Before Go Barefoot was ever formed or even thought of, guitarists Mike Dawson and Jonathan Smith started performing as an African jazz act. They played at various restaurants around Johannesburg. A viewer at one of their gigs who was a co-founder and owner of Salvation Café in 44 Stanley Avenue (named Remko), asked them if they would be the resident band every Sunday at his restaurant. At this point, they went and asked keyboard player Noah Bamberger if he would join them. This is where our Go Barefoot sound was initially developed.  

 

With Mike’s love of Urban-African music, he took influence from street artists where he learned to play the Mbira. He is a keen listener to artists such as Avishai Cohen. Jonny brings in a folk sound, being influenced by artists such as the Tallest Man on Earth. And Noah is a jazz pianist, bringing in styles from new age jazz and electro synth, from artists such as Brad Meldhau and Nigel Godrich.

After a year of playing together as a trio, certain viewers began requesting private gigs. The day before Noah, Mike and Jonathan were to perform at a private event, drummer, Saul Nossel, was around to hear a rehearsal. He saw the potential in adding drums to the songs already written and the band decided to bring him in as a valuable addition. Saul’s influences are artists such as Thundercat and Foals as well as Dave Brubeck. A month later, bassist, Clive Vickers, was asked to join the band. Desmond and the Tutus and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers influence Clive’s playing.

 

Noah had planned to travel for 5 months at the end of 2013 and so the rest of the band would continue to gig until he returned November of 2013.
In this time after 3 months of rehearsals, we got our first gig at Tokyo Star in Greenside for a fundraiser by a Miss Earth candidate. This gig triggered a series of networking, which led to us gigging regularly within the 4 following months. And it was over this time that the name Go Barefoot was decided on.

January 2014, saw us continue to perform throughout Johannesburg up until March 2014, where we went into studio to record 4 tracks. We recorded our 4 songs, “I Won’t Back Down”, “Stand Up Saul”, “Climb Through The Window” and “Johannesburg” at Openroom Studios in Greenside, Darryl Torr was the producer and Stefen Du Randt was the engineer on the tracks. The Exchange then mastered the tracks in London. The Exchange has worked with artists such as, Bombay Bicycle Club, Foals, Franz Ferdinand and Florence and The Machine.
 

Go Barefoot began performing again end of July 2014 with new material and an acoustic set. September 2014, saw Go Barefoot play in Bloemfontein and at FORR music festival in Mozambique as well as our involvement with productions such as Sofar Sounds, Boosh and Jozi on Fire.

 

In the months of October and November, we worked on updating our set with more new material and extending the length to a 55-minute set. The new material had begun to show a more idiosyncratic sound and left us wanting to record more. It was also at this point that our drummer, Saul Nossel, would take on the role of manager and booking agent for Go Barefoot.

 

We went in to High Seas studio in the first week of December 2014 to record 2 new tracks, “Grazing” and “You Don’t Have To Go” with Adrian Erasmus and Jacques Du Plessis as engineers and producers.

Following our time in studio we went on to do a small tour with our brother band, Boxer. We played 4 shows in Johannesburg and 1 in Pretoria, following this we went to Durban and Amanzimtoti to play with Meth Breath and The Sisters and finally ending off the tour to play our first South African music festival, Smoking Dragon in the Drakensburg for the new year.

2015 is an exciting year for us as we plan to finally launch our 6 track EP, with remixes done by producer/DJs. So far we have Vox Portent, Yo Grapes, Nudisto and Rhepuls doing remixes. February 2015 we will have launched our handmade silk-screened t-shirts, our website and our EP and with this a large amount of shows throughout South Africa. For the rest of the year it is our aim to play as many music festivals as will allow and to branch out to the rest of the country.

A small hiccup for us in 2015 is that Mike, our guitarist, will now be studying at UCT, this has brought us to the decision that Mike will remain in the band, and when we can, we will work on new material and perform as a 5 piece. Although throughout the year when he is in Cape Town we will rehearse and perform as a 4 piece. Thus we will be performing 2 different sets this year in order to avoid hindering our growth and ability to perform as often as we want to.

We work hard to support South African artistry and culture and so we show our support to local bands, creative designers and thinkers and we wish to work together to build an incredible environment that all artists can strive in.

In a way our philosophy is reflected in our name, why wear shoes when you can Go Barefoot?

 

 

 

We are currently in the process of registering with SAMRO.