends always used to play like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and other heavy Rock bands. That’s what they enjoyed, and I developed liking that. That’s what I bring to the music.”
“I don’t know if we can define a genre.”
Freddy: “I think our taste is blended. Like even when we chilling in the car, we play different stuff, and we love it. We don’t fight about, and we’ve learnt to like each other’s taste.”
Claus: “The label you’d give it is all of these coming together. I’d even say we take it down to its core elements and make a song out of this.”
What new music can we expect from the band? Any new singles or projects?
Claus: “We are actually actively trying to complete a project.”
“All of these new bands feelings, gets to be consolidated into a nice body of work that we’re proud of, and we’re trying to do that quite soon.”
“So all of this motion around this tour and everything keeps that creative flow going so that we can give people that body of work to come to see us with.”
Freddy: “But also, this record is going to be very different as well. I don’t know if you’ve listened to an album, and you listen to like three songs, but you feel like you’ve listened to the whole album, if that makes sense?
“I don’t even know how we’re going to categorize it. We want it to be a representation of who we are. We’ve got songs that range from heavy Hip Hop influences, multilingual songs, we’ve got songs that are in Xhosa, and straight up English.”
“We’ve got dance, we’ve got heavy stuff that is stripped, and we’re just trying to make it an experience. If you listen to the project, it doesn’t sound traditional, and we want you to feel like you’re almost with us in these songs.”
Claus: “And also, one thing I did want to say is that what we’re actually trying to do, instead of just being this band, is to community build. We don’t want to narrow it down to that first body of work. We want to show what it means to be apart of this community of Freddy L first. Then you can decide which songs you like.”
Cover art for their latest single, titled “Lucky”
Talk to us about your “MOTHER’S CALLING” Cape Town tour. How has that experience been?
Freddy: “Tiring (laughter from the group). But, exciting at the same time.”
Reece: “I would describe it as very satisfying. It’s been cool because we were only with Claus around April this year, so we hadn’t seen each other for a long time. And we (Freddy) had been playing shows in Durban by ourselves.”
Freddy: “To a point where people would ask if Claus was still even part of us (more chuckles).”
Reece: “So, it’s just cool to have the family back together again.”
So, what’s the reception from the Cape Town scene been like?
Claus: “It seemed that first night that Brad and Gina, from Kaya, organized our gig, they got some people together, and they were all mingling together. “
“It’s like they fell into what our intentions were for our tour. And that’s pretty much how it’s been going night after night.”
Freddy: “It’s crazy because we also broke our sets into two halves. Like halfway through the performance, Reece was like “give the people a break, go get yourself a drink, and we’re going to carry on with the set”. We all went outside, had a smoke, and when we got back on stage, we didn’t even call people back, but the crowd was there and that was crazy.”
How do you guys, as a group, stay focused and motivated?
Claus: “I always tell them, good food (cheeky laugh).”
Reece: “Yeah Claus cooks. He’s the band chef.”
Claus: “Even if it takes three hours to cook like a pasta, make sure it’s got intention it. We feed ourselves bro.”
Reece: “I think it’s just about, for me personally, exploring new music, exploring new artists, keeping up with the trends, considering it but adapting it in your own way.”
Freddy: “I also think resting and switching off. Sometimes you can get caught in the motion. Like the other day for our Aandklas show, I was so concerned about people coming in numbers, and we were working on a song.”
“I was like “guys, we’re on tour and I wanna make the show big”, but Claus was like “no this song is good", let’s be here and write”. I was pissed off. I left.”
“From that session, we wrote probably one of my favourite songs, and that song is now on the set already. We literally wrote it in a day and a half. Mixed and mastered and everything.”
Reece: “And now we open our shows with it (laughter from everyone).”
Freddy: “But when we played it at Aandklas, it was good views.”
Reece: “It’s like a heavy Rock song.”
Freddy: “Yeah, it’s big. But had I gone with the motions, and just trying to sell the show, we would’ve missed out on the studio, or written something way diffenently.”
Meeting the band was such a delight to experience, understanding how varied each member was, but somehow being able to combine their differences and talents into a single unit.
With news that Freddy L may be permanently residing in the Mother City (we’re praying it’s true), we hope to witness plenty more of their live shows and were definitely anticipating the new project from the electrifying trio.
And this was just what we felt were the main talking points of the interview. We covered much more about the group and have included the full recording down below, if you’re interested in listening to the whole extensive conversation.
