As any artist knows, creativity is a double-edged sword – inspiration can strike at any time, but it’s not something you can force.
So when South African musician Jeremy Loops was struggling to get some ideas together for the follow up to his 2014 debut album Trading Change, he went back to what he knew best – nature.
“I grew frustrated trying to force the music because I knew the album was due, but one night after an incredible surf, I got home, picked up my guitar, and wrote Waves,” he explained.
What followed was Loops organically penning track after track around the theme of water – a topic of increasing importance, given that the musician’shometown of Cape Town is on course to be the first major city in the world to run out of water, with taps to homes to be turned off on 22 April this year.
Ashe prepares to head back to Australia for the first time since his sold-out 2016 tour, he chatted toTMNabout combining environmental activism with the creative outlet of music, and the difference time in nature can make.
Why was water is the inspiration for this album?
Water’s always been a big part of my life. We grew up in this small little coastal village on the outskirts of Cape Town, so we began surfing and being in the ocean pretty much as soon as we could start walking. It’s a second home to me.
When I hit a wall early on in writing the album, I decided to stop forcing the process and would skip out on studio sessions to go get in the ocean.
The more time I spent in the water, the more rested and restored by it I felt, the clearer my mind and my writing became.
It was then that water just kept coming up as a recurring theme. I wasn’t even deliberate about it until we were past the halfway mark. It evolved naturally from there.
You obviously walk the walk when it comes to activism, through your work with Greenpop (a tree-planting organisation that’s planted over 85,000 trees since inception). Why do you think music is so effective in spreading the word about issues such as the water crisis in Cape Town and South Africa?
Here’s the thing about people, so much stuff is competing for our attention, it’s hard to get a unified message about anything out. But people listen to athletes, musicians, and entertainers. I have the platform. I feel like it would be a waste to not use it for social causes.
What action can people take if they’re inspired by your message?
My hope is my messages are never didactic. If I put a spotlight on an issue and people are inspired to engage and tackle it, I trust they’re smart enough to know where to go to help. My idea is to always make people feel like one person CAN make a difference, and an inspired person will find a way to make a difference.
Water, as a universal theme, means different things to different people. What does it mean to you right now?
Flow. Letting go. Rolling with the tides and embracing life’s inevitable and often difficult changes. We all spend too much energy fighting against the current. It’s human nature. But if one practises the idea of true flow, one can maximise and find opportunity in everything.
The Jeremy Loops ’Critical As Water’ tour commences on May 22 at Capitol in Perth and concludes on May 27 at the Factory Theatre in Sydney, with appearances in Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane.
