When you are young and naive, it is easy to leave the familiar behind in search of new adventures and opportunities. But there are certain places that worm their way into your soul and become part of your DNA… The Vaal Triangle is such a place for the popular alternative duo, Victor Bravo, and is also the inspiration behind their brand-new rock single.
“LÊ MY NEER is about the unsolicited, unexpected, and often unwelcome fondness you have for the place you come from, which, in our case, is the Vaal Triangle. Without always realizing it, a place, its people, and ways embed themselves deep in your heart, regardless of how faded or unappealing it may look from the outside. When something takes you away, you realize how much you miss it… even the things you thought you didn’t like,” says Weco van Basten, the group’s frontman and songwriter.
“It’s about my own deep love affair with this place that has broken and built me with sweat and iron. It’s the place where my father is buried, where I met my wife, where I got married, where I went to school, where I lost and found myself again. It’s a place where people sometimes want to fight, but where they’ll also share their last slice of bread with you. Here, I became a man, despite my best efforts to remain a foolish child. We are all just people of the mist-weather.”
He shares that he wrote the song on the last day of the practical session of Skryfnet’s songwriting course while actually working on another track. “Throughout the morning, the words and melody just drifted into my head, and I couldn’t do anything to shift the focus back to the song I was working on. It was the words (translated from the Afrikaans lyrics): ‘If one day I find myself far away, blown like a seed on the back of a murderous wind. If my last crossroad is in a far away place, put me in a wooden box and lay me down next to the Vaal River’. So, I allowed this creative stream to flow where it wanted to go.”
According to Jopie Pienaar, lead guitarist and fellow Vaal Triangler, their latest release is much closer to the kind of music they initially wanted to create. “We believe that we might attract a new type of listener because this song has a rock approach and is definitely the type of music we would have made if we had a full band,” he says.
Renier Henning, once again, headed up the project as producer, with Janes Blomerus on bass guitar and Vinnie Henrico on drums.
LÊ MY NEER is the fifth radio release from their arsenal of original music and follows in the successful footsteps of Solank die liefde bly, which was released in 2022 and received a Melomaan award for best duo single.
Suiderkruis (2022), Schemer (2019) and Breakway Line (2018) all won Afri-Indie Awards (Best Contemporary single, Best Duo Single and Best Overall Single) and charted on various radio stations across the country.
Victor Bravo made their debut in 2018. In the short time they have been performing together, the musical pair (who is also family) has enjoyed various career highlights, including several awards, two tours and performances on some of the biggest music stages in the country, such as Aardklop in 2019.
When not on stage or busy writing songs for the group or other artists, Weco enjoys his day job as business intelligence manager at a large corporate company. He comes from a musical family and has been frequenting the braai and campfire scene at family get-togethers for years. The musician was also a member of the Drakensberg Boys Choir and studied drama and creative writing in the USA after school.
Jopie, co-owner of CrossFit MTVE in Pretoria, is equally passionate about fitness and music. After attending his first rock concert at the age of fourteen, he bought a guitar, taught himself how to play and has since mastered the art of keeping a crowd entertained. His aim for the year is to study musical theory and to improve his vocal skills.
The versatile duo has always wanted their music to be whatever the listener needs it to be at that particular moment when they hear it. Their plans for 2024 include establishing their sound in the local music industry and releasing their first English single.
LÊ MY NEER is one of those songs that that speaks to the heart and will make you nostalgic about the place you call home.
“I have moved away from the Vaal Triangle several times, but I always come back. There’s a kind of magnetism that keeps me here – my roots, like those of a willow tree, are buried somewhere deep in the banks of the Vaal River,” Weco concludes.
The song is available on all digital platforms. Download it here: https://vyd.co/Lemyneer
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictorBravoMusic
Twitter: @VictorBravoMusic
Instagram: @VictorBravoMusic
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-625588893
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