In the late '90s, when most Afrikaans music was kak, The Buckfever Underground emerged from nowhere (ie Grahamstown). With their stream-of-consciousness lyrics and experimental soundscapes, they proved you didn't need a mullet or a name like Pierre to reach die volk.

The ensuing decade has seen the collective hit the road and release albums haphazardly, an approach that has seen them amass a cult following rather than mainstream success. After a typical two-year silence, they now return with the live album, 'Limbs Gone Batty (or The Role Of The Anterior-Posterior Pattering Signal, Sonic Hedgehog, In The Development Of The Unique Bat Limb live by The Buckfever Underground at The Independent Armchair Theatre, 22 May 2007)'.

We recently spoke to frontman and lyricist Toast Coetzer about playing live, surviving festivals, and writing lyrics on till slips.

Based on the pictures on your website, you write lyrics on all sorts of scraps of paper, ATM slips, till slips… shouldn't you get a notebook?

I have several notebooks, in which most of the impulse writing happens. The scraps are simply used when nothing else is around. Often just one or two lines pop in for a chat, so then I try to scribble them down before they amnesiac off again. So many of them do. However, a lot of my writing does happen as just a stream of consciousness thing while seated in front of the computer. So something can be finished in five minutes.

I don't edit much at all, at least not initially, as I don't like to fiddle with the initial thought. But when it becomes time to record a specific song, I might alter certain things to fit a rhythm pattern or take out certain words or phrases which, in hindsight, I feel might jar the others.

Everything can always be done better with editing, but I like the rawness too. I find that things written in the same time or space can easily be joined together to make a coherent whole. This is maybe more a tactic we use at live gigs, where I might haul out say a bunch of writing I did while teaching in South Korea and just stream it all out in one go, even though it might consist of 10 different items. The 'vibe' of a time and place can glue the emotion in place just fine.

Are you a songwriter or a poet? What songwriters or poets you look up to?

I'm not really comfortable with either description, I prefer to simply be seen as a writer, whether I write for my day job (travel writer), the band, for 'poetry' purposes — it's all just output of a similar sort to me, you just tailor and package it differently. Some of my favourite songwriters (who could also really be poets): Will Oldham, Chris Letcher, Matthew van der Want, Paul Riekert, Drikus Barnard, Koos du Plessis, Jim White.

What's your take on "crossover" stuff in South Africa? Would you consider doing a kwaito song or something?

We already have. On a demo CD from years ago ('Survival is Personal'), we recorded a track called 'The Way of the Noodle' with rapper Zubz, who went to university with us. It’s a fun sort of song. I think one should try to cross over as much as possible, sometimes it won’t work, but when it does the results could jam open whole new rivers. And I’m all about rivers.

You have quite a big "underground" (har har) following. Is commercial success something you desire or would be interested in seeking out?

Well, yes. But for the time being there are other distractions and our current support base is nowhere near enough to pay our rent, not even for one of the band members, not even for one month. In a certain sort of dream world, we are touring the world with Manu Chao and all is groovy.

Your last album 'Saves' got rave reviews. But what does critical opinion mean to you? Does it frustrate you that there are people who will never hear your songs?

It is good to get a pat on the back from music critics, because it does give some encouragement for the road ahead. Though it does not, at all, result in much of a spike in sales (honestly, the response from a glowing review or other media exposure generally results in a maximum of three emails response-wise), that's alright.

It's good to see that some people and publications still write good reviews, still endeavour to find interesting music and try to expose it to a public at large who might never, ever be interested in it. But there are always new people who discover us, so that is great.

We have a lot to thank the media for. It is frustrating that some will never hear us, but I am convinced that every gig, every magazine or newspaper or internet interview, article or review, every tour to Joburg, every show at Oppikoppi and every time someone plays our songs on the radio helps. It hacks out one small bit of rock at that colossus barring the path and it helps. So slowly, we get new people to be into us. And that is great.

Have you had any run-ins with psycho or obsessive fans?

Not really. Most of our fans are really fine people and we love them all.

What's the most rock 'n roll thing you've done — either personally or as a group?

If you're asking about scandalous drunkenness etc, then I'm afraid the best I've done was possibly passing out on the pool table at Mystic Boer in Bloem many years ago. I woke up with a red wetness running down my arm. I sat up, thinking I'm bleeding, but it was just the bottle of Tas which had fallen over and had run up my arm.

As a group, we once got asked to stop playing a Heritage Day show in Port Elizabeth at what was then still St George's Park. We had blasphemed or said something bad about Hansie. It was like the year 2000 and Hansie the cheat was hot news.

Do you have a rider when playing gigs?

We don't have one. I don't need much. A water or a beer would do just fine.

Any advice for attending festivals? Essentials you never leave home without?

I have learnt over the years and these days I stay at the cushy Kreef Hotel at Oppikoppi. Someone else pitches the tent, someone makes you bacon and eggs for breakfast and you just leave when you’ve had enough. For Oppikoppi specifically: if at all possible, go with your boyfriend or girlfriend, because it gets cold at night. Wet Wipes — very rock & roll. Extra toilet paper. Apples or carrots. A nip of cheap Mokador coffee liquer. No cellphone. Tjommies.

What's the weirdest festival experience you've had?

While still a student at Rhodes, I was a DJ on Rhodes Music Radio. We attended Oppikoppi and helped to MC some of the stages. I got the whole crowd to chant "F*k die All Blacks!" over and over after we had lost against them earlier that afternoon.

There must be something weirder though… oh, yes… I once came upon a vertically-challenged — what is the right PC term for a dwarf? I am sorry — person buried in the ground up to his neck. His friends did it, but he was fine with it. They had packed empties in concentric circles around him, like manic year rings of their excesses of the weekend. Every now and then his 'friends' held him a cigarette to puff on or gave him a sip of something. I have also seen a naked man at Oppikoppi with foil wrapped around his penis.

What's the strangest gig you've played?

Maybe that St George's Park show back then. But also, once, we did a show in this very fancy theatre in Pretoria at the 10th anniversary of what was at the time sort of our record label. We played in mining helmets, 'Marijuana – At least it's not crack' T-shirts and overalls, while the rest of the performers — folk like Nataniel, Richard van der Westhuizen and Lochner de Kock, Jannie du Toit — and audience were all black tie and lacy dress numbers. We stood out, for sure. We played only one song 'Die Volk Is In Die Kak' and only two people clapped — my brother and his tjommie Lappies who I'd managed to get tickets for.

The Buckfever Underground's 'Limbs Gone Batty' is out now and can be ordered from:
toast@bastardmedia.co.za (Cape Town)
gil@bastardmedia.co.za (Johannesburg)
righardkapp@gmail.com (Cape Town)

Also available:
'Jou Mede Mens Is Dood' (1998)
'Survival Is Personal' (2000)
'TALF - Teaching Afrikaans As A Foreign Language' (2003)
'Trying To Do Something About This Goddamn Terrible Bleak Winter' (2005)
'Saves' (2007)

For more Buckfever Underground visit:
The official website
The MySpace page
The Facebook Group: The Buckfever Underground