#11

 

Tristan Coetzee

 

“I’ll try if you try, living it all on the upside”. These are lyrics to a tale of indie-pop sound that gives of a vibe of which Tristan Coetzee has been living by since the day that he can remember. These lyrics describe the many struggles and setbacks Tristan had to face, but in doing so, he did it with a smile, laughter and an attitude of achieving any dream that is set to mind.

 

 

The theme of this story revolves around two key values: being persistent and resilient. By mentioning this, Tristan explains just how difficult and at the same time how rewarding it can be to be to practice those values as much as possible. Before doing more research and digging in deeper into Tristan’s professional career and background, I envisioned him to be just a good guy that enjoys doing music and going by his day drifting on that intoxicating musical sound. Fortunately, I was right in one way but also wrong in many others. Allowing myself to dig deeper, Tristan proved to be more than just a smooth vocalist who is serenading with a guitar.

 

 

With a Bachelors in Information design in his pocket, two companies to deservingly brag about, and a band that keeps on impressing the South African Musical Charts with its creative visuals and sounds that will leave earworms that can drive one insane, Tristan continues not just close friends and family, but also current fans and future “groupies”.

 

 

Resilience is an attribute that was shown on many occasions during Tristan’s studies and music career. From late night studies, battling with project deadlines, scheduling music roadshows and performances, and catching that late night to after midnight flights, are just a few honorable mentions that proved that without being resilient, then not even an easy brew of coffee would be possible with such an exhausting schedule.

 

 

But due to a strong will and urge to succeed, Tristan did pick the fruits from his hard work. Starting up two companies of equal unique services with mates Dane Steinhobel and Lourens Smit, these companies share a combined ambition of practicing with great visual effects to produce the latest in entertainment and music videos. Run Jump Fly (a creative agency focusing on merging visual with new digital tech) has released a number of showcase videos to prove what they are capable of as well as collaborating with a few celebrities (Weekly Al might have written a story like this before ;)). Tristan also started another studio company called Matchfire Motion focusing solely on animation effects and visuals.

 

 

Along with these exciting start-up companies, Tristan also released a few hit albums with also talented and quirky band members Gideon Meyer (7 year musical camaraderie, bass and sax player), Nico van Loggerenberg (lead guitar player), Corneil Clasen (drums), Waldo Boshoff (drums) and lastly the man himself taking the lead of solo vocalist and fellow guitar player, going by the alias known as December Streets. Originating in the busy city of Pretoria, these group of talented musicians managed to hit the top 10 in the SA music charts with popular tracks “I’ll Try”, “Addy (Never Growing Up)”, and personal favorite “Stay by me”. These songs and others were proudly performed at many huge concerts such as Aardklop, Oppikoppi, Splashy Fen, etc., as well as being played on local 5FM for quite a comfortable amount of times.

 

 

To give an example of how talented and innovative this band can be when creating hit tracks, I managed to get a hold of some exciting information on “behind the scenes” ideas of how Stay By Me has been so well planned out and executed: “So we knew we wanted to shoot something that would push our creative boundaries and simultaneously create some content that would capture the band’s fans visual interest so we thought: What are some of the most popular videos out there? Obviously, the go-to reference on creative videos is OK Go’s treadmill video so we used that as a basis and began exploring. Treadmills, done. Bicycles, done. Airplanes…out of the budget. So we explored using two escalators. In part one we got two very talented dancers to do a routine on the escalators, and then while filming we realized we could push the concept even further. So we decided to push the shoot on for another day! With a whole new concept, we rounded up a bunch of people and decided to mask the opposing sides out in post-production, giving the video an alternate reality feeling of a never-ending loop.” Needless to say that “Stand by Me” has been on replay for an unhealthy amount of times.

 

 

Although all these achievements are highly impressive, it is important to mention that every step comes with countless hurdles and sacrifices. Many factors should be taken into account when wanting to make a living of your dream. Tristan faced a few difficult challenges along the way, stating - “We’ve learned more than I could ever have imagined over the past couple of years, including how to adapt to change. It is tough to accept change but if you don’t (more so now than ever) you run the risk of becoming stagnant.”

 

 

The reality to the matter of following your own path and chasing your own dreams is always tough but if it’s really your passion then you will find a way to make it work. Surround yourself with and link up with people who contribute to your skills and turn your weaknesses into strengths. This will help you, just like it helped Tristan, to build your passion and achieving your goals faster and bigger than what you could have already envisioned. And the most important thing to remember while keeping all this in mind is to be true to who you are and just enjoy following that dream.

 

“The most important thing I’ve learned is choosing something you're passionate about and being unshakably persistent at becoming fantastically great at it! It’s easy to start something or think of a great idea but the point that separates you from the rest is actually bringing that something to life and finishing it. I’m constantly fighting to bring my passions to life. Remember that it is not just one particular event that would prevent you from coming out on top but rather multiple ongoing hurdles that I’m biting the bullet on and powering through.”

 

With all the interviews that Weekly Al has conducted so far, it keeps on being such an amazing surprise that individuals such as Tristan and the rest of the December Streets band, are willing to make sacrifices and battling towards a common and personal goal of which they love, care and enjoy.

 

Having said this, it is also exciting to hear that December Streets new EP will be released early October. So while waiting for this exciting tune, be sure to look out for any concert dates in your area as you would not want to give up an opportunity to see these guys perform live. Also, check out the recently released new single “Mexico” on iTunes or Sound cloud and also pop in to witness the latest projects that Tristan has been working on at Run Jump Fly.

 

Till next week, cheers for now

 

WA