Jo Martin Band performing in Bohemia on a Tuesday evening. PHOTO: Liezl Human.
Every Tuesday evening, for as long as most Stellenbosch locals can remember, live music resonates from inside Bohemia. A man with a hat and a helping bassist plays a range of the golden oldies to a zealous crowd. Jo Martin has been playing at Bohemia for 17 years.
At one of the Jo Martin Band’s performances at Bohemia, Martin smiles at the crowd, strums at his guitar and asks the customary, “What would you guys like us to play, hey?”
Martin is a fulltime musician and he has been since he was about 20 years old. His journey with music, however, started at a much younger age.
“The first thing that I learnt to operate was my dad’s old turntable,” he says. “He had this record player when I was about five years old. And I use to sit and listen to records. You know, kids were playing outside – I was sitting listening to records.”
Martin’s father was also an artist, which meant that they moved around a lot. He is a “born and bred Capetonian”.
As a teenager in the eighties, Martin often listened to his brother and sister’s Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, and Pink Floyd albums.
“All the other kids my age were listening to eighties music (you know, like Depeche Mode) and I was listening to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. So, my influences were pretty much set in stone from a very young age,” he explains.
Martin has been playing with Tony Marx, the band’s bassist and percussionist, for 13 years. The original bassist, Barry Steenkamp, first got them the gig at Bohemia in 2002.
He only plays guitar and sings. “I’m not multi-talented like Tony… Guitar was my passion from early on.”
The life of a fulltime musician in South Africa is not always easy. Martin explains how a lack of appreciation for musicians has made his profession a difficult path to tread.
“[The] biggest challenge as a musician is trying to navigate my way through an industry that is not very conducive to singer-songwriters in this country.”
He has often played overseas, mostly in England but also in places such as Holland. He says that he’s had “a pretty good taste” of what it is like being a lesser known musician in places where the audiences were more appreciative of live acts.
“I have a friend in England that use to get me gigs. He’s retired now. I use to go over to England once every two or three years, a good number of times, and then he’d organise me gigs. From Bohemia-type gigs, like in pubs and restaurants, right through to festivals.”
“The industry is very much more set up in those countries to support artists who play live music. If you think about it, in South Africa, there’s not a very big distinction made between DJs and musicians. If you go to a party… DJs are now, I’d say, even more respected and more revered than a musician. And it might sound like I’m bitter about it – I’m not. I’ve been doing this for thirty years and I’m just looking at it objectively. The truth of the matter is that without musicians, there wouldn’t be DJs – but without DJs, we could still be musicians.”
Things have changed in the music world since he was a kid. Martin explains that when he was in junior school in the seventies, between the ages of six and eleven, they had dedicated class time for “musical appreciation”.
“[The teacher would] get the whole class in, and for a half an hour-forty minutes, we’d sit and listen to a record. And in the last five or ten minutes of the period, she’d ask the kids: “What did you like? What did you think?” Those days are gone.”
He says that those days are gone because, nowadays, music is everywhere we go. “Kids these days grow up with music on their phones, music on their iPods, music on their computer. You’re going to the shopping mall, there’s music. You’re going to a restaurant or bar, there’s music. It’s easy. It’s everywhere – you don’t have to work for it anymore.”
Martin mentions that he’s also spoken to other bands who are “a lot more well-known and famous” than he is – bands who have the same sentiments with regards to being musicians.
“It’s trying to break that cultural thing of ‘Ag, shame, he’s just a muso’. [You] take your boyfriend home to meet your mom and she asks him ‘What are you doing?’ and he says ‘Well, I’m an artist or a musician’. And your mom ends up having a chat to you when you leave saying, ‘My girl, are you sure about this?’”
Regardless of the challenges that face both musicians and other artists, Martin still loves what he does. “I’ve had a good run,” he says.
He is currently studying to be certified financial planner. “Finances and investing has always interested me, and I think it’s something that I enjoy doing. So, I’m qualifying myself to do that as well.”
“It’s just about finding that balance within yourself,” he says.