John Ellis: Finding his own way home

John Ellis is a familiar name to many South Africans, having previously fronted the enormously successful SA band Tree63. After a number of years of living and touring in the USA, Ellis took the bold step of disbanding Tree63 and returning home to Durban, South Africa. Now, after a few years of personal and artistic soul searching, Ellis has returned to his rock roots and is about to re-enter the SA music scene as a solo performer with his new album, Come Out Fighting. MIO recently caught up with John to fill in the gaps...
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There's been quite a gap between the disbanding of Tree63 and the launch of "Come Out Fighting"; what did you get up to during that time?

I took a long time off from music. I had to get my head around moving my family back to South Africa and setting up a new home, getting children into schools, and sorting out how I felt about life. I checked out for quite a while. Inevitably, songs started coming, and with them, the desire to make a record and get back in the swing of things. It was a long, confusing process.

You've mentioned "political frustration" as being one of the influences behind the writing on your new album; was that also part of your motivation for returning to SA?

I came home precisely because South Africa is home. Some people are happy to write SA off and live like exiles in foreign countries, but that's not me. That being said, living here, as almost every South African knows, is often excruciatingly frustrating. We're all watching the dream of 1994 being systematically dissembled by the ANC, and no-one seems able to do anything about it. And yet I'd still rather live here in the middle of it all than pine from a distance.

Do you think that artists such as yourself have a voice when it comes to issues such as social justice in South Africa in 2010?

It's tricky. We're all bored to tears of glamorous pop stars telling us ("Shout"-ing at us?) how much they care about ‘issues' and then disappearing back into Neverland. It feels insincere, like some kind of career move, and often that's because it is. On the other hand, rock ‘n roll was always a great medium in the past for disseminating malcontent. Bob Dylan, The Clash, Bob Marley, early-U2, Rage Against The Machine, Bruce Cockburn, Billy Bragg - they've all been crucial to The Cause. I don't know if protest songs have become passe', but there's not a lot of white-guy protest, and I love my country and its potential too much not to say anything. I think the bottom line might be that if you care, say it, but it if it's just a fashionable thing to do, do us all a favour...

Tell us a bit about the process of recording the new album. Was this recording process different in any significant way to the albums you've done before?

The album was done mostly in Joburg at a famous old studio on the outskirts of Triomf that used to host stalwarts like Ge' Korsten. We also spent a boiling hot week in Durban in February doing guitars in a suburban house. So yes, pretty different to previous records! It was just me and the two Odendaal brothers, Jake and Thinus. Jake is a seriously talented studio guru, as well as a great musician, and his brother Thinus, who played drums in Tree63 for a couple of years in the States, is one of the hottest drummers on the planet. I had a few friends play on a few songs, SA music legends like Dawn Selby and Danny Antill. Otherwise it was just the three of us making music and experimenting.

Will "Come Out Fighting" be released overseas, and is the international scene something that's still in your sights?

I'd like it be, and yes, I'd like to find an audience again overseas. We'd need to find an international distributor and some way to get in front of people in other countries, but these days iTunes, eMusic and the like can do that for you. Not sure what songs like "A Luta Continua" would mean to college kids in Missouri, but you never know.

The title of the album, as well as the first single ("Own Way Home"), are pretty confrontational; who are you addressing, and what's the thinking behind it?

There's definitely a healthy dose of defiance in there, that's for sure. I just started feeling trapped as an individual over the years, and Tree63 felt oppressive towards the end. We were signed to a label that only wanted a very narrow thing from me as a writer, and trapped as we had become in the world of modern Christianity we were always expected to tow the party line. You can only do that for so long before it starts eating you alive. I just started feeling done with being told how to live, what to do etc. It felt like I was in a cult. I think it's true for anybody in life, to some extent: don't allow yourself to be walked over, find your own way home, stop auditioning for peoples' favour...

What changes have you noticed in the South African music scene and industry since you first started out?

So much! For starters, it seems like there actually is a South African music industry these days! You know things have changed when the SAMA's suddenly seem to mean something. I came back to things that didn't exist when we left, like the MK channel and a band in every garage in Bellville. Amazing. Obviously, I'm referring specifically to white rock bands. There's not a huge market for rock in SA unless you're young, white and Afrikaans. I was so excited to hear about Blk Jks. That seemed like a cross-over from the other side. I'd love to see a hard-rocking song-writing Zulu or Indian band. What a blast that would be!

You've become an active social networker; what are your thoughts on the future of the way music is made, publicized and distributed?

Social networking is the future that's already here. Music as I knew it has fast become a thing of the past. Today you can make a record in your bedroom, have it up for sale on your website the same afternoon, use your iPhone to make your own music video... it's a new world. You almost have to be better at social networking than you do at making music. Anyway, the hard lesson I learned was that music was never really about music anyway, it was about selling music as a product. These days, musicians can reclaim a little of that ‘music for music's sake' integrity and still find an audience for it online, without having to pay most of the proceeds to disinterested businessmen.

Any thoughts as a performer and/or a South African on the World Cup?

This is a tricky question.... FIFA has been described as one of the most corrupt organisations on the planet. I recently read FOUL by Andrew Jennings, what an eye opener! FIFA plays on the emotions of millions of people who simply enjoy a good old-fashioned game of footie and makes them spend huge amounts of money they don't have on everything from licensed products to stadiums. Its less about football and more about business ... kinda like the music industry is less about music! The World Cup feels like a party FIFA threw at the South African peoples' expense, and we get to clean up afterwards while they cargo huge containers full of cash back to Switzerland! But that being said, the upside is that municipalities nationwide are suddenly actually effective, and Durban, for one, looks amazing for the first time in decades. I've also read great feedback from journalists on our hospitality as a nation. So kudos to South Africa!

"Come Out Fighting" (released through Broken Records) will be available in stores from the end of June. For more on John Ellis check out www.johnellis.co.za