I got an email a few months back from a 2oceansviber, telling me about this pair of twin brothers who were making some seriously cool music. “Locnville” was the name. I get a lot of people emailing and telling about their friend’s “awesome” band and sadly now take “heads ups” with a pinch of salt. I did however follow the link to their music video.

Wow – very cool tune and, even more amazing, was the age of these guys – your basic teenagers, cruising around at some party (in the music video) with babes everywhere. They were very cool and the tune was rad, but I didn’t have an angle to go for. I like things to make more sense before I get into them. So I did what I usually do with things that need more pieces of the puzzle to fit together – I flagged the email and moved on!

Locnville – they’ve got the sun in their pocket

It was then on Thursday last week that I went to talk to the grade 7’s at Reddam House Private School in Sea Point. You’ll remember I wrote an article about how impressed I was with the class.

To cut a long story short, I got a call (God forbid) on Friday from “The Blonde“ (AKA Dom Peters, of Goldfish fame) about something else and, at the end of the chat he said he read my Reddam article and wondered if I knew of a group called LOCNVILLE.

“Ja, big time, those youngsters with that cool song that’s playing on the radio? Someone emailed me about them and I checked out their music video. They’re kids! But they’re killing it!” I said.

“I know!” said Dom, “I couldn’t believe how young they were because of their deep voices, but howz this – they’re ex-Reddam boys!”

“No ways!” I shrieked. (I didn’t really “shriek,” but we need to fluff this up a bit).

“Big time, bru!” said Dom (he didn’t really say that, I’m just making him sound like a twat).

(Actually, I think he did say that..)

So now I think it’s time for those of you who don’t know about them, to find out a little more about Locnville. I’ll kick you off with the music video of their power single, “Sun In My Pocket.”

This, from their MyFace page:

Locnville consists of twin brothers, Andrew and Brian Chaplin who are indeed related to the late Charlie Chaplin. Although American born, the Chaplin’s father is South African and they have lived in South Africa for the majority of their lives. Brian and Andrew discovered their passion for music at age 6 when they got their first guitars. The two started “busking” around Cape Town and earned substantial funds from doing so, this lead to them recording their first single at age 8 titled “Amnesia”, at which point it became clear that music was not only a passion but a life long career. From age 8 to 12, they were focused on a very rock influenced genre being that Brian played percussion and Andrew guitar. In 2001, the two moved to the States where they started to pick up a new taste of music, very influenced by Hip Hop. They later moved back to Cape Town, South Africa where they started to focus solely on Hip Hop music and the flow of rap. In 2005 at age 15, they performed at the 2005 Hip Hop Indaba in which they were the youngest contenders. They received unbelievable response during the event and afterwards. Andrew and Brian recall watching “The Showbiz Report” on eTV and seeing themselves featured on the program of which they had no prior knowledge. Due to this, they contacted the station and got themselves a second insert on the program whilst in the process of recording their first Hip Hop demo entitled “Making A Name For Us”. One track specifically, entitled “What If I Said”, gained such popularity and momentum amongst the youth of Cape Town that it attracted the attention of award winning and acclaimed South African producer, Gabi Le Roux. Soon after this, they teamed up with Gabi Le Roux and R&B soul singer, Given Phike where the group and concept of “III” was born. Their debut performance happened in Stellenbosch at a Tropika Pageant event and caught the attention of Mxit General Manager, Paul Stemmet. Following this, they became the first group ever to release their debut album on Mxit Music which exploded beyond expectation selling in excess of 500,000 units nationally earning them double platinum status. They have also taken part in music production with companies such as Kaleidosound Music Production, Contra-Banned and Mxit. The two, having gained such success, have embarked on a new musical journey through Locnville and ContraBanned.com, which promises to be the most innovative form of online music distribution to date. Locnville brings a unique and uplifting message in their music which is beautifully complimented by smooth synths, heavy bass lines, upbeat and intricate percussion with lyrics sung in a smooth and melodic flow. Locnville has just recorded their debut album entitled “Retro Electro”, the music video for the single “Sun In My Pocket” is already in rotation on MTV, all SABC channels as well as 5fm, and the buzz surrounding Locnville is substantially increasing everyday.

Pretty cool.

Well done, boys..