Guitarist Dan Patlansky brings you Introvertigo
|||Munya Vomo
One of South Africa’s finest guitar players, Dan Patlansky, is back with another album, called Introvertigo. This is the man’s eighth release and he is pretty amped up about what this album has to offer.
“We have started touring in South Africa and it has translated really well live. It’s all great to have a great record, but when it doesn’t work out live, then you have a big problem. I am happy with this record and I feel like it came out the way we had hoped it would. It is always exciting to have new material because before the people had been playing material that I had made from two years ago,” said the musician excitedly.
As usual, Patlansky had to find a catchy title for his album, and it could not be anything better than Introvertigo. The word is defined as a person who becomes dizzy or disorientated when in the presence of extroverts. Patlansky, believe it or not, believes he is an introvert and the next question you should be asking is, how can he be that if he has to be in the public eye?
“You can still be an introvert even though you perform in front of people. You are not necessarily socialising with those people because you get lost in your performance. So it actually kind of gets claustrophobic for me. People think introverts never leave the house, but I think it’s just a case of them socialising with people in much smaller doses than the extroverts do. Introverts draw energy from being alone and extroverts draw energy from other people. That’s how I define it,” he said.
For him, being a musician takes a special brand of bravery because you constantly have to convince strangers to like your music.
“As a musician, you are going out every night and literally saying: ‘Please like me and please like what I am doing’. When you do an album, you never know if people are going to like it. The tour that we are doing now for Introvertigo has been going so well so far which is encouraging,” he said.
His kind of music is influenced by rock and blues which he feels is misunderstood sometimes.
“I have had bleak reviews before and I was doing more traditional blues back then. I feel like in art you can’t satisfy everyone. It’s impossible to say any form of artwork is bad. I think it is just a matter of preference. Like Justin Bieber or One Direction is not my vibe. He’s writing for 12-year-old girls, but that works for him,” he said.
While the local radio stations have not quite supported Patlansky’s music over the years, he has still managed to make a living from his music.
“It’s hard to be on radio, but then we get a lot of support from our fans somehow. We go out on gigs and our fan base has literally grown through word of mouth so we are doing well. Also, we get played in the UK and the US and that really helps to raise awareness,” he said.
As it stands, Patlansky is in the middle of a tour of South Africa’s major cities and will then take his acoustic sound overseas.
“We are in the middle of a tour and are doing launches in Joburg, Pretoria and Bloemfontein.
“We will be doing it in the UK too where we have 24 shows lined up. That will be intense because we are only there for 30 days so that means we have only six days to rest, but we are up for the challenge,” he said.