The coolest rock star since Francois van Coke releases her debut album Serpente Masjien
|||Helen Herimbi
An online magazine christened her “the new queen of South African blues and psych rock,” while respected journalist, Therese Owen, called her “the coolest rock star since Francois van Coke.” No matter what genre you might have heard in an encounter with her, one thing is clear: Sannie Fox is the real deal.
She is constantly winning over young and old and is so busy gigging that we only get to chat once she is back in the country from the Crossroads Tour with former Ike and Tina band member, Jimmy Thomas, and Piedmont Tennessee blues guitarist, Michael Roach. Each year, they choose a female musician to join them on tour – Natasha Meister was chosen a few years ago – and “this year they invited me and I said: ‘hell yeah,’” Fox exclaims.
“I’ve been a musician in South Africa for many years and been gigging since I was 19. I don’t only play blues, but I guess I get acknowledged for that work the most. I don’t only play rock either. The more people listen, the more people will find that out.”
This Cape Town singer-songwriter-producer recently released her debut solo album, Serpente Masjien. It’s a mixture of heavy rock, Malian blues, a smidgen of gospel and ballads that are driven by powerful lyrics. The songs are mostly from the perspective of a strong, but sometimes forlorn woman; a person who knows their power.
“I love the symbol of the snake,” she explains the album title. “A serpent is the anarchic female symbol. If you go back to Christian times, not that I’m Christian, but the snake is the symbol of turning away from the expected path that one is supposed to take. It’s also a symbol of transformation, eternity and power.
“I also used the Portuguese word for serpent because I thought this album is kind of about losing Machineri. Coming from where I was and going into another direction. So it’s kind of about my roots as well. And my mother is Portuguese. Masjien is Dutch Afrikaans and I’m also Dutch Afrikaans. I felt like it conjures up a lot of different places that I’m at.”
Machineri enjoyed a lot of success so I ask her what happened between her, Andre Geldenhuys (lead guitar) and Daniel Huxham (drums). “It happens with bands,” she starts. “People get to a point where, like a marriage, things break down and you have your differences.
“I think we got to a point where we weren’t actually able to work together creatively anymore. And I wasn’t going to stop making music. It was sad for me to leave that Machineri project because it was doing really well. But I decided to make a conscious decision and was ready to go out under my own name. I can’t break up with myself.”
Fox worked with Geldenhuys on the track Killer and says: “For Killer, I said to Andre: ‘I want to do a song with three heavy riffs so show me riffs’. So he gave me different things and I’d say: ‘Okay, that sounds amazing’. I would take the riffs and arrange the whole song and put verses on it.”
Another cool track is Hallelan, in which Fox likens a man to a typhoon with lines like: You treat me like a cargo ship/You got me by the throat. She laughs when I bring this up, then explains: “There’s a storm that destroyed the Philippines which reminded me of how a man can be in a relationship with a woman sometimes, where he just destroys her life, basically.
“The typhoon was called Haiyan so I changed the name to Hallelan – which I felt sounded like a Celtic name – hey, it’s poetic license, man. A lot of the time I like to write ballads which aren’t my stories. I like to tell other people’s stories. The more I write, the less I like to talk about myself now.”
She also speaks for the collective in songs like Freedom which opens with an excerpt of a speech on the unifying power of music. The speech was made “by Uys Krige, who is the brother to my grandmother, Suzanne Fox. This speech was recorded at the City Hall of Cape Town in the 1960s. It was part of a series of public addresses by prominent speakers speaking out against government policies surrounding segregation of white and coloured people in South Africa during apartheid.”
Fox adds: “I thought it was beautiful what he said about music. I really do believe that music unites us. It crosses all barriers for human beings. I know it does.” She has already released videos for Hang High, Sea Skull and Bottle in a Bag, which she describes: “On the one hand it’s all about the weekend comes and you go and drink with your friends and have fun. On the other hand, it’s anti-capitalist. I think stuff is very expensive in the world and we’re slaves to capitalism.”
Now, Fox plans to release a video for the gospel-like Call.
“It’s different from the other stuff,” she shares. “I’m already working on my second album and that’s the direction I’m going to go in. There’s going to be a bit of hip hop and more ballads. Call is also quite feminine and I’m finding it quite nice to embrace my femininity. Before, I was very androgynous.”
Serpente Masjien is in stores. Visit sanniefox.com for gig information.