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The Graeme Watkins Project brings a dirty, edgy, rough approach to a medley of pop, indie, rock and electronic genres!“Runner Up” in Idols, Graeme Watkins has returned to the big stage on his own terms, with his highly successful band, “The Graeme Watkins Project”.
But this band is not only about Graeme. It consists of phenomenal musicians who can be individually recognised – Ryno Zeelie (lead guitar), Rudo Pieterse (bass) and Matthew Marinus (drums).
The unit has managed to break the ‘cookie-cutter’ mould of the stereotypical SA-Pop Rock sound by producing fresh sounds!
Some background on the project:
The Graeme Watkins Project band exploded in South Africa in 2011, after the release of their debut album, ‘Corridors of the Mind” – a hot product at most events and festivals around the country.
The group were invited to Los Angeles to perform at A + R Worldwides Musexpo, where they had the opportunity to perform for industry legends such as Larry King, Seymour Steyn and Michael Chugg to name a few!
Whilst performing in LA, the band was spotted by international Producer and A+R specialist, Jeff Blue of Atlantic Records.
In the space of one year, they have produced five Top 10 hit singles from the album.
In 2012, they were nominated for 2 SAMA Awards (‘Best Rock’ and ‘Best Video’), 1 MK Award (‘Best Newcomer’) and a YOU Spectacular Award (‘Best Music Act’). See Speakers Inc list of Bands
2013 has seen their fresh new single, “Fight When We’re Young”, produced by LA-based producer, Jeff Blue. This song comes from their hugely anticipated album, due to be released in the middle of this year.
With a range of songs, incorporating a host of genre’s – from rock to indie, to pop, to deep and meaningful ballads – this band is full of surprises!
Their music has an ADHD inspired beat, which is designed to get the crowd into the mad-capped mind set of the band members – with the intention to get the audience to break out of their comfort zone and to rock out to the all-encompassing movement of this group’s melody!
“The front man’s massive amount of energy got the crowd going and before long I was jumping up and down and happy again. The Graeme Watkins Project performance sufficiently inspired me to purchase a copy of their CD at the door on the way out”
– The Urbanist
“[The album] is the perfect mix of rock, indie and electro and really is a step up for South African music”
– ontheradio.za.net
“You’ll recognise the band’s passionate foot-stamping and wide-eyes with their utter enthusiasm and pride in their music.”
– Looklocal.co.za
“Africa is listening and the fans can’t believe the music they are making”
– takealot.com
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Zak van Niekerk was born in the heart of Namaqualand (Springbok) where he also went to school. As a farm boy he ran after sheep in the Boesmanland (his family still lives there) and tried his best to be a farmer like his father and brother, but with no luck, because his first love was always music.
He had his own band during his high school years, but he was the only one who was serious about music. He then decided to do his own thing since then until now.
During his matrix year he was assigned SANA church choir en concert group, also known as the Canaries, for a period of two years.
At the end of his first year the government decided to close the department and Zak van Niekerk was forced to make plans for the sudden future.
He then decided to study further and luckily Tygerberg College accepted him, although it was a late appliance.
He received a record deal the same year. At the age of only 19 his debut album (Bekfluitjie Boogie) was released on the 14 January 1999.
Zak van Niekerk second album (Springbok toe) saw the light in 2000 and he left BMG a year after the album was released, because he decided to do his own thing again.
For nearly three years he toured through South Africa and showed in different places for an income.
In 2003 he made his breakthrough! He signed contract with Leo Music en things started to happen.
His third album “Lekkerkry” was then released and the album has Gold status. Two other album followed “Byt My”, nearly gold and “Oe Na Na” going strong.
Zak van Niekerk is certainly one of the best comedians and that includes his party and listening music. With his unique way he plays the harmonica, many agree he is one of the best!
With his humour, music and comedy, he always gets a party going!
As he always says: “GOOI MIELIES BROER TOT ONS WEER ONTMOET!!”
3 FLUTES
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Deon Basson – Sales Communication: Success is all about how we persuade and influence people, not just processed communication.
The way we Pitch is what makes the difference in the boardroom, in sales, in teams, between people.
Deon’s talks on sales or communication are highly applicable to any sales team and any team or company that needs more effective communication.
Deon Basson is the CEO of 2interact and has been doing his doctoral studies on what really differentiates the top performing salespeople. And the common denominator is …. The psychology of sales.
Applying the right psychology is far more important than the process of selling.
Running the first training to address this issue some people could make the shift to greater conversations while others could not. It became apparent that there was another skill salespeople need. Having spoken to numerous people, companies and academic institutions it became obvious that the key was to understand and apply how people differ. The focus at that time was to make sure that salespeople understand how people differ.
So the Psychology of Sales was born.
This initial program focused very much on showing salespeople how people differ in the way that they think as well as how personalities differ. This program from Deon Basson was run for about 18 months, but from the experience it was realized that commonly found personality profiles did not serve the communication purpose effectively as they were not built for that (square peg in a round hole).
2interact and the people associated with the company realized that the true issue that they were trying to address was improving communication skills of salespeople and not personalities. In 2006 this was put into practice when the first form of the 2interact communication framework was defined and used in training programs.
In 2011 Deon Basson and 2interact was conducting training with an international bank. After the training the sales director approached 2interact to run a workshop for management and executives. That was the first step outside of the sales field and the real birth of what we stand for today.
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