Nam Rocks!

The Namibian entertainment scene came to life last weekend as fans rocked out to a musical feast at the annual Tafel Lager Namrock festival. With a huge diversity of rock bands and acts, one thing is certain. Rock music in Namibia is alive.

Walking into Vintage in Olympia on Saturday afternoon, revellers were met by a festival atmosphere and sound reverberating as loud as only rock can be.

Having started 11 years ago with six bands, a budget of N$6 000, four weeks of organising and an audience of 450 people, the festival has grown immensely with a line-up of 15 bands and a much bigger crowd.

“Penilane did not have any venue to perform and we decided not to complain and create something. That is how Namrock was born,” founder and owner of the Tafel Lager Namrock festival Mike Ott said.

While the Namibian music industry only saw the death of the backtrack in the recent past, rock musicians are all about the live band. And while the rock music scene may seem a tad quiet to those who are not die-hards, judging from the number and quality of bands who performed at Namrock, as well as the fans who came out to support the festival, rock music is thriving in Namibia.

This despite NAMA organisers recently announcing that there will be no rock category at next year’s awards.

The decision to cut the category came after they recorded a low number of entries over the last five years, with only two or three entries at times.

Mike attributes the few entries in the rock category to the album release patterns of rock musicians.

“Rock musicians hardly release on annual basis. They focus on quality instead of quantity.”

There is speculation that rock musicians are more focused on selling their music outside of the country and are more interested in making it big on the international scene. Mike says this is not the case.

“Ideally the bands want to tour the world, but they first want to make it big at home,” he said.

In terms of visibility, Mike says rock music receives immense support from local radio but it can definitely do with more support from various media as well as the corporate world.

“Reviewing rock shows and performances will add to people actually knowing about the musicians and help get the word out there about their work.”

Naturally, rock music is not really commercial and leans more, if not heavily, towards being expressive. Because of the small size of the rock community up until quite recently, musicians would do music for themselves more than they would perform for others.

There has however been an increase in the demand for rock musicians to join the mainstream and bands like TONETiC, Famaz Attak and Penilane seem to be penetrating the local market without losing their unique and original sounds.

Speaking to a number of rock bands, it is safe to say the rock community has no intention of taking a back seat. In fact, they’re pretty adamant that rock music has a role to play in developing the Namibian sound, complete with its own identity and appeal to the international market.

In 2011, musician Qondja, now known as Samuelle, linked up with a local rock band for his hit single ‘Good Life’. The collaboration was evidence of the magic that happens when different genres collide.

Mike said that he would definitely like to see more musicians collaborate with each other and pointed out that there is potential for great products.