The La Els - MK Awards Best Indie NominationRemember the iKind Media-produced The La Els music video, Soulkiller, which won ‘Top Music Video’ in the 2010 Global Moguls competition and then went on to take South African TV and web channels by storm in 2011? Well so too do the powers that be at South Africa’s home-grown Music Video channel, MK, as The La Els last week received a coveted nomination for the 2012 MK Awards in the category of Best Indie.
MK AWARDS The State Theatre, Pretoria 23 March 2012
The 2012 MK Awards nominations were announced last week and the list features 32 artists in 10 categories with nominees for the 11th category - Best Live Act - being decided solely by the viewers, who have the opportunity to nominate any act they wish.
Van Coke Kartel has earned the nod for Best Group, Best SFX / Animation (Ondier Kom) and Best Rock (Vir Almal), while Die Heuwels Fantasties have been nominated for Best Group (Buitenste Ruim), Best Video and Best SFX / Animation (both for Modus Operandi, which features Inge Beckmann of Lark).
Newbies Shadowclub were nominated for Best Newcomer (alongside Bittereinder, Moses Metro Man, Graeme Watkins Project and Mr Cat & The Jackal). They are also up for the Best Group accolade, with competition from Bittereinder, aKING, Van Coke Kartel, Zebra & Giraffe and Die Heuwels Fantasties. aKING are also nominated for Best Radio Hit and Best SFX / Animation.
Some notable single-category nominees include Spoek Mathambo, who earned a nod for his Pieter Hugo-directed Joy Division cover Control, Holiday Murray who are nominated for Best Hipster and Idols winner Elvis Blue who is nominated for Best Radio Hit.
The 2012 MK Awards ceremony will take place on 23 March 2012 at Pretoria’s State Theatre. Winners are determined by public votes so head over to the MK Website, Facebook or MXit (via the MK Bot) and vote, vote, vote.
Viewers have the opportunity to nominate any artist / band for the Best Live Act category. To cast a vote, ‘Like’ the MK Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mktv.co.za and click on the ‘Live’ tab. Voting on Facebook and Mxit for the ‘Live’ category puts viewers in line to win a Hyundai i20.
MK AWARDS 2012 Voting closes at 12:00 on 1 March 2012 mk.dstv.com
Durban-based band, The La Els, may still be relatively new to the South African music scene, but the band members have had many years of sweating it out on stage with various other outfits. Eventually they all found each other and solidly etched their mark into the local scene, commencing their accustic takeover with the moody and electrifying track ‘Soulkiller’, which you may have heard blasting out on 5FM and MK over the last few months.
Due to the fact that almost everyone in the ensemble still had their day jobs, the band performance scenes took a solid 5 evenings to shoot. Each evening meant a lengthy make-up and rigging session after work before shooting for 3 to 4 hours. The crew somehow managed to position the camera in every angle possible, while the band survived what seemed like a zillion takes, maintaining very brave faces throughout the whole process.
Anybody who works in the entertainment industry in some way or form knows how hard ‘showbiz’ can be and in Durban in particular (by way of observation when it comes to support for, or lack thereof, of local talent), it sometimes feels like one is possibly watching a cycle of dearth unfolding writes Latoya Newman for The Independent’s Tonight supplement.
Investors for local projects are scarce and public support seems to be nearing extinction in some cases. It’s no wonder we have such a great export of talent to Joburg and Cape Town in the form of musicians, actors, filmmakers and the like.
Less on stage/on screen talent, equals less local projects on the go, equals less behind-the-scenes opportunities available, equals more talent leaving Durban… hence my strictly-opinion theory of the cycle of dearth.
That’s why I was so eager to interview two passionate, not-so-long-ago video technology students whom I had heard are so patriot-ically “Durban” that they virtually work just to cover costs so that they lend local bands more support in crafting their music videos. And, true to the saying of what you give is what you get, Matt Nefdt and Devin Carter’s talents are being noticed across the country, with some of their work even being nominated for national awards.
Their strategy is simple: “We are trying to put Durban back on the map. Joburg and Cape Town is saturated with Durban talent and we can’t see the reason why the industry here should have to move out. It’s annoying when you see Joburg and Cape Town crews shooting Durban projects when that kind of talent is here…” explained Matt.
Devin said they’ve always loved TV and film and are aiming to get the focus back on Durban’s local talent. “We do music videos, TV commercials and we are in the process of pitching a sci-fi feature film… We basically do corporate work to pay the bills and music videos to feed our passion.”
And as Devin plainly puts it, why not Durban: “We have the talent. We have the best weather. We’ve been told we use Durban well and this is our plan to continue doing so. We hope to eventually buy a plot of land in the country and covert it into a one-stop filming shop.”
The much anticipated search for the top band of the 2010 Global Moguls online talent competition is over and the winner has been announced. There was much excitement and plenty to celebrate at the Finals concert on Saturday night at Ratanga Junction in Cape Town, as Durban-based band The La Els walked away with the coveted “Global Moguls” title.
Fans descended upon Ratanga Junction as the top six bands battled it out for digital dominance. With live streaming, the show was viewed by a larger online audience, giving fans around the country the opportunity to vote for their top performance of the evening.
The concert delivered an array of talent with a mind blowing opening performance by guest band The Fractured, followed by Mid Effekt, Kaleido, Glen’s End, Down on the First, The La Els, Dementiphobia and guest band Versus The Wolf.
The La Els not only walked away with the prestigious “Global Moguls” title but also with a unique industry prize: a music video directed by photography and video maestro Sacha Waldman, a 2 week recording session at Red Bull Studios, 20,000 sponsored downloads and a comprehensive management contract courtesy of Global Moguls.
Earlier in the week The La Els were also announced the winners in the following categories :
Top Album Cover - Dusty Richardson (Designer) Top Band Photo - Xavier Vahed (Photographer) Top Music Video - Devin Carter (Director)
The night was topped off with a performance by “Cooler as Ekke” Afrikaans rapper Jack Parow.
Levi on 
The La Els - MK Awards Best Indie NominationRemember the iKind Media-produced The La Els music video, Soulkiller, which won ‘Top Music Video’ in the 2010 Global Moguls competition and then went on to take South African TV and web channels by storm in 2011? Well so too do the powers that be at South Africa’s home-grown Music Video channel, MK, as The La Els last week received a coveted nomination for the 2012 MK Awards in the category of Best Indie.
