TOP 10 THINGS YOU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT HellCats In 2019
TOP 10 THINGS YOU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT HellCats In 2019 – In case you’ve been living under a rock, Hellcats is unfiltered, with no scruples or reservations. rock ‘n’ roll two-piece from Johannesburg, South Africa.
- The group was established in August 2014 and they performed their initial gig as Hellcats at the famed Arcade Empire in Pretoria.
2. When they began, they had one song under their belt during their gig. If you listen to their sound it is a transparent 70’s rock motivation. Murky. Uninhibited.
3. They don’t play covers. They believe in creating original content, they assert if you have time to study someone else’s content, then you clearly have time to work on your own.
“Mostly because we’re of the opinion that if you’re gonna spend all that time learning a song, why wouldn’t you just write your own song? It’s so much effort learning someone else’s kak, why wouldn’t you put that energy into making something that’s yours.”
4. The duo has once paid R8000 for a table dance at a strip club.
“We recently got back from a 2 day Cape Town tour. We went to a strip club on the first night after our show, because, y’know, tour. On the second night we had friends that ‘dragged us’ back to the same strip club again. You know you’ve been somewhere too much when the bouncer, as well as most of the dancers, know you by your first names. We also missed our flight the next morning because we pretty much went from the club to the airport, making that the most expensive table dance we’ve certainly ever fucking had.”
5. They don’t play acoustic shows. Ever. They maintain there is no hate to the sound. They prefer playing acoustic guitar in their own time. Although, Hellcats is an ear-splitting, derogatory, unfiltered rock n roll and they are content with their sound image.
6. The band also opened the Vans Campsite stage at Rocking the Daisies in 2015 which gave them prominence and prestige on the South African rock n roll scene. Since then they have annihilated competition and ruled stages and festivals circulated the country; Let us not forget Mieliepop and Oppikoppi in 2016.
7. Hellcats music is unfiltered and their live performances are saturated with content that embraces throttle, and that is exactly what Audio Militia desired to apprehend as Craig Hawkins expounds.
“We kept the production straight-up – two entities filling up the audio spectrum, one riff, one drum groove, one vocal trying to get into your brain and shake it relentlessly. We also kept the format true to a two-piece. There is no bass recorded and everything comes from only two guitar takes.
8. When Hellcats came into stardom, they did so with the bluster, volume and tenacity of bands quite literally twice their size.
9. The duo had endorsement deals with RedRock Breweries and Ray-Ban being the cherry on top.
10. They reached #3 on the SA iTunes Album Chart and being added to numerous global streaming playlists across Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer. Can you imagine they achieved all this without a music video, commercial radio or TV support or a cent spent on social media marketing, which in this online age, this is evidence that miracles do exist.
If you would like to check them out follow them on their social media accounts:
Written by: Aphiwe Theodorah Mvinjelwa
