Tristan Waterkeyn

“Hay Day” is the kind of CD I’d want to have accompany me on thousands of kilometres of sailing. It’s a “lie back in your hammock, look at the horizon and let the movement gently rock you” sort of album. It’s melodies spin themselves from lyrical yarn, the instrumentation’s brightly colourful and it’s all woven closely together by a silky smooth voice. Poetic, ambiguous words and jovial, sometimes theatrical play on instruments are an invitation to delve into layers of meaning. And it’s all taut… a nice taut mainsail to pull you along…

Tristan Waterkeyn’s been around. Born in Tanzania , moved to Kenya , then to
Zimbabwe , where he went to high school. He learned to play the guitar to
escape the rigid institutionalism of boarding school, and made appearances
in Harare for a band called “Substitute Parachute”. After that he spent
three years backpacking through Asia and sailing thousands of kilometres
(yes, with guitar in tow), before returning home to Africa .

To Cape Town , to be exact, where he studied philosophy and comparative religion at University and soon found a group of people to share his passion for music with. Having finished his degree and having found himself more involved in the live music scene than anything else, Tristan saw a need for a more unified community in South Africa ’s diverse music industry.

He formed “Overtone”, a company dedicated to building up the music industry of South Africa . Overtone provides every South African band and artist with access to its rapidly expanding online community with easy access to the music industry via its directories. For fans and the industry, it offers a monthly gig-guide and newsletter, as well as access to information on different sectors of the industry in South Africa – from bands themselves to live venues, stores, labels and industry news. As a resource for artists, Overtone is to offer all the facilities that they would normally have to source from multiple individual companies. It also offers facilities and help for musicians to record and
produce their own albums.

This brings us back to the new album ‘Hay Day’ . It’s taken a considerable amount of effort, time and coordination – a testing of the Overtone system – to arrive at the finished article, and here is Tristan’s (and Overtone’s) seamless debut album.

Biography and Interview by Anthony Boyd 2007.