18 April 2017
It’s impossible to listen to Hot Water. To just listen. Because when Donovan Copley, the band’s founder, frontman, and creative heart, starts singing, playing (often his iconic Afri-can guitar), jiving and jumping around stage, backed up by a mix of stellar South African musicians as diverse as the country itself, you can’t sit still… No one does. The music – ‘South African Folk-Rock,’ Copley calls it – layers the sounds of traditional mbaqanga, kwela and maskanda with a more contemporary folk-rock vibe and utterly danceable rhythms, woven through with Copley’s raw, sweet voice and inspiring, almost dreamlike lyrics…Songs about ‘going home’ – whether to a place, a person, a community, or to yourself.Hot Water’s deeply rooted in South Africa, but its appeal is universal. As are Copley’s musical intentions… ‘My aim is to create awesome entertainment that – rather than playing into and feeding off people’s fears and pain – instead creates upliftment, magic and miracles.’
