The guitars erupt like napalm in the night sky. The stage antics are eye candy. The melodies are the stuff you sleep with and wake up with. The lyrics are beautifully angelic. It’s a homemade bomb that has erupted onto the South African music scene in a way South Africa hasn’t seen for a long time.
16Stitch have arrived, and after only being together for 2 years, the future sirens of world domination are ringing loudly across the skies.
16Stitch is a band comprising 5 members, a massive attention to musical detail, passion, courage, and a contagious energy. They’ve just released their debut album ‘Beautiful Angelic Parasite’ and have stepped very comfortably into the roles the South African music industry had created for them. Their previous single ‘Things They Say’ has shot-putted them to the front of the pit and crowned them one of the most sought after, and successfully optimistic bands to come out of SA in the past 2 years.
The turning point in the very short history of 16Stitch was their performance at last year’s Woodstock Festival, organized ironically by the management company who now represent them on a full time basis. Their ‘take no prisoners’ approach to the stage and their obvious merit as a band that should be taken seriously, found their show being touted as one of the best performances of Woodstock 5 – 2003. Being able to pull a crowd and have them remember you, when you are still a fledgling band, is testament to the fact that there is more than just an average happening here. There is talent and originality, in all equal parts.
Shortly after the riff changing experience of Woodstock, 16Stitch had miraculously turned themselves into more than just a garage band, - more than just a festival band. People were talking, queuing up at the gigs, and enjoying. They started touring with other SA stalwarts like Tweak, Cutting Jade, Wickhead and more. From playing major festivals the likes of Splashy Fen, Southern Cross Festival, the 5FM Easter Rock festival and more, 16Stitch started enjoying a massive press frenzy. As they were lining up for interviews on 5FM, Go TV, M-Net and ETV, their first single ‘Things They Say’ was gaining mammoth exposure on 5FM and steadily climbing up the commercially coveted Top 40 and Hi Five at Five. A video was shot and is currently enjoying major flightings on all channels; including massive exposure on the hot DTSV channel GO TV.
Although 16Stitch have been described as more of an underground band, they certainly don’t shy away from the fact that if their songs are good, they get the attention they deserve. As guitarist Paul Norwood comments on their single ‘Things They Say’ gaining such huge exposure in all formats, whether over or under the ground.
“It was incredible to watch a song which we had written rise so high (on the charts) within such a commercial medium. A good song is a good song, no matter what genre of music it falls under. We don’t write songs for radio, we write songs for ourselves, and we write songs we love, and if other people like our music, fantastic.
It’s about the passion, after all”.
In January 2004 16Stitch signed a management deal with Authentic Sounds, who subsequently helped with the independent release of their debut album.
‘Beautiful Angelic Parasite’ was recorded in one month. A huge feat considering the band had no recorded material whatsoever, except for their chart breaking first single. After scrutinizing the recording studios on offer to them and producers willing to record the album for them, they decided the best way to get what they wanted from it, was to record it themselves. In the first week of March they began. Drummer Nic, (who recently had been flown overseas to help South African internationally successful band Seether out on drums until they could find an American replacement) laid down the drum tracks. These drum takes were recorded and brought back to Paul (guitarists) house to be mixed on his home computer. And so it follows. All the guitar and bass pieces were recorded and mixed in Paul’s room. In between the mad garage Jackson Pollock’s of creation, the vocals were recorded separately at Chi studios and once again brought back to the 16Stitch recording sanctuary where they were mixed, mastered and delivered in a month. Beautiful, Angelic, Indeed!
The title ‘Beautiful Angelic Parasite’ is taken from the song ‘Fallout’, off their debut album, and unobtrusively sums up the philosophy of the band. It’s dark, yet beautiful, Heavy, yet melodic. A dark angel riding the outer atmosphere of light. This underlying paradox is everything 16Stitch are about!
The songs off ‘Beautiful Angelic Parasite’ were written by all 5 members of 16Stitch and the lyrics penned by lead vocalist Andrew. From the first hit single ‘Things They Say’, to the philosophical beats of ‘Suffer’, and their current single ‘Anyone’ – one can see that 16Stitch have a diverse yet calculated sound, a method to their madness and an all out over the top attitude to everything they do musically. A brand new video for their single ‘Fallout’ is also being recorded, and will be dazzling the small screen shortly.
If you’re wondering where the name comes from and what it means – in Paul’s words “16Stitch is actually derived from the movie American History X – It was just something we used to say to each other when something bad happened”.
From all this to a massive respect from the South African music industry, a dedicated and growing fan base to an enormously powerful debut album, it seems 16Stitch has come to mean something good, after all.