Band Jax Panik

 

The idea of Jax Panik was largely in reaction to the traditional rock band paradigm that dominated South African music at the time. From the onset Jax Panik sought to do things differently – initially refusing to play live, distributing his music online only, extensively making use of fan-generated content and embracing new media and social networking in promoting himself.

By 2006 Johnny was well-known locally for his role in Fokofpolisiekar, a controversial punk-rock band. Jacobus had recently completed a degree in Visual Communication and worked as a copywriter and illustrator, producing music on the side. The two, who had been friends since school, started Soft Light City at the end of that year, producing original music for TV commercials.

Jax Panik’s first album, Cigarettes & Cinnamon, completed in 2007 and released independently in South Africa in 2008, featured a collection of synthesized pop-rock tracks. Lyrically the album was self- reflective and personal, but musically and visually spoke in no uncertain terms to the masses.

The whole record followed a typical verse-chorus pop blueprint, loaded with ‘oohs’, ‘aahs’, and words like ‘baby’. Early critics failed to see the tongue in cheek nature of the music, often writing it off as being too repetitive and too predictable. Nevertheless, throughout 2008 tracks like Cigarettes & Cinnamon, Russian Roulette, and Hit or Miss enjoyed high rotation on regional and campus stations in South Africa, reaching poll positions on some of the country’s most popular radio charts. (Other noteworthy achievements during this period include an MTV Africa Viewer’s Choice Award nomination).

Role-playing became a clear theme around the Cigarettes & Cinnamon album, with early videos, photos, and live happenings all featuring strange outfits, masks, and generally absurd behaviour. Fans were encouraged to make their own Jax Panik content. The results were often used as official videos. Fans were also incorporated in live performances and in rare instances even stood in for interviews.

But the communal dimension of Jax Panik went largely unnoticed by the general South African public. Local media continued to pinpoint Jacobus van Heerden as being Jax Panik. Jacobus, being the voice of the project and having acting in a number of his own viral videos, enjoyed adding to the confusion. But Fans and close followers got the full picture and understood Jax Panik to be a third person – one with many faces and disguises. This concept was taken a step further with the release of I am Jax Panik in 2010, the duo’s second full- length studio album. Jacobus van Heerden remains the dominant voice here, but the album also features a host of unusual collaborations with local singers and musicians, furthering the concept of Jax Panik as a hybrid identity.

Sonically the record shows off the group’s production and writing skills, as big hooks and melodies collide with a plethora of synthesized sounds and homemade samples. A range of previously unexplored genres are combined, from mainstream pop, to hard rock, to electro. Jacobus and Johnny have dubbed the new sound ‘Hyper Pop’.